Hallo lovely people on this forum. I should say upfront I just want someone to say: Don't worry!! We went out this afternoon at 3pm and Snowie got into our pantry (first time ever) and helped himself to 1/2 kg of raw almonds -- we found the torn and empty plastic bag on his bed with a few almonds lying around. He does love raw almonds but I only give him 3 or 4 at a time and he carefully crunches each one. No idea his method of eating this time -- if he crunched each one, it would've taken him forever!! He also opened a couple of bags of dried barley and a bag of sesame seeds but clearly those were not to his liking cos they were still full bags but were torn. Thankfully he did not eat anything dangerous (like medication). He usually gets his dinner at 6pm but I took him for a walk cos I presumed he needed to expel some almonds via the rear end, or at least make place for them. This he did: a very good, firm poo, all normal. At 7.15pm I gave him his dinner: raw duck wings and raw duck tail, although I made it a smaller than usual meal given he had 1/2 kg of almonds in his tummy. I was concerned that the almonds would pass though undigested and that he would need energy to get him through the night -- he does get infrequent seizures (he is now on seizure medication -- for the past 2.5 months -- and has had one seizure in that time), and those appear to be triggered by a drop in blood sugar, although we only guess this cos they always happen an hour or two before his usual breakfast time. But now I am wondering if I did the wrong thing cos his tummy is very big! He is fast asleep and does not appear to be concerned about his large tummy, no signs of discomfort. I don't see how almonds and raw duck can cause bloat, but of course I am worried. Am I worrying needlessly? (He is farting every now and then -- silent and smelly! This is unusual for him.) Thank you!
Is there an emergency vet service you can call for advice? Some nuts are extremely toxic to dogs, but my (limited) understanding is that almonds are far from being the worst. But a swollen tummy is cause for some concern....I'd at least feel better if I could ask a vet. If you try your vet's emergency number it might divert to a service that can give you some advice.
When my Shadow had a very swollen tummy, I took him straight to the emergency vet, because I was terrified of bloat. She immediately put me at ease by saying it definitely wasn't (by tapping on his tummy and hearing a solid noise rather than a hollow one), but she said it can still be dangerous for them to get so big. He had an X-ray to see what it was - just food - and gave me some medication for him. He also wasn't allowed any food at all for the next two days. A Labrador with no food. For two days. Eeeks. With his history of seizures, I would definitely give the vet a ring and see what they say, if only for a plan for the next few days.
Almonds are not toxic to dogs. Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs (especially if raw). My first Lab ate about the same quantity of roasted Macadamia nuts one night and they passed through without a scratch on them and he was fine too. His tummy was a little sore till they passed just because of the large quantity of knobbly nuts. That was the only negative effect. We did call the emergency vet and then take him to our vet the next day but only because of the macadamia factor, not the nut factor per se. I'd say that with almonds you'd have no problems other than a little tummy soreness. You could give him something to help their passage through the system - liquid paraffin is best, if you have it, as it is not digested so lubricates the whole system (digestible oils like olive oil or cooking oil do not help in this way). You can soak cotton wool balls in the paraffin and he might eat them. Or you can give it in the mouth in a little syringe (no needle..). A few teaspoons is what I'd go for. And just make sure he is drinking a normal amount. Call the vet for advice if you are worried but if it were me I'd just keep an eye on him. I would not be feeling worried.
Good morning! Thank you everyone for your advice. I only saw your advice this morning but I don't know why it didn't cross my mind to call the 24-hour animal hospital. I've done that once before on a Saturday night (he was looking off and I was worried he'd have a seizure then) and the advice given was: "If you bring him in, we will run expensive tests and then wait and see. We suggest you wait and see and, if he gets worse, then bring him." We waited and we watched and nothing untoward happened. Anyway, last night we all went up to the bedroom as usual although the poor boy was so full he had to muster up all his strength to jump onto the bed (this might be the epilepsy medication, too -- a side effect is hind quarter weakness). But he was very jolly and happy and showed no signs of discomfort. Lights off at 10.30pm. At 11.30pm I woke up to hear him go drink water and then go downstairs. I raced after him, let him out, and he immediately went to poo. Again, at 4am I woke up to hear him go drink water, same thing, let him outside to poo. Another poo at 7am. And another two poos on his morning walk around 8.30am. They all looked like nut brittle -- what a waste of perfectly good almonds! Clearly he had not chewed each one carefully -- some were whole with their skins on, some chewed up. All fine. Tummy down to normal. What is so interesting is that I very seldom see pieces of bone in his poo (he eats raw food). In general, it is fully digested. Unlike the almonds. And I know he does not chew each meaty bone mouthful 32 times (as I was told to do as a child!) -- just a few crunches and then the whole parcel is swallowed down. So his digestive system is clearly geared to breaking down bones, but not almonds.
Great to hear that the almonds have reappeared and that he's fine Probably good that he chewed them a bit - that probably helped them to pass through. Hopefully it hasn't put you off almond brittle!!
