Dog ate raisins

[Appin]

Wondering if anyone has any experience? We have a very food focused, scavenging and continually scrounging cocker spaniel. A few months ago he ate a mince pie and we took him to the vet within the hour, in case of raisin poisoning, and they made him sick and gave him activated charcoal. It was an expensive lesson to learn!

Yesterday he got into my lunch bag from work which was inside another bag. There was some evidence of chewed plastic wrappers, but I couldn't remember what had been in the bag exactly. I began to wonder if there had been some yogurt raisins, but really wasn't sure. Kept an eye on him, he was pooing and drinking normally and seemed fine.

This afternoon, about 24 hours after eating the stuff in the bag, he did a poo and part of it was very clearly a yogurt raisin wrapper. So it looks like he did eat raisins! I've given him some charcoal biscuits and he's continuing to poo reasonably normally (maybe a bit loose), has eaten three of his own meals since the raisins, and seems otherwise fine.

Everything I've read online says that raisin toxicity would be vomiting and diarrhoea within the first 12-24 hours, so I'm just wondering if any one has had experience of this with their dog, and if we still need to take any action.

All advice appreciated!

I’d probably leave it if he seems ok. Some dogs react very badly, I know they should see a vet…

Our JRT used to eat curry, this was before we knew onions were poisonous. Lab once stole an onion-(we didn’t immediately become aware) he was panting heavily but it was summer. Kept him cool, subsided after 30 mins - we discovered the onions remains later.

He’s also pinched chocolate and hallucinated (or appeared to).

I would personally would have seen a vet straight away even if I wasn't sure - raisins are a non-negotiable in my book.

Even though your dog is fine outwardly, raisins can cause kidney damage so something to keep in mind - maybe next time he's at the vets get some bloods done.

Christmas 2020 my dpuppy ate 5 bloody mince pies. Dc didn't tell me for a few days and dpuppy was fine!

Thanks all. I think I'll phone the vet tomorrow morning to discuss. He does seem OK now, but lasting damage is a concern.

I'm so annoyed with myself leaving them where he could get them, we've been so careful to keep things out of his reach!

Empathy here. My dog was found with daffodil bulbs today, so not raisins but similar toxicity. She's been fine, will probably call vet tomorrow as well.

You need to phone the vets NOW!!! Not in the morning. The sooner they see them the better. The kidney damage from just one can be fatal!

If it's been (I'm guessing about) 36hrs since he ingested them, I imagine any kidney damage will be done already.

Mine are a huge piece of Christmas cake the kids left out for Father Christmas, he was absolutely fine. No symptoms at all.

When we went to the vet with the mince pie incident (late at night, driving into the city to the vet hospital) we did so within the hour, to get his stomach emptied urgently.

Realising he'd eaten raisins 24 hours after he had, we've clearly missed this window! What would the vet do now?

We're monitoring for vomiting, diarrhea, excessive drinking, lethargy. He's eaten three meals since the raisins, and done about 8 poos. He's drank water normally.

It would take at least an hour to get to the vet hospital, plus the extra payment for the late night treatment. If he needs emergency treatment then obviously I'd be happy to do that, but is it still an emergency? Or might he have come through it unharmed, as dogs do?

There's very little the vet can do now - it's been well over 24 hours since he ate them so I suspect their advice would be to monitor at home.

If he's eating, drinking, pooing and peeing fine I would try not to worry!

Raisins are not always toxic and the signs generally show themselves pretty quickly.

After a similar Boxing Day mince pie incident (very expensive!) our vet told us that the treatment for raisin/grape ingestion is immediate vomiting, because there is no way of identifying whether a particular dog will react badly to raisins, so the treatment is always to make them vomit ASAP.

Whereas e.g. chocolate you can work out toxicity levels based on percentage of cocoa solids to weight of dog, and all dogs react badly to a toxic dose of chocolate, there is no ‘safe’’ amount of grapes/raisins but equally there may be no ‘unsafe’ dose either if your particular dog doesn’t have the reaction to them. The trouble is you can’t know until it’s too late.

It sounds like you’ve been lucky. If your dog was reacting you’d expect to see it by now. Obviously keep an eye, call the vet tomorrow and keep your fingers crossed. But taking them to the vet now when they’ve already passed several bowel movements is not going to help.

God, they’re such a worry, aren’t they?

We have had similar with our very ‘food focused’ dog. First time we rushed her to the vets and had the whole charcoal etc treatment. Second time, many months later, she ate several mince pies and we didn’t notice until quite a while afterwards.

The children were very upset and we were worried but we decided to wait and see how she was and she was totally, completely fine.

The few times my dogs have got hold of stuff, a chocolate cake in a box in a bag on a shelf upstairs, a bit of Toblerone etc ( they had already been diagnosed with cushings and scavenging dialed up to 11 where as before they never had) we always rushed them to the vets even at night time.

We're generally very strict with not letting them have things that isn't their food but you've left it seemingly 30+ hrs and I think it's too late. Not to make you feel bad but hearing this and seeing what others feed their dogs and not being concerned ( I saw a youtuber I like say his dog ate a pack of 6 mince pies and he just took them for a walk) makes me really think I worry too much about it.

Absolutely, such a worry! I'm sitting here feeling so worried about him. He's sleeping next to me, just his normal self!

It's so much easier when you see them eat something dangerous, and you know for sure. I was out yesterday when he ate them, and thought he'd been in the bin because there was a yogurt pot emptied. Cleaned it up, thought nothing more of it until I found the wet lunch bag later and realised it could have been raisins, but really wasn't sure what had actually been in the bag! Then the poo earlier today confirmed it.

By the time I even suspected raisins about 5 hours had passed. Then 24 before certain. What a catalogue of errors. Just going to ban all raisins from the house now.

Not a similar toxicity at all.

daffodils cause a serious GI upset- while it can be extremely nasty, it can be treated if symptoms start.

raisins cause renal failure. Absolutely fuck all anyone can do once the kidneys pack in. The longer you leave treatment the more likely it will be fatal if your dog is susceptible.

Please don’t worry, our labradoodle used to regularly eat our children’s raisins when she was a young & before I knew they were dangerous, she is nearly 13 & absolutely fine. If your dog isn’t showing any symptoms I wouldn’t worry.

I would not take my dogs to the vet for this but they are street dogs and literally scavenge anything.

Wrong.

please get some proper advice o/p.

raisin toxicity can take 24-36 hours to show symptoms, by which time the kidneys are seriously damaged and a good outcome is unlikely.

if your dog is susceptible- and you have no way of knowing - the only way of preventing kidney damage is to start treatment asap. Dogs who get early treatment usually survive.

it is definitely not a “watch and wait” situation.

if you want proper advice o/p phone www.animalpoisonline.co.uk. They’ll tell you whether you need a vet now.

please don’t listen to the bad advice on here.

Before the days of the internet, when nobody seemed to know about various foods being potentially poisonous, our family dog ate a Christmas cake. Apart from the runs for a day or so she was fine.

As others have said there's nothing a vet can do now so it's just a case of monitoring and he sounds fine.

My labradoodle managed to get hold of a grape when he was 7 months old. It was after 6pm so I called the out of hours vet, and was told to take him in straight away.

Just one grape -which thankfully came out whole - cost over £400 to rectify but I wouldn't have risked it.

Hope your pup is ok

@Cileymyrus it's already been at least 36 hours and her dog is absolutely fine.

If OP was posting within an hour of it happening or course I would tell her to go to the vets 🤷🏻‍♀️

OP could you maybe give the out of hours vet a quick call for advice? They'll know better than most (no offence to the PP's!)

Just phoned the vet hospital and they talked me through it all. Given the length of time it's been they don't feel they need to see him tonight. They did say I could take him in and they would check his kidney values, or I could give my own vet a phone in the morning.

She said there is still a possibility that he could have a toxic reaction but with the number of poos and him eating and drinking normally she thinks they're probably all out of his system by now.

Going to watch him closely overnight.

How is he doing this morning OP?

He's absolutely fine, has been out for his early morning walk, running about mad as usual. Normal stools, has eaten his breakfast.