Pet drugs concerns

Labrador taken ill after eating marijuana in park

A PET dog was rushed to the vet after it consumed a quantity of marijuana at a suburban Hobart park. Nelson the labrador was seriously ill but was saved by a vet, who said the potentially fatal case was quite common in Hobart.

A MUCH-loved family pet was left seriously ill after ingesting marijuana during a routine morning walk in a public area on Hobart’s Eastern Shore.

An Oakdowns resident, who did not want to be named, said she was exercising sevenyear-old labrador Nelson at Rokeby’s Village Green last week when the drama started to unfold.

“He bolted over because he could smell something … I could see he was swallowing something but I didn’t know what it was,’’ the woman said.

The woman went over and observed a black substance near Nelson that looked somewhat like diarrhoea, but she could not be sure what the dog had ingested and did not suspect it would make him so sick.

The resident went to work but her partner, who was working from home, noticed that afternoon that Nelson was unwell and he was rushed to a veterinary surgery in Bellerive.

“He had wet the bed and was trying to sit up but couldn’t sit up properly,’’ she said.

“When I got to the vet, he didn’t recognise me, which was a bit strange.”

Blood and urine tests were done for potential poisoning, which were inconclusive, and he was transferred to the afterhours vet at Moonah to be kept overnight for observation.

“The vet there examined him and came out and said ‘I think I know what’s up with him’, and that another dog was there on that night with similar symptoms,’’ the woman said.

A urine test for drugs was conducted, which detected marijuana in Nelson’s system.

The woman said the vet explained that ingestion of marijuana was quite common and, unfortunately for some smaller dogs, the outcome could be fatal.

She now strongly suspects the substance her much-loved dog swallowed during his walk was the vomit of someone who had taken marijuana.

Thankfully, Nelson was nursed back to health relatively quickly after vets put him on fluids.

“He was fine. The next morning, he was almost back to his normal self. It’s lucky he’s a big dog and has got an iron gut,’’ his owner said.

The woman said she contacted Clarence City Council about the matter, and it said it would send a team to clean up the mess.