Not Death by Chocolate today thank you

Today, I had to take the van to be fixed and it had to stay in.

Meanwhile, I received a lovely Easter present through the post. Two bars of yummy dark chocolate.

When I arrived home, all that was left was the wrappers. Happy Easter TJam.

Even more happy Easter because chocolate is poisonous to dogs. We are not talking grape poisonous. There is no "maybe" in chocolate poisoning. Chips was looking a little uncomfortable (as I would have been if only I had had the chance to eat both my bars of chocolate at the same time). Beanz was fine, leaving me to believe that Chips had not shared nicely.

I phone the vet. The toxic dose for a dog Chips's size is 15g of dark chocolate. Chances were she'd had 20 times that. Time to go for some medicine.

No car, so thank you to Silky for coming to pick us up and take us there.

A dose of medication and the ongoing treatment? Activated charcoal.

To the unitiated, this is what it looks like dry. "Try mixing it with their food" said the vet. YUM. Looks tasty.

Beanz ate her own and then Chips's. I hope you can't overdose on charcoal.

Meanwhile, it was plan B for Chips. By this point I had stopped bothering cleaning things up, so I will tackle the black stuff tomorrow. Since 4 hours worth wouldn't stay down, it was little and often. It has to keep going in until it comes out the other end.

According to my frantic internet search, chocolate poisoning symptoms go:

Vomiting, diarrhea, restlessness, tremours, seizures and possibly death. In there somewhere is also a raised heart beat that can cause heart attack. Not joyful reading.

So, working her way dutifully through the list, Chips started on phase 4, the tremours.

Call in Pin (thank you Pin) who took us back to the vet for an injection of diazepam (that's valium to you and me). Lucky dog. I hadn't even got through the sentence, "How long does it take to work?" before Chips's eyes glazed over and she wobbled to the floor. We came home with instructions of what to look for and what might constitute an emergency.

All praise to the vet, who even offered to come and pick us up and take us to the animal hospital in the night if we couldn't get a lift. That is beyond the call of duty and something you don't hear about these days.

By 10pm, Chips was looking a lot more perky. I don't think we'll be needing the valium tablets. Well, I don't think Chips will be needing them. I will be sleeping downstairs to keep an eye on the patient.