Activated Charcoal Saves my parents Dog?

[Toma]

My dad walks out to the garage last night, and their dog is lying there motionless, and stomach bloated to 3x its normal size.

He is the "guard dog", and lives in the back yard, and has a doggy door into the garage.

He is practically lifeless, and wont move.

My dad suspecting someone either poisoned him, or he ate something REALLY bad, immediately gets out the Activated Charcoal USP, and he and my brother practically force it down his throat.

They give him small amounts 5 times during the night, with a bit of warm water...

and today, he is back to his usual happy self.

My dad has this stuff around cause he subscribes to "Dr. Sears", and his newsletters, and takes his "natural" health seriously...

Apparently, ER's etc use this stuff in case of od's and poisoning etc...

I had no idea lol.

But man... glad he had it kicking around.

[Kloubek]

Who knew burned wood could be so useful?

Glad to hear the dog is ok!

[jjmac]

Vet used it on my dog when he ate a poisonous plant in our house and he was good after he pooped out the charcoal the following morning.

The plant is no longer in the house :poosie:

[kaput]

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[kenny]

Interesting, did some reading after reading this thread. I guess activated charcoal is a pretty common solution for dog poisoning as the charcoal absorbs the toxins.

Good to know.

[bignerd]

Or you could just take it to the vet... Big dogs with deep chests can get bloat-when their stomach or intestines twist and they get a gas blockage, it can be fatal and presents similar to what your dog had (chest gets big and barrel like, stomach is rock hard). Charcoal wouldn't save a dog in this condition.

Glad the charcoal worked but I wouldnt of risked it.

[lint]

Originally posted by bignerd
Or you could just take it to the vet... Big dogs with deep chests can get bloat-when their stomach or intestines twist and they get a gas blockage, it can be fatal and presents similar to what your dog had (chest gets big and barrel like, stomach is rock hard). Charcoal wouldn't save a dog in this condition.

Glad the charcoal worked but I wouldnt of risked it.

There isn't a lot of risk involved with ingesting activated charcoal, unless you're on a bunch of meds already.

[bignerd]

Originally posted by lint


There isn't a lot of risk involved with ingesting activated charcoal, unless you're on a bunch of meds already.

... The risk is assuming the dog at something toxic and administering your own treatment when the symptoms present exactly the same as bloat-which can kill very quickly and usually requires invasive, if not surgical treatment.

[Benny]

Activated Charcoal binds with a poison and neutralizes it while it travels through the gastrointestinal system. They used to carry it on ambulances but I don't think they do anymore because it is very common for people to vomit after ingesting it. If you've never seen the stuff, it's thick and chalky and is completely black. It stains anything too. Imagine the fun it must have been to have to scrub down every surface in the ambulance after someone projectile-vomitted a bottle of activated charcoal all over the place. :thumbsdow

I saw an ER doc adminster activated charcoal in the hospital with an OD patient we brought in. Went down fairly easily until 10 minutes later when he spewed the entire bottle all over the trauma room he was in. Glad I didn't have to clean that one up.


And +1 for taking the dog to a vet. Could have been a number of different things.

[J-hop]

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[Benny]

Originally posted by J-hop
interesting idea. However from my personal experience it is always recommend to induce vomiting so that the poison doesn't pass through their system ( I don't care how effective charcoal is at "neutralizing" poison). My dog chewed on a couple Raid ant traps we had forgotten to pick up, she never showed signs of sickness but we called the vet right away and they had us use a very low concentration (3%) hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting. It was VERY effective, the second it hit her tongue she started gagging and coughed up whatever was in her stomach right away.


My experience is much more applicable to humans, but in some cases it is not recommended to induce vomiting. Best to just call the vet and do what they say. Activated charcoal technically doesn't 'neutralize' any poison, it just said to do that because it binds to it and absorbs it so that it can't be otherwise absorbed by the GI system. It is then free to pass and leave a really fucking disgusting mess all over wherever the dog chooses. :rofl:

I'm glad your dog is ok Toma :thumbsup:

[LadyLuck]

good read on activated charcoal, never even heard of this stuff before.

:thumbsup:

Source (http://www.natural-holistic-health.com/the-benefits-of-activated-charcoal/)

[ZenOps]

Crack open a Brita water filter.

In an emergency, you can find it anywhere for about $4.

[D'z Nutz]

Activated charcoal is also used in aquarium filters. When you are done medicating your tank, you throw the charcoal into the filter to absorb the medicine and toss it out after. So it's no surprise that it would absorb poisons too.

If you're in a jam and need some, you can always find it at a pet store or fish store. In fact, most "hang on the back" filters come with a bag of activated charcoal. It looks like a mesh bag with black stuff inside of it.

http://www.arcatapet.com/fullsize/2543.jpg

[z24_wheels]

Your dog may have had bloat.

http://www.globalspan.net/bloat.htm

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Yup, activated carbon is pretty amazing and handy stuff. Toxins, contaminants, it adsorbs 'em all and adsorbs an amazing amount for its dry volume due to its massive surface area.

[01RedDX]

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