A reminder that the oleander is a very toxic plant, all parts, fresh or dried, can cause serious illness,or worse, if chewed or swallowed. They are very pretty and grow well in Florida, frequently used in landscaping. Please if anyone lives where oleanders grow…get rid of any in your yard, but do so carefully. Burning the wood is dangerous too!!
Our friend John (a member of this Forum) recently rented a bigger house and just moved a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend his 1 year old black and white boy Bodhi was playing and chewing on some plants, John thought palms, but by Sunday Bodhi became a bit lethargic and his face was swollen slightly. He was eating, peeing, etc. well so John waited to take him to the vet Monday morning and somehow they realized the plant was oleander. Poor Bodhi spent the night at the vet being treated and was transfered to the big vet specialty clinic today as his liver is not responding to treatment. He will be there for several days.
Please keep Bodhi in your thoughts, he is a big, sweet, goofy, funny boy who deserves a long and happy life. We are waiting and hoping John gets good news and Bodhi is romping again at the dog park with our little basenji extended family.
Thanks in advance for your good vibes for Bodhi!
Anne in Tampa
OH NO! I'm so sorry to hear this about Bodhi. Poor little guy - I'm sending good healthy vibes for him and John. How awful! I hope he improves soon. I met John last winter when Bodhi was a little pup at Mantis's house. He was such a cutie pie.
I never heard of an oleander, so I looked it up to see what it looked like - pasted the link below if anyone's interested. Good warning…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nerium_oleander_flowers_leaves.jpg
How terrible…I hope Bodhi recovers quickly. MacPack, thanks for posting this and thanks Duke for posting a pic. Is John the one that also has the b, Savannah that Mantis fostered originally? Get well Bodhi!!!
Yes, John has Savannah and Bodhi. We see them every week at our "Sunday Services" at the dog park, he is our basenji "extended family". The only other black basenji is my Topper, 13 1/4, who is the oldest and Bodhi, also black, is the youngest so they are our special bookend boys.
Oleander is awful stuff. My husband works at one of the few labs in the country that tests for oleandrin the toxin in oleander. Every part of the plant is toxic and even the smoke is toxic if the plant catches fire. The plant does taste awful so usually animals will not eat it but with dogs and cats it doesn't take much to do a lot of damage.
There are a number of plants that are toxic (or at least can cause problems) for dogs.
Oleander (in the south), yew (in the north) and many others that we never think about when planting our gardens or buying house plants. Information on plants in your area can be obtained from your state extension service or check out these websites:
www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/index.html
www.vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/bytox1.htm
Just to let everyone know , bodhi is doing well, he is back to his crazy playful self . dont think he actually ingested much of the oleander so it got out of his system after a few days. But him going thru all of the bloodwork this week it did bring to or attention a potential kidney problem, that sems to be pre existing . we are waiting on some more test reslts to see what kind of treatment options we have. The support we have received has been great and i want to thank everyone for keeping us in your thughts
john
Good to know Bodhi is fine, just hope is kidney problem is nothing too bad.
Hey John - I'm so glad that Bodhi will be OK and is bouncing around again. Amazing - if Bodhi hadn't ingested the poisonous plant, you wouldn't have known about his kidney issue. Here's hoping that everything goes well and not too serious - it was caught early.
I am so glad Bodhi has recovered from this. Our thoughts are with you on the kidney problems, it is good it was caught early and won't be progressed…
