{"id":114051,"date":"2015-03-09T20:57:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T02:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marijuana-poisoning-sickens-dog\/"},"modified":"2015-03-09T20:57:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T02:57:43","slug":"marijuana-poisoning-sickens-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marijuana-poisoning-sickens-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana poisoning sickens dog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:00c5fbc1-1cec-4371-b9d3-f10834e231fd --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N0MevE1zGog\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>When Tiffin was brought to Riverview Animal Hospital on Friday, the 4-year-old Schnauzer-Yorkie mix had dilated eyes, a slow heart rate and was unable to walk without stumbling.<\/p>\n<p>Veterinarian Stacee Santi made a diagnosis: marijuana poisoning.<\/p>\n<p>Tiffin apparently ate part of an apple used as an improvised marijuana pipe when her owner, Lani Dill, let the dog into her backyard at her Animas Valley home Friday morning. Tiffin returned to the house with poor balance and a funny look on her face, Dill said.<\/p>\n<p>Dill put on her boots and went to investigate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI found these apples in my backyard, and I didn\u2019t put them there,\u201d Dill said.<\/p>\n<p>The apples had holes in them and what appeared to be marijuana residue.<\/p>\n<p>Tiffin isn\u2019t the only canine victim of Durango\u2019s widespread marijuana use. Veterinarians have seen a dramatic increase in cases of marijuana poisoning in the past two years as legal marijuana has proliferated in La Plata County, Santi said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see about one a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The problem arises when two things Durangoans can\u2019t get enough of \u2013 dogs and marijuana \u2013 come into contact with each other.<\/p>\n<p>Dogs notoriously will eat just about anything. With marijuana, that eagerness can work against them. Durango-area dogs often get into marijuana left on hiking trails and natural areas, Santi said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey just have a very strong affinity for the THC,\u201d Santi said. \u201cThey go crazy for it. I don\u2019t know what the attractant is, but they act like that\u2019s the most delicious thing they\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cats, of course, are smarter about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had an occasional cat eat it, but they are a bit more selective,\u201d Santi said.<\/p>\n<p>Amounts of marijuana that would be fine in adult humans can be fatal in dogs, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a dosing issue,\u201d Santi said, referring to Tiffin. \u201cThat dog is 10 pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana can depress a dog\u2019s heart rate and blood pressure enough that it can become hypothermic and even slip into a coma-like state, Santi said.<\/p>\n<p>Tiffin\u2019s condition was up and down Friday. Santi said she was concerned and was monitoring Tiffin closely.<\/p>\n<p>After diagnosis, Santi induced vomiting to get rid of any marijuana in Tiffin\u2019s stomach. Tiffin was also given activated charcoal to absorb marijuana, intravenous fluids and a new treatment, intravenous lipid emulsion, which counteracts the effects of marijuana, Santi said.<\/p>\n<p>Owners who intentionally feed their pets marijuana can be charged with animal cruelty, said Jon Patla, director of La Plata County Animal Protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it\u2019s intentional, if they\u2019re allowing the animal to consume marijuana to the point it\u2019s a poisoning, it\u2019s cruelty,\u201d Patla said.<\/p>\n<p>Accidental poisonings are unlikely to result in charges unless there\u2019s repeated negligence by the owner, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dill has three dogs, but only Tiffin showed any health issues. Dill said she\u2019s not against people using marijuana, but she urged users to be more careful when disposing of pot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUse your weed responsibly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:cslothower@durangoherald.com\">cslothower@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ingested drug  from apple used as bong pipe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,167,135,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-news-lead","tag-marijuana","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114051"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}