Hops nearly killed my dog .... or so it would seem. After I did a search in the forum, I see the subject has been canvassed before in others discussions, but there appears to still be some doubters, so here is a recent personal story in an effort to let people know that hops can kill dogs.
On Sunday night my wife noticed our adopted greyhound Indy was panting excessively; indeed, not just excessively, but really heaving. We decided to fork out the money for an afterhours vet visit to see if it was anything major. Her temperature was 40.5 C and the vet thought it was likely to be an acute infection and put her on antibiotics, anti inflammatories and IV fluids.
The next morning Indy hadn't improved, still panting madly and when she urinated it was dark brown which, after testing, turned out to be myoglobin in her urine caused by muscle breakdown.
When the myoglobin/ muscle break down was discovered the vet then though it was likely to be snakebite and we had the $378 venom test done only to come up with a negative result.
To cut a long and expensive story of a million failed tests short, it took one of my wife's mates to remember she had heard something about homebrew residue killing dogs, after which we searched the internet and found out how similar our dog's symptoms were to dogs who had suffered from hops toxicity.
We relayed this to the specialist vet hospital Indy had been transferred to and they concluded it was the most likely reason for her near death experience.
None of the many vets consulted about Indy's symptoms had heard of hops toxicity and the only veterinary medical literature about it the specialist clinic could track down was an article in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association Vol 210, No.1 Jan 1, 1997.
It appears the only reason Indy survived was she could have only had access to a very small amount of hops. I had thrown the spent hops from a brew on Friday night into the bin, but after close inspection after the "dog nearly dying" incident there was a small amount that hadn't quite fallen into the bin. This would have been a couple grams or less.
The AVAMA journal article followed the five cases which had been recorded in the US at the time, of which four had died. The only one to have survived had intensive treatment to remove the toxic hops and then for secondary metabolic acidosis.
I guess since the purpose of this post is a "beware for dog owners", the basics of hops toxicity seem to be that it causes a reaction which is like malignant hyperthermia.
The way it shows itself is severe panting, a rapidly rising temperature followed by brown coloured urine. It also seems that some dogs are more susceptible than others, in the AVMA article four of the five cases were greyhounds, the other was a Labrador.
The surviving greyhound from the journal article had its stomach lavaged and an enema administered to rid it of the hops. It was then given activated charcoal slurry to mop up the rest. Then, when it showed signs of metabolic acidosis it was given "60 mEq sodium bicarbonate administered in 1 L isotonic saline solution."
If your dog is panting madly, has a high temperature and is peeing brown, make sure your vet knows that hops toxicity exists.
I guess the moral of the story is BE CAREFUL WITH HOPS. I'm glad Indy is on the mend (still an ulcerated tongue and lethargic) but $2000 worth of vet bills could have bought a lot of hops, or grain, or stainless steel ..........
On Sunday night my wife noticed our adopted greyhound Indy was panting excessively; indeed, not just excessively, but really heaving. We decided to fork out the money for an afterhours vet visit to see if it was anything major. Her temperature was 40.5 C and the vet thought it was likely to be an acute infection and put her on antibiotics, anti inflammatories and IV fluids.
The next morning Indy hadn't improved, still panting madly and when she urinated it was dark brown which, after testing, turned out to be myoglobin in her urine caused by muscle breakdown.
When the myoglobin/ muscle break down was discovered the vet then though it was likely to be snakebite and we had the $378 venom test done only to come up with a negative result.
To cut a long and expensive story of a million failed tests short, it took one of my wife's mates to remember she had heard something about homebrew residue killing dogs, after which we searched the internet and found out how similar our dog's symptoms were to dogs who had suffered from hops toxicity.
We relayed this to the specialist vet hospital Indy had been transferred to and they concluded it was the most likely reason for her near death experience.
None of the many vets consulted about Indy's symptoms had heard of hops toxicity and the only veterinary medical literature about it the specialist clinic could track down was an article in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association Vol 210, No.1 Jan 1, 1997.
It appears the only reason Indy survived was she could have only had access to a very small amount of hops. I had thrown the spent hops from a brew on Friday night into the bin, but after close inspection after the "dog nearly dying" incident there was a small amount that hadn't quite fallen into the bin. This would have been a couple grams or less.
The AVAMA journal article followed the five cases which had been recorded in the US at the time, of which four had died. The only one to have survived had intensive treatment to remove the toxic hops and then for secondary metabolic acidosis.
I guess since the purpose of this post is a "beware for dog owners", the basics of hops toxicity seem to be that it causes a reaction which is like malignant hyperthermia.
The way it shows itself is severe panting, a rapidly rising temperature followed by brown coloured urine. It also seems that some dogs are more susceptible than others, in the AVMA article four of the five cases were greyhounds, the other was a Labrador.
The surviving greyhound from the journal article had its stomach lavaged and an enema administered to rid it of the hops. It was then given activated charcoal slurry to mop up the rest. Then, when it showed signs of metabolic acidosis it was given "60 mEq sodium bicarbonate administered in 1 L isotonic saline solution."
If your dog is panting madly, has a high temperature and is peeing brown, make sure your vet knows that hops toxicity exists.
I guess the moral of the story is BE CAREFUL WITH HOPS. I'm glad Indy is on the mend (still an ulcerated tongue and lethargic) but $2000 worth of vet bills could have bought a lot of hops, or grain, or stainless steel ..........
