 Zinc Poisoning in my puppy
I have a 19 month old Pomeranian that has had surgery (2) times in the past 6 months for eating coins. The first time was in July, my puppy started with loss of appetite and then she starting taking seisures. She became very week and after many trips to the Vet we went to a animal hospital, they admitted her for 3 days and on the second day they did a X Ray. That is when the found the coins and operated, she swallowed a penny, nickel and a dime. After removing the coins she need 2 blood transfusions because the zinc attacked the red blood cells that incident was a total of $2800.00. She recovered with no side effects. The day after Thanksgiving she started to take seisures again, we knew right away and immediately took her to the vet, he did a XRay right away and sure enough there was another foreign body. Her red blood count was dangerously low so we had to go directly to the animal hospital. They did surgery that day and fought a penny that was 2/3 rds digested. The hospital had to do another transfusion. This time we needed to check her Lead and Zinc Levels, very costly. We also take her 2 times a week to her regular vet to check her blood levels. The lead levels came back within normal limits, however the Zinc level is off the charts. We repeated the Zinc test on friday with the hope that the level has come down since the first test which was done four days after surgury. This time our cost is currently at $3900.00. There is alot of people that think we are crazy for spending what we have on our puppy when I also have 4 children, but what do you do, she is just as much part of our family and we love her like one of the children. When the zinc results come back, if they are still dangerously high, we need treat her with some procedure that I do not know anything about to bind the zinc in her body. This has really been a experience like you can't imagine. Who would ever think that a penny can do so much damage.  | 
12-11-2005, 06:09 PM
This sounds so dangerous! Thankyou for bring in it to my attention! Sue 
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