Mushroom Incident

The clearest sign that something is wrong with a dog is when they don’t eat. Particularly when they never miss a meal (Siberians can be picky eaters, though I have yet to have one that did not devour every meal).

Nikita was not hungry for dinner and did not touch her food. Strange. But, ok, I have read about this. I will watch her carefully.

Breakfast – No interest. Now I am concerned. Call the vet. Go in for bloodtests. The vet offers increasing levels of food until we get to basically beef. Nikita eats a bite. Ok, will get her eating with this, but no meds until we know what is going on. Can board her or watch her carefully at home. I choose home because I was only 10 minutes away from the vet and then would know personally what was going on.

I get her to eat bites of the beef all day, but never more than a couple.

Next morning, more energy, can eat more. Vet calls. The blood tests are showing some weird signs and he wants to do a much broader test. No need to come in because he had taken enough blood in the first round, but since this had to go off to a lab, he wanted my permission for the extra cost. Knowing I would say yes, he had already shipped to the lab the night before, but just wanted to touch base. Of course.

Nikita is slowly coming around more and more and eats almost one full meal (as opposed to a normal two) by the end of the day.

Next morning, much better, eats half of her breakfast. Vet calls. Asks if I have mushrooms in the yard. Well, yes I do. I may not be the best at lawn maintenance. The bloodtest results show that Nikita has a hallucinogenic in her system that is commonlyly caused by ingesting mushrooms. Yes, my dog was shrooming in the back yard.

Hi. I am Nikita. I am a mushroom-a-holic.

Remove all mushrooms from the yard. Add searching for mushrooms to the list as I scan the yard daily for escape plans.

5 Comments

  1. Debbie and Ruby on March 17, 2021 at 8:03 am

    Mine have eaten anything from snakes to dead porcupines, but never mushrooms. Something else to watch for. Thanks for this great heads up.

  2. Jean B Burkhardt on March 17, 2021 at 7:02 am

    Wow-Hu-Dad-I got the chills reading this memory about Nikita. I have never seen mushrooms in our yard so I am lucky. Having a sick dog is one of the things we ALL think is the pitts. LOVE these Way Back Wednesdays!!

  3. KB on July 29, 2010 at 4:56 pm

    My dog K would like to join Nikita’s support group. She is not only a mushroom-o-holic but she taught her brother about the wonders of shrooming. Fortunately, they are very selective about which mushroom species they eat when we’re in our home forest – and they choose very benign boletes. However, K once dabbled in more exotic species while we were traveling and almost died. I am not exaggerating – she came within an inch of dying at age 2 from mushroom poisoning. It was very scary for us but didn’t seem to impact *her* attitude toward mushrooms even the slightest bit. That’s why she needs to join the support group! Will you let her join, Nikita?

  4. Carolynn on April 3, 2010 at 3:27 am

    OMG! At least we had to head to the mountains for Ranger to get stoned! I cant imagine having them in our back yard! God forbid we did and our teenagers ever found out…ahhhhhgh I cant even imagine it.

  5. Wild Dingo on January 23, 2010 at 3:55 am

    Sigh. I am not surprised. Sibes are criminals. and doing shrooms is right up their alley. and what did you DO with the mushrooms once you scan them and take them out of the yard? 😉

    wags-n-wiggles,
    wild dingo

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