I know it looks a bit scary, but don't worry, it was a split second thing. We were outside, OH taking photos of Molly and she suddenly picked up a sprig of holly, recently clipped and missed during the clear up, and pulled this face, made us laugh and OH able to take the pic. Within seconds she'd spit the holly out and gone 'crackerdog' round the garden a couple of time - mostly because we'd laughed at her I think. She is absolutely fine and very keen to try out anything else she can find to chomp in the garden
And it gets worse. Molly has now eaten a rat I blame one of the cats for leaving a dead young rat outside the back door, presumably a gift and of course as soon as we went out Molly grabbed the wretched thing and roared off with it. Despite my best efforts, running away, squeaking excitedly, dancing about in full 'play-with-me' mode that she usually loves, wafting the 'special' treats bag, I failed to become more appealing to Molly than a dead rat So, all we can do now is await the inevitable and hope it happens before bed time or I fear coming down in the morning to a ghastly mess that doesn't bear thinking about
Our old Basset eats "gifted" rats from our cat quite often, and never has vomited or otherwise reacted to them, so you might get lucky.
Snowie ate what looked like a miniature shark (washed up) at the beach (not the first time -- he's eaten a few, you see them washed up with the seaweed and other debris from the sea). Also a dead, rotting seagull (yep, also not the first time). None came up. All came out the right end in nice solid poos. Hopefully the rat will be fully digested -- these dogs apparently have strong stomach acids. I see it as free-range meat -- must be good!
@FayRose was it the poisonous holly? Good thing it tastes bad. I don't know if there are some that aren't poisonous or how much they'd have to eat. Good catch on that expression.
Watch carefully that she doesn't pick up a tapeworm, mine picked up a mixi rabbit the other day and might have eaten part, found out he had tapeworms yesterday Had suitable wormer, lots more came out. They get tapeworms from eating the intermederary (sp!) host which is usually a mouse, rabbit, rat, flea, sheep.
Thanks for your replies. Oooh MF, turned my stomach the bit about the rotting seagull Snowshoe - it is ordinary berry-bearing holly, not something I'd be happy for her to eat but I don't know if its specifically poisonous. Fortunately she spat it straight out. Thanks for the warning though, I'll check it out just in case. Stacia - yes I am aware about the tape worm potential. Molly's been having regular monthly drop on flea/worming but I know that does not deal with tape worms so am going to get a tape wormer too, thanks for the reminder. Conclusion is we need eyes in the back of our heads as well as the front, and a special 'cat in feeding the family mode' alert too. Mind you OH says the cats do it deliberately to get Molly in trouble because she still gives them a bit of a hard time Good news is all is well this morning, no upchuck or squits
