You Learn Something New Every Day

While considering plants for our large outdoor pots, we were thinking sago palms in one set and replacement Rum Runner hibiscus in the others. Then we remembered Marshmallow's tendency to snack on everything she can get her teeth on (yesterday she ate cotton burr compost like it was cereal) and decided maybe(!) it would be a good idea to check toxicity of these plants for dogs.

A quick Internet search ruled out sago palm; even a small amount of this plant will cause swift renal failure in dogs. But hibiscus is a different story. There are conflicting reports. Some lists of poisonous plants have hibiscus included on them, some don't.  And so it was that I sat on the phone for fifteen minutes with the ASPCA Poison Control Center. Nevermind that we had already purchased the hibiscus online. According to the ASPCA vet I spoke with, the hibiscus will cause some pretty severe gastrointestinal upset, but it is not life-threatening to dogs. We decided to proceed with the planting and place some chicken wire around the plants until they no longer seem like a novelty to Destruct-o-Dog.

So, that's what I learned yesterday. That, and hard manual labor outside with only dogs for company is not nearly as much fun as with a friend, with, say, speech capabilities and opposable thumbs and an innate revulsion to caprophagia.

Comments

[Blue Like the Sky]

The first week we had Kaiser, he ate an entire brownie pie. I spent a frantic evening online, until I discovered that an 80 lb. dog would need to eat a LOT of chocolate to be in trouble. Then he developed an odd attraction to these neon-orange ear plugs we use to sleep. Gulped them right down. They are, um, non-digestible. Very easy to spot when they, um, emerge. Sends Anna into hysterical laughter whenever she sees it happening! Now that he spends his time outdoors, he specializes in poo and dead things. That's my boy.

I'll leave you with the lyrics to one of A's (many) "Kaiser Carols:"

"Kaiser the Stinky Dog,
He'll eat a kitty log!
If you let him do it,
He will chomp and chew it."

[RedMolly]

Bleagh. Shudder.

I'm thinking you should plant LOTS of hibiscus and maybe teach Marshmallow that plants are not for chewing...

[Lori V.]

Unfortunately, she won't learn. She's smart as a whip, but attention- and behavior-wise, she's a disaster. All of the outdoor dogs would rather drink pool water than the water from their bowls. Since it's Baquacil, it's chemicals are hydrogen peroxide, so enough pool water means the dogs throw up. Doesn't even cross their minds not to drink the pool water anymore! :-O