$388 Chocolate Chips

Have you ever wondered the financial damage that can be done with a bag of Special Dark chocolate chips?  Or, better yet, have you ever pondered on the cost of a late night emergency vet visit for a pair of mischievous dogs?  Well, I've got you covered on those details.

Be careful!  These may be much more expensive than the price tag on the shelf!

There are a lot of things you can do in this world with $388 (plus a few extra to cover the cost of your emotional eating).  One of them is said vet visit.  We came home last night to discover the bag that we had previously believed to be in an unreachable place torn apart and empty on the living room floor.  While Devin immediately began attempting to get Moose to throw up (the suspected culprit), I jumped on Dr. Google and discovered that we were far past the toxic levels.

Moose didn't have very much chocolate come back up, and I melted down.  Was it too far down Moose's digestive tract or was it mostly in Blue?  I couldn't stand the thought of loosing either dog.  Between my hysterical sobs, Devin called the emergency vet whose magnet was thankfully on our fridge.  We headed in with both of them because we just didn't know what happened.

After a long night with a mistreated stomach, you'd pass out on a pile of towels, too.

After checking to make sure their vitals were okay and then waiting quite some time (we were competing with a laboring guinea pig, a sick kitten, a very injured dog in the trauma bay, and a handful of other pups) our boys were finally pulled back.  We ran out for some late night Wendy's (a Frosty helped me feel a little better) while the dirty work was done. 

Essentially, they were given an IV medication to cause vomiting followed by administration of activated charcoal.  We actually were back in time to hear them protesting to the second part of the treatment.  We learned that Blue was somewhat unexpectedly the culprit.  The vet didn't seem to be expecting that either as the next time we saw her she was freshly showered with a clean shirt and no white coat...poor woman.

The after effects of too much theobromine and caffeine left them pretty wiped out all day.

Because Blue got most of the chocolate, he's been placed on medication to protect his digestive system for the next seven days.  They may both have more frequent and disgusting bowel movements as the charcoal binds to anything left in their system and comes out with it.  It was past midnight when we left the vet and much later once we got home, got them settled, and were able to get to bed ourselves.  We then woke up every half hour or so for the rest of the short night to let them outside, give them water, or get them calmed down.

After all that, we were pretty beat.  Thankfully, Devin's easy rotation allowed him to call in.  I showed up to work just briefly to take care of the couple things that couldn't be put off until tomorrow and then headed home.  The rest of the day turned out pretty nice though--a consolation prize for the loss of money, I suppose.  Devin made me a big breakfast.  We caught up on a couple episodes of a show we'd started watching back in January.  There was plenty of cuddle time with each other and our sleepy dogs.  And, we made a very yummy dinner together (complete with a visit from Mount Potate!).



Notice the charcoal around his mouth? This is after wiping quite a bit off.

To make a long story short, though, don't ever let your dogs anywhere near chocolate.  Or, keep $388 around that you don't mind loosing.  Of course, if your dogs are anywhere near as awesome as these two, they are definitely worth it--even if it stings a little.  The random Thursday off as well doesn't hurt too bad either!