Picking out grapes for your poolside sangria? Don’t throw them to the dogs...please.
Though veterinary medicine doesn’t quite understand how it is that pets manage to get sick from eating grapes and raisins (the toxic element has not yet been identified), we know that some dogs die of kidney failure when they eat too many. As few as a small handful have been known to kill. But not all dogs. Not every time.
That’s perhaps why so many dogs you may have had in the past seemed OK when they ate table grapes, licked grape juice off the floor or enjoyed raisins as tasty treats. But that shouldn’t make you feel that grapes are OK. Not for all dogs. And not every time.
Was that plain enough English or should I repeat it again?
Case in point: A patient of mine recently had to be rushed to the emergency service in the middle of the night after the husband failed to heed the wife’s warning on the raisin snack thing.
“All my dogs have always eaten raisins and this one will, too. I just wanted to prove it to you.”
Murphy’s Law being what it is, sickness ensued. Acute kidney failure. But luckily, no death. The cause of the illness was obvious. Treatment was swift. And the husband had to hang his head in shame and swallow the $3,000 bill for five days of ICU.
Sorry...but you have to pay to play...if you’re going to do it with raisins and grapes.
Dr. Patty Khuly
