Delta, B.C., teacher warns pet owners after her dog ingested cocaine on a walk

A teacher in B.C.’s Lower Mainland is warning pet owners after her dog ingested hard drugs while on a walk.

Sara Bell’s two-year-old husky Nilak has an unfortunate habit of eating paper products.

“So he’ll get dropped paper towels that fall as we take dishes and stuff. And I’ve never really thought too much about it because it’s always been fine,” said Bell.

So the Delta teacher wasn’t immediately concerned when Nilak gobbled up a napkin off the ground during a walk.

“And he didn’t even chew it. It was like in his mouth and down his throat,” Bell said.

But when the pair got home, Nilak wouldn’t stop bobbing his head up and down and back and forth. Bell knew something was wrong and took her pooch to the vet.

“And so my dog, bless his heart, he is absolutely scared of the vet, like phobia-level scared. And so he had peed on the floor. And you know, I’m really grateful to the vet, because he sat on the floor and he used a syringe to suck up the pee so that he could do the drug test,” Bell said.

The result? Nilak had ingested cocaine.

“I’d like to say that I’m surprised, but it’s actually something we see with relative frequency,” said Dr. Lauren Adelman, a veterinarian at Canada West Veterinary Specialists.

“Even in the last week at our emergency at Canada West, we’ve had cocaine, amphetamines and various other illicit drug toxicities, along with more of the usual toxicities like THC, marijuana, that type of thing.”

Adelman says Nilak’s owner was smart to take him to the vet when she saw him bobbing his head strangely.

“Noticing those, particularly neurologic signs or cardiac signs (is important),” Adelman said. “Dogs often will act, you know, very unusual. Their behaviour will change. They might get a twitch, they might look like they’re stumbling around.”

Thankfully, Nilak only needed 12 hours of IV fluids to recover from his cocaine exposure.

“It can be scary,” said Bell. “And part of what I’m trying to spread to pet owners is that it happens. So be vigilant.”

Preventing poisonings can be harder when a dog is prone to eating items off the ground during walks.

“Sometimes things happen,” Adelman said. “I know even with my own pets, I turn around, I’m like, ‘What did you just eat?’”

As for Nilak’s habit of ingesting paper?

“The plan is to get a trainer involved to help me work it out,” said Bell. “Because, obviously, I’d like him to stop.”