The Blog Farm

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

He'll eat anything.

This post is dedicated to gardeners that have pets. Our pups, Buddy to the left and Stella to the right, often spend a lot of time with us while we garden. The pups are not allowed in the garden for more than one reason. First, they tend to chase after each other going about 30 mph and they can leave quite a trail of destruction behind them. Secondly, I need to make sure they don't ingest plants or vegetables that are harmful to them. We all know the typical plants and vegetables that are harmful to many pets such as onions, chives, shallots, rhubarb, garlic, certain mushrooms, Hyacinth, Daffodils, Narcissus, Hollyhock, Lily of the Valley, Iris and the list goes on and on. But most recently my husband and I were considering growing our own hops for our homebrews. Turns out hops are extremely poisonous to dogs. Once ingested, they cause a sort of reverse hypothermia which results in death. My instincts and experience told me to do a bit of research before buying the plants and I'm glad I did. You see...we have had several costly lessons on puppyhood.... By the time our dear little Buddy was 1 1/2 years old, he had ingested a digital camera, a $100 pair of leather shoes, a cell phone, pieces of an electric blanket, and rocks, among other things. In one instance he got a piece of metal from the electric blanket and a bone fragment (from who knows where) lodged in his intestines. They had to be surgically removed and we all know vet bills are never cheap.....$1,200 dollars later he was fine. In another instance we have no idea what he ate but he became very ill and had convulsions. We suspect he ate some mushrooms from the yard but we never knew for sure. Buddy has gotten better about eating everything in sight...but I still watch him closely. Stella is rather picky about what she eats... her only downfall appears to be that she is constantly stealing Buddy's pillow :)

There are of course many plants that are also poisonous to cats. But luckily for us our cats (to the left is Spud and to the right is a neighbor cat) are finicky...they turn their noses up to most anything except cat food and love apparently. (Photo by Daisy Girl)

17 comments:

  1. Great post! Wow, and I thought Jude was bad...hehe. They can sure get into everything..

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  2. What beautiful animals you have! My Otto eats his blanket. He has consumed at least half of a large fleece throw, and he barfs it up all over. He's also bad to find and chew sticks, and got one caught sideways in the roof of his mouth last spring. He was in quite a panic by the time I got to him and removed it. Annie steals carrots, green beans and pansies from the garden, but doesn't show much interest in anything else.

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  3. EG: Does Jude like to eat everything as well? My Buddy was the runt of the litter so I think that he has psychological issues lol...

    AG: thank you...Annie is adorable as well...Is there a pic of Otto on your blog?
    When we harvest the vegetables we put them in bins as we go and sure enough Buddy would also sneak over and swipe a few carrots along the way. :)

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  4. What a handsome pair, they look so sleek and I just love their color. I'm sure you have talked about it before but I could not find a post that mentioned what type of dogs they are?

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  5. Mr H: Thanks...I don't think I mentioned it before but the pups are Vizsla. (hungarian pointer) They are nicknamed the "velcro" dog because they follow you everywhere. They are big lovable babies though....and they think they are lap dogs... :)

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  6. Sunny - yeah, Jude eats pretty much everything. The little stinker even eats gravel from the driveway. I have to keep my eye out for things that are dangerous....

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  7. My goodness, I knew about some of those plants being poisonous to pets, but that's a huge list! O_O

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  8. Kyna: It is .... there are a lot of things I had no idea were poisonous.

    DG: Thanks :)

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  9. love love love it...you know i do....

    our pets...the BEST !

    kary, buddy and all the kittys
    xxx

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  10. "Is there a pic of Otto on your blog?"

    There are quite a few, but my favorite is a video, showing what a little dork he is ;-)

    http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-29-2009-humor-me.html

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  11. How adorable AG....I will have to post a video of my boy pup Buddy...he "talks" loudly to me when it is time to go for a walk. I love dorky dogs :)

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  12. Annie's a talker, too. She has a very distinctive "wroo-wroo" sound, completely different from her regular bark. It makes me giggle to listen to her and watch her, the sides of her mouth puff out with each "wroo", and it just looks so silly. Not as silly as when she's belly up with a big smile on her face, though. I tried to get a video of her, but all she would do was bark, while I made an idiot of myself "wroo-ing"! It's called "The Most Annoying Video Ever" on my blog.

    http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2008/11/november-13-2008-fencing-finale.html

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  13. Ha! I'm going to check out that video AG...dogs are funny creatures :)

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  14. I have two dogs myself and they have gotten into anything and everything. One is 3 1/2 and the other is only 8 months. Together I call them the "Tandem of Terror". But alas, gardening wouldn't be the same with out them and they seem to be tempering the urges to dig. Big sigh of relief over here! Anyways I appreciate the pet post being an animal lover and owner myself!

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  15. Thanks KF....the puppy stage is always a "fun" stage to go through :)

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