Lars’ Latest Health Issue: But this time it is different!
So it is about a quarter ‘till 9 PM on Thursday the second
of October, 2025, and we are just about ready to go to bed. I’m downstairs getting Lars his Apoquel pill for
his allergies, wrapped up in a piece of turkey, as is our habit. After his pill, Lars rushes up the stairs to
the bedroom where he sleeps. So far so
good… We had brought up a couple pieces
of yummy raisin bread for a little evening snack (yes, I know, it is not a good
habit, but it is soooo yummy), and left it on the dresser upstairs. Well, as you can probably guess by now, as soon
as Kathy comes in to the bedroom, Lars is wolfing down the raisin bread, like
there is no tomorrow. At first I thought
it was funny; here goes Lars again snatching food whenever he can, be it
somebody’s sandwich, a whole mackerel, a turkey drumstick or leftovers. However, Kathy quickly realized that grapes
can be toxic to dogs, and if raisins are just dried grapes, then raisins are
probably toxic too. She did a quick
Google search, and lo and behold, “If your dog ate raisins, you must call a
veterinarian or an emergency pet clinic immediately. Treat it as a serious emergency, as raisin
ingestion can cause acute kidney failure, and you should never try to induce
vomiting at home. Your vet may perform procedures like gastric
lavage (stomach pumping) or administer activated
charcoal to remove the toxin, and your dog may require
hospitalization for intravenous
fluids and monitoring to protect their kidneys.” I had no idea, but Kathy called our emergency
pet hospital, and they told us to bring him over immediately. I got my wife’s Jeep out, and we are trying
to get Lars into the Jeep, but since I didn’t park it close to the curb, Lars
can’t jump in. I run into the garage to
fetch a towel to wrap around him, so that we can help him into the vehicle, but
since the Jeep is parked in the sloping driveway, the backdoor hits Kathy in
the head while we are trying to get the poor dog into the Jeep. Well, we finally get him in, and with our
other husky Misha riding along for company, we set out for the emergency animal
hospital in Laguna Hills, which is just some 15 miles from our house, which
shouldn’t take more than some 20 minutes.
We get on the 5 freeway from our house, and after a couple of minutes,
the traffic is getting a bit heavy, so we get into the carpool lane, which is
the left-most lane on the freeway. A
minute later, the freeway is just about stopped, and traffic is heavier than I
have ever seen it. Here we are with a
dog that urgently needs medical attention, and we are stuck on the
freeway! I get on my phone to figure out
what is going on, and some poor soul is contemplating jumping off the Ortega
Highway overpass which spans the 5 freeway.
The poor guy has climbed over the protective fence and is standing on
the concrete railing, while the police are trying to intervene.
To break the guy’s fall (should he jump), the fire
department has placed a giant air bag under the guy, but he is still hanging on
to the fence.
In order to ensure that this terrible situation does not
cause some awful traffic accident, the highway patrol has closed down the
southbound freeway, while us on the northbound side of the freeway is just
crawling. We are pretty much stuck, and
we are too far away from any other offramp, so we just wait it out. As we finally get close to the Ortega Highway
offramp, the traffic lets up, and we are back driving 65 mph, which hopefully
meant that the authorities were able to diffuse the situation without anybody
coming to harm. Long story short, it
took us 2.5 hours to go 4 miles, and we finally arrived at the pet hospital at
11:45 PM. After almost 3 hours in the car, I rush to the bathroom to pee while Kathy is checking Lars in. The staff rush Lars to induce
vomiting, and about an hour later we meet with the emergency veterinarian.
The veterinarian showed us a picture of what Lars’ threw up;
about 30 or so raisin pieces on a doggy pee-pad.
She said that even with that much thrown up, they still strongly
suggested that he be admitted for a 48-hour observation and intravenous administration
of fluids, to make sure that his kidneys were flushed out. Of course we said yes, and by now it is 1:00
AM on Friday morning. We spent the next
half-hour with the technician, who reconciled the quote for Lars’ treatments; I
pulled out one of our credit cards that was still warm from when Lars had his abscess
removed. As usual, the cost for
treatments at an animal emergency clinic / hospital equated to a week in
Europe, air fair included. Never mind, we
will just throw some more stones in the stone soup for the next few months; it
will do me good to diet!!!!! Ha, Ha,
Ha!
We got home at 2:00 AM on Friday, and I was in bed by about
2:20 AM. I woke up about 8:20 AM, as
tired as they come, but at least Lars was in good hands and getting
treatment. We called the animal hospital
a bit later, and we were told that he was doing fine and eating well. At 5 PM they called us to tell us that his kidney
levels were normal, but they still wanted to keep him, and of course we said yes.
On Saturday the 4th of October, Matthew and I went to the Punk in the Park event in San Pedro, CA, something that Matt had been looking forward to for a long time.
By the Way, here is a “short” list of foods that are poisonous
to dogs, curtesy of https://www.goodrx.com/pet-health/dog/what-foods-are-poisonous-to-dogs?srsltid=AfmBOorfaMJ2QnGV36nzSYnWbABATIR_nXGx3qDpd8pqWJAwolKD7QeF
1: Avocados
2: Cherries
3: Grapes and raisins,
and grape juice
4: Tomatoes
5: Mushrooms
6: Onions
7: Garlic
8: Wild berries
9: Rhubarb
10: Sugar-free candy
and gum
11: Some peanut butters
and other nut butters
12: Flavored waters
13: Ice cream
14: Chocolate
15: Pudding snacks
16: Coffee
17: Sports and energy
drinks
18: Tea and tea bags
19: Soda
20: Baked goods
21: Alcohol
22: Macadamia nuts
23: Raw or undercooked
meat
25: Bones
26: Moldy foods
27: Milk
28: Salt
29: Apricots
30: Star fruit
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