Last Friday, Bug tried to kill herself after a run in our backyard woods.
I woke up at 8:00 am to a comatose dog - no pupil reaction, no gag reflex, nothing. She was absolutely limp but breathing and her heart was beating. She felt cold; Bug has a history of seizures, but even status epilepticus would leave her warm from muscle activity.
Obviously, I immediately threw her in the car and rushed to the vet. The vet took her history, dumped her with IV fluids, and pulled bloodwork and a tox screen on her urine. I went to work a late, hot mess. Finally, at 2:30 pm we had some answers: the urine screen came positive for barbiturates*. The vet gave me a dismal outlook, as did Googling for canine barbiturate OD. I called my mom to check on the only barbiturate I could think of in the house - an old prescription for a cat: phenobarbital. However, it was safely still in a box, sitting on a tall dresser that was behind an x-pen. Hmm!
Barbiturates are most commonly used by veterinarians (rather than MDs). And their most common use is in a euthanasia solution. So who tried to put down my dog? Who could have, when I was with her the whole day? Apparently, the barbiturate used in euthanasia solutions (sodium pentobarbital/phenytoin) is insanely stable, persisting in the carcass of a euthanized animal for years. Years. A case study found two pet dogs poisoned from eating a horse carcass euthanized 2 years prior**! In this case, the dogs had found an improperly buried horse 300 meters away in a neighbor's ravine. In another case, an australian shepherd ate something on a beach then appeared sleepy and went comatose two hours later. There had been a beached whale euthanized and removed from the beach a few days before the poisoning, but the dog must have found some of the carcass to eat***. This type of poisoning is known as relay toxicosis.
The most likely cause of my dog's unresponsiveness was eating something in the woods that had been euthanized. My parents' property is adjacent to a housing development, and the woods we hike in runs behind several of our neighbors houses, so the homes along the woods probably numbers in the vicinity of 50. Because Bug was not out of my sight long enough to exhume anybody's dead old cat, I have to assume that either (1) it wasn't buried in the first place or (2) it was improperly buried and subsequently dug up by wildlife (raccoons, foxes, coyotes all live in the area and wouldn't hesitate to eat carrion.)
So this is the soapbox:
If you euthanize an animal, you obviously have compassion. Please, please, bury your pet appropriately! Have compassion on neighbor's dogs, wild animals, and anything else that may try to feed on said pet. If you don't have the ability to bury your pet properly, have them cremated. There are many services to do this for you and some even offer urns or boxes engraved with your pet's name.
Check your local laws on pet/livestock burial. Bury your pet at least 3 feet (36 inches). AT THE VERY LEAST! Bury deeper in wetter or loose soils.
*In most cases, veterinarians use an at-home drug test kit found at drug stores. More dogs than should get into marijuana (and present with symptoms similar to Bug's) but owners are afraid of legal repercussions and don't admit to having the substance around their house. (Or don't realize the risk it poses for their dog!) A urine screen is a fast and cheap way to determine what may be causing the problem.
**Kaiser, Amanda M., Warner MacFarland, Roger S. Siemion, and Merl D. Raisbeck. "Secondary Pentobarbital Poisoning in Two Dogs: A Cautionary Tale."
Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 22.4 (2010): 632-34.
***Bischoff, Karyn, Robin Jaeger, and Joseph G. Ebel. "An Unusual Case of Relay Pentobarbital Toxicosis in a Dog."
Journal of Medical Toxicology 7.3 (2011): 236-39.
