Dog Eats Goat, has Pseudo-Addisonian Crisis

When a 6-year old border collie with Addison’s disease showed up at Colorado State University’s veterinary hospital with an apparent Addisonian crisis, the treatment seemed obvious: IV fluids and DOCP to return the dog’s sodium and potassium levels to normal. But when the dog didn’t respond to treatment, the veterinary hospital found out the shocking cause of the dog’s psuedo-Addisonian crisis.

Forty seven days before his pet became ill, the owner had to have a goat euthanized. The goat was buried on the owner’s property but not deep enough; the border collie and one of his friends dug up the goat and the companion dog was seen chewing on the goat’s head. After hearing about this, the veterinarian performed a urine test on the unresponsive border collie and made a diagnosis of barbiturate poisoning–as well as consuming the goat, the border collie had also consumed a heavy dose of the medicine that euthanized the goat.

The unusual thing about this case is that the barbiturate mimicked canine Addison’s disease with out-of-balance sodium and potassium levels. Thankfully, the veterinarian was knowledgeable enough to look for other causes of the suspected Addisonian crisis. The dog fully recovered after treatment with activated charcoal and IV fluids.

This case makes me wonder how many non-Addisonian dogs have dug up and eaten a euthanized animal (not everyone buries their pets properly), and presented at the vets in an Addisonian crisis.

The moral to this story–make sure you bury euthanized animals in a proper manner. Check out this article on how to bury a pet properly.

Reference: Use of a point-of-care urine drug test in a dog to assist in diagnosing barbiturate toxicosis secondary to ingestion of a euthanized carcass.