A Rookie Mistake

I made a rookie mistake on Saturday. I left some groceries in a bag on the kitchen floor. There were some canned goods and a 2lb bag of natural cane sugar. Joe and I went to lunch and when we came back I noticed that the bag of sugar had been scratched open and there were little sticky sugar paw prints on the kitchen floor. I didn't think much of it at first. I saw dried sugar on Tonka's face and Arliss was clean so I focussed on Tonka. He was looking sort of tired and out of it. Then he vomitted about a 1/2 gallon of what looked like simple syrup ( half water / half sugar). I carried him outside and he immediately did his "business" . He then slumped back inside and onto my lap where he shuddered and shook and moaned and drank a TON of water. Then it came again. Another wave, a torrential wave of simple syrup vomit. The poor dog was so sick. I looked online to see if sugar was toxic to dogs, and then I called the animal hospital to see what I should do. They said that Tonka would be ok, but he would have a bad stomach ache but if I wanted to I could bring him in and they would help him to feel better. At this point he was shivering and moaning and I decided for peace of mind, I would take him to the vet and make sure he was ok. I carried him to the car and laid him on the front seat of the car and turned the seat warmer to high. He slept and snored as I drove slowly through the snow storm. We arrived after about 25 minutes. I put the car into park and he jumped up in his regular energetic way. I opened the car door and Tonka jumped out into the snowy parking lot and proceeded to smell everything in sight. His energy was back, he had that twinkle in his eye again, and he even wanted me to chase him in the snow. I was wondering whether or not to even take him inside because I knew we'd have to wait forever and by the looks of things he was on the mend and it could end up being a waste of time and lots of money. We walked around the parking lot of the Animal Hospital for about 10 minutes . He peed on everything he could find and when he was finished, he walked us back toward my car. I opened the door, he hopped in and he was ready to come home. I decided that he was fine and that the parking lot must have secret healing. He was cured of his sugar overdose. Thankfully he was fine, we were very, very lucky. I have learned an important lesson and that is to not leave anything on the kitchen floor again, ever! Here is a list of foods that are toxic to dogs, thankfully for us, sugar was not on the list but there are some very normal people foods that surprised me. Here's to a safe and healthy 2010 for our pets and ourselves!