Raisin’ some interest with Zac the Jack Russell!

This week our nurses took a call from the owner of Zac, a cheeky 10 year old Jack Russell who lives an idyllic beach life in Jan Juc. He happened across a loaf of raisin bread that had fallen out from his owners shopping bag. He was pretty happy with his discovery and got to work, devouring half a loaf before he was found with his bread. With a sore bloated belly, he was rushed to the vet.

Sadly for Zac his problems were two-fold. The yeast in such a large amount of bread causes bloating and abdominal discomfort (although the Newtown vets admint they are themselves guilty of sharing a corner of their toast with their dogs, and say this small amount is okay!). However the bigger concern for Zac was his ingestion of the raisins in the fruit bread.

It has been discovered that grapes and raisins can be toxic to dogs, this has only really become apparent in veterinary medicine in the last 15 or so years and is still poorly understood. It seems that some individual dogs that have consumed this fruit will develop an accumulation of calcium in their kidneys which can result in kidney failure. For some animals this can go un-noticed by their owners for some time until the damage has caused substantial illness.

Luckily Zac’s owners acted straight away.

Poor Zac was given a tablet to make him vomit, but after the usually beautiful drive through Torquay and up the Surf Coast to Newtown, Zac only managed to make half a slice of bread and a couple of measly rasins reappear. He was admitted to hospital for intravenous fluid therapy, some pain releif for his bloated belly and some charcoal to help absorb any of the remaining toxin from the fruit.

Zac spent the night in hospital and had to have some blood tests the following day to ensure that his blood calcium and kidney enzymes were all still okay. He was discharged to go home after his 24hours in hospital, and has to return for further blood tests later in the week to make sure his kidneys are still functioning okay.

See you soon Zac. Hope your tummy is feeling better!

Dog owners remember to close your bread bins and pantry doors this winter when fruit toast is on the breakfast menu!