Sometimes: once is enough.

I’d like to share a story about a friend’s dog,
“Winter.”
Winter showed me that a single incident of vomiting could be a veterinary
emergency.
Winter was a spirited little American Eskimo dog, a breed that looks similar
to the dog pictured below.

I met Winter and his family when I worked as a professional pet dog training
instructor in a retail store.
Winter and his people were in a class scheduled before my own class. Since
there were breaks between classes, I got to know Winter’s family very well.
To the point where we became incredible friends.
To the point where we became each others’ extended family.
One of the things Winter loved to do?
Eat snow.
Generally, dogs eating or licking snow isn’t a veterinary emergency.
In 2009, Winter ate/licked some snow covering the ground in the parking lot
at the condo where he lived with his humans.

Where the snow was located turned the situation into a veterinary emergency.
Since the snow Winter had eaten was from the ground of a parking lot, the
snow likely contained antifreeze. Antifreeze supposedly tastes sweet to dogs.

The antifreeze that gets poured into cars contains methylene glycol,
methanol, and ethylene glycol.
In other words: extremely toxic and not intended for
drinking.
Because Winter had only vomited once, his people felt that wasn’t an
emergency. After all, he had vomited before and was no worse for wear.
This time, the family had to say good-bye to a 3 year old dog.

I spent most of that week with Winter’s humans, including visiting him at the
veterinary hospital and conversing with the veterinarians overseeing his
care.
Eventually, I ended up signing the form authorizing Winter’s euthanasia to
end his suffering, because I didn’t want his humans to live with the guilt of
“killing” their beloved dog. I even said they could blame me if they wanted
to.
Since Winter’s family and I remain friends to the present day, I know I did
the right thing.

Check out Nanette Lai’s accessible force-free dog training from her website!