Puppy gets sick after ingesting cannabis on walk in Pitt Meadows
Posted January 18, 2019 11:31 pm.
Last Updated January 19, 2019 8:39 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PITT MEADOWS (NEWS 1130) — The owner of an Australian Shepherd puppy says her dog has recovered after ingesting cannabis on an early-morning walk in Pitt Meadows on Wednesday.
Just over an hour after Kim Marosevich returned from walking her three dogs, she says her five-month-old dog River became disoriented and couldn’t walk.
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“My five-month-old puppy tried to stand up off his dog bed and fell over, which was quite shocking. I had a look at him quickly, thinking maybe he’s injured himself, hurt his foot, or there’s some reason he can’t stand up,” she tells NEWS 1130. “He was very wobbly, staggering, unable to keep his feet under him.
“I knew right away that something was very not right. My guess was that he had eaten something while we were out.”
Marosevich rushed to the veterinarian’s office. By the time she got there, the dog’s condition had deteriorated so much she had to carry him. The scariest part was not knowing for sure what he had eaten, she says.
After running some tests, veterinarians confirmed that he had ingested marijuana.
“They could tell me it was 100 per cent THC, that there were no other drugs in it, but they’re not able to say whether it was a dropped edible or perhaps a roach, perhaps somebody had been smoking,” she says.
THC is the main active ingredient in cannabis.
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Now she’s reconsidering how she walks her dogs, and might end up using basket muzzles to prevent them from picking anything up that she can’t see on her early-morning walks in the dark.
She’s also hoping people who are using cannabis will be cautious about where they are leaving the products when they’ve finished using them.
“There’s a variety of steps that we can take as dog owners to protect our pets but, you know, people just have to be just a little more thoughtful, just a little bit more considerate. THC does affect our dogs and wildlife for that matter,” she says. “It’s worth just taking a moment and thinking, you know, like other waste: just pack it out. Just put it back in your pocket, put it in a container, put it in a garbage can. Just do your part to ensure that, whatever you’re enjoying doesn’t affect another person or an animal’s opportunity to enjoy that as well.
“Cannabis products are legal now, just be careful with them.”
– With files from Taran Parmar
