Dogs ate my Xmas cake mix …and it’s cost me £1,600!
CAROL Spurling’s traditional homemade Christmas cake has cost her £1,600 this year – in vet’s bills after her dogs wolfed down a 1kg bag of raisins which were meant to be ingredients.
The dried fruit – which can be toxic to the pets – was devoured by Old English sheepdogs Teddy and Gabby when Mrs Spurling briefly left her shopping bags on the floor.
Now, after spending the huge sum on life-saving treatment for the five-year-old siblings, she has dubbed her 2017 festive treat ‘the most expensive ever’.
Describing the moment she discovered what her hounds had done, the Crufts competitor said: ‘I started panicking and rang my vet. She said I needed to bring them both in straight away, as we didn’t know if Teddy and Gabby had shared the raisins or one had eaten the lot. The 30-minute drive was hell, as I knew the raisins could be life-threatening.’
Mother-of-one Mrs Spurling, 64, normally has up to eight guests at her home in Chelmsford, Essex, on Christmas Day and the cake is part of the mouth-watering finale.
She bought the fruits for it in October and put the supermarket bags down in her utility room for a few minutes to greet her taxi driver husband Trevor, also 64. By the time she returned, the dogs had pounced on the raisins.
Both were induced to vomit after the dash to the vet’s. Gabby produced a single raisin – which can still threaten a dog’s health – while Teddy brought up the rest.
They were transferred to an emergency practice, Vets Now in nearby Witham, where they were given activated charcoal, which absorbs poison, put on intravenous drips, and monitored for kidney failure. Gabby was allowed home the next day but Teddy was admitted for three days.
Mrs Spurling, who has been breeding Old English sheepdogs for six years, said: ‘I bought the raisins again and made my Christmas cake. But this time it’s sealed in a box upstairs.’ Amanda Boag, clinical director at Vets Now, said all grapes, raisins, currants and sultanas can be poisonous to dogs and potentially to cats.