Naloxone revives Saanich, B.C. dog after suspected overdose

At first, veterinarian Helen Rae thought the small dogin her Saanich, B.C. clinic had eaten some marijuana.

"When she first came in, she was a little wobbly," Rae said.

But as Chica the pug slipped into a semi-comatose state Rae quickly revised her diagnosis.

She realized she was seeing a probableopioid or narcotic overdose. She quickly gave Chica a small injection of naloxone, the antidoteused to prevent humandrug deaths.

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"There's not a lot else that looks like that, that will make a dog go that flat out without other symptoms," Rae told CHEK News reporter April Lawrence.

The unresponsive dog responded to the first injection by raisingher head and looking around.

When she injected a second dose of naloxone, Rae said. "That got her to the point where she could sit up and was more herself."

Rae said it is not possible to determine exactly what drug the dog ate, butits reaction to naloxone tells her that it did ingest some kind of narcotic or opioid drug.

Chica's owner Charlene Anderson said she was walking the dog in Saanich's Mount Douglas Park just before it became ill.

'Abad habit ofhooveringup everything'

"Chica has a bad habit of hoovering up everything," Anderson said. "I just saw her eating all the things off the ground that she always eats."

Rae said the veterinary clinic keeps theopioidantidote on hand in case a pet has a reaction during legitimate treatment with the drugs.

The veterinarian said the risk of pets ingesting opioids is extremely low, but it isnot the first caseshe's treated with naloxone.

Opioidoverdose low risk for dogs

"I had to use it once before in a toxicity case," she said. "It was a dog that had eaten some unsavoury items in Beacon Hill Park (in Victoria).

"It had been through a human, let's just say," Rae said.

With files from CHEK News