(Originally Posted Nov. 2001) and it is still without harsh warnings on the labels!
--
We bought some glue called Gorilla glue, 4 oz. bottle. Somehow our Puppy, Angel, got into the Gorilla glue. She is soon going to be 9 months old, and weighed 95 pounds before all of this happened. And the little puppy, Buster, soon to be 4 months old, 45 pounds, got into it too.
The only warning on the label is harmful if swallowed. She digested some, but we don't know how much , since the bottle was mutilated , and flat. It expanded in her stomach, and she had to have emergency surgery. She got into the glue on Wednesday of last week, and did not act like anything was wrong, other than she started vomiting the next morning, and kept on vomiting. She had been having dry heaves, and when she did bring anything up, it was very small amount of slime. She was also having a problem with her bowels.
The Dr. x-rayed her on early Monday morning and the x-ray showed a big mass in her stomach, which was the glue that had expanded. They did emergency surgery on Monday afternoon. The Drs. removed glue mass, hard as a rock ,from her stomach. It was the size of a cantaloupe, or a little larger than the size of a child nerf football. My daughter, Vickie says it looks like a big old ugly potato. The mass of glue weighs a little over 2 pounds. She has a bandage from just behind her front legs to just in front of her hips, the incision is about 8 to 10 inches long, The glue was starting to go into her intestines too. The lining of her stomach is irritated, and the top of her mouth and gums were red and irritated also. The hair on her chest had to be literally ripped off of her chest on Thursday, as the Dr. was not in on Wednesday, and she had to have antibiotic ointment put on her chest and she had to wear a tee shirt. We were not aware at this time how serious the damage was.
She is on around the clock antibiotics, and a pill to help regulate her bowels. She is on special food, which has to be blended in the blender with water. She was in the hospital for 2 days on nothing but IV fluids for 2 days. She did not get any food until late Wednesday morning at the clinic. She has lost almost 8 pounds with in a few days. Our other puppy, Buster, got a little of the glue, and he was vomiting up little glue balls almost as big as golf balls, and is now passing them through the G I tract and his bowels look like they are coated with glue, but Dr. says he will be o.k. because he is passing it. He did not get as much as Angel. The glue was all over the floor, the couch, and the covering on the couch had to be thrown away. If she had eaten the whole bottle of glue, who knows how big the mass would have been, THANK GOD she didn't get the whole bottle. She has lost about 8 pounds due to all of this.
I really think that they should have a better warning on the bottle, and explain that it expands and to seek immediate medical attention. Our vets say they have never seen anything like this. If we had not taken her to the Dr. she would have been dead within a week. Her stomach and intestines would have ruptured, because the glue keeps expanding as long as it is wet. Our vet contacted the company that makes the glue, and were told that there were 2 other cases of pets eating the glue. He also called the poison control on Thursday when we first took her in, and they said there were no fatal chemicals in the glue? I shudder to think that other cases have probably been shrugged off by other dogs owners thinking that it would just pass. What a horrible way to go! Hopefully no children will ever get into this predicament!
- Rosa
