Hydrogen peroxide and a turkey baster

Why do these things happen to me when my husband isn't at home? Dog crises always happen when I'm home alone. Yesterday, I found that Cassie had lost her ID tag. Not a terrible crisis, but still...

And this morning on our run, an event occurred that led me to panic like I never have before. Even when Greta drank power steering fluid two years ago. (Although looking back, I think that was probably worse).

Some neighbors have left old pizza crust at their curb for days now. We've been able to avoid it until today. Greta quickly gobbled up a piece of it before I could do anything about it. And I quickly remembered an old co-worker telling us about her dog dying after eating moldy bread. The vet told her that the mold attached the dog's insides.

I don't know if the pizza crust was moldy, but I wasn't taking any chances so I wanted to get Greta home and get her to throw up. When we got home, I called the vet's office, and sounded like a loon. I usually do when I call there. The vet said that if the pizza crust was moldy it probably wasn't safe for her. And if there was meat on the pizza still it was definitely bad and she shouldn't have that. So she suggested I get some hydrogen peroxide and give it to her through a turkey baster. Three turkey basters full would do the trick for my 60-pound dog, she said.

I rushed out to the store to buy both items, cursing the whole time. When I arrived back at the house I realized I had no idea how to use a turkey baster. After two unsuccessful attempts, I figured it out and headed outside to the backyard. I instructed Greta to hop up on the crate and gave her a few drops of the yummy hydrogren peroxide. She didn't seem to mind it, so the first turkey baster-full went to easy. The second one was a different story. Only about half of that went down, a little forcefully, with me holding her mouth open. She then jumped off the crate and wandered around the yard for about 10 seconds before throwing up her breakfast.

I guess the pizza crust was in there, it was hard to tell among the kibble bits. I had to quickly clean it up because she wanted to eat it.

And alas, that was my morning. I saved my dog's life.

Perhaps for nothing? Perhaps. But I'm now armed with my turkey baster for next time.