Raisin Angst

Soon after I wrote yesterday's post, in which I blithely mentioned giving Bailey some of our bread-and-raisin pudding at the park, a reader contacted me. Raisins, she said, can cause severe and even fatal kidney damage in dogs, and it can take days for the symptoms to appear.

She advised me to Google "can dogs eat raisins," and when I did, what I read was terrifying: "Raisins are highly toxic to dogs and can cause sudden, severe kidney failure. Even a single raisin or grape can make a dog very sick or cause fatal kidney damage. Some dogs react badly to a tiny amount, while others may not show immediate signs. You cannot predict how your dog will respond. Do not wait for symptoms to appear. Call your vet or an emergency animal hospital right away."

HOLY SH*T! Had we just poisoned our dog? Dave and I talked about it and although I was a little more panicked than he was, we both agreed the situation may not be that bad. For one thing, we weren't sure Bailey got any raisins in her two bites of bread pudding -- if she did, she could only have had a few. Also, it had already been 19 hours since she'd eaten them and she seemed fine. Finally, yesterday was a bank holiday and our vet's office was closed, so I couldn't even call for advice. We decided to just keep an eye on her.

Bailey and I went walking on Billy Fury Way, where we found some interesting graffiti (above and below), and she seemed absolutely normal. Of course, to hear Google tell it, it could take up to 48 hours for problems to develop. I didn't feel like we were completely off the hook.

But the more I thought about it, the stranger all this seemed. How had I never heard of this supposed raisin toxicity? Everybody knows not to give a dog cooked chicken bones, for example -- why isn't "raisin danger" just as well known? Are they really that dangerous? Back in the days before commercial dog food, people used to feed their dogs table scraps -- surely some of them inadvertently got raisins? Did they drop dead?

The vets seem vague about what causes the toxicity -- they think it may be a certain acid in raisins and grapes that dogs can't process, but they're not sure. They're also vague about which dogs are prone to problems. Are little fluffy teacup dogs more at risk than shelter brutes like ours? Dave found an online calculator that suggested Bailey should be fine having just a few raisins, given her weight and breed, but other web sites said such calculations are impossible to make. It all sounded a little off.

And we all know Google's penchant for scaring the pants off us when we look up information about any human health condition, so I eventually grew a bit skeptical that the dire language was really warranted.

Through all of this, Bailey was her normal self.

Also on our morning walk, we encountered a flock of pigeons gathering to feast on some cookie crumbs dropped by the pigeon man, who passed us going in the other direction...

...and we passed the home of our recently deceased famous neighbor, whose quirky front garden always charms me. Note the handwritten sign by the front door: "Bon Voyage Miraculous Fifi."

In the afternoon we walked to the cemetery, and still, Bailey was her normal self, chasing squirrels (to the extent that she can while on her lead) and showing no signs of illness.

While at the cemetery I found a nice sherd of Blue Willow pottery, showing the characteristic three figures walking across the bridge toward the temple, beneath the willow tree. It has joined my collection of pottery fragments in the bowls in our dining room.

Even through yesterday evening, I was nervously watching Bailey. Every once in a while she'd leap up and run outside to chase squirrels, barking madly, and Dave and I would sarcastically say, "She's looking pretty lethargic." She ate and drank as usual. She played tug-of-war with her blanket after dinner with her usual abandon. But then there were times she did seem a bit slower than usual, and I just couldn't tell for sure. Was it my imagination?

This morning she still seems fine, though, and she's pretty much outside the window of time in which problems typically appear. I don't doubt raisins are toxic to certain animals and I don't mean to downplay the dangers, but in our case, at least, we're declaring the episode over.