This story has been updated.
PINE PLAINS — A Pine Plains resident and dog owner is urging fellow pet owners to be vigilant after she took her puppy to the ER last week after ingesting marijuana during a walk near Stissing Lake on Beach Road.
Rachel Greenfield said her dog Skye, a 16-pound Welsh Terrier puppy, began wobbling and couldn’t stand up several hours after her routine walk.
“I thought maybe she was just tired and wanted to sleep,” Greenfield said. “But then she didn’t want dinner and when I took her outside to go to the bathroom she couldn’t stand up. That’s when I knew something was really wrong.”
Greenfield said she brought Skye to the Kingston Animal Hospital, where, she said, staff immediately asked if the dog could have ingested any marijuana.
Skye was drug tested and the results came back positive for THC, the psychoactive compound found in marijuana.
“I was amazed,” Greenfield said. “I never thought marijuana would be something I had to worry about when walking my dog.”
Greenfield said she walks Skye along Beach Road every day and recalled seeing the puppy sniff at something during the outing. She said it did not appear unusual at the time, and had no reason to think it could be dangerous.
Around twenty-four hours after ingesting the THC, Skye began to show signs of improvement, though she remained sleepy.
Greenfield said the experience has made her hypervigilant and she hopes to share this information with other dog owners.
Adele Craven, a receptionist at Pine Plains Veterinary Hospital, said the office sees cases like this about every other month and that dogs – especially small dogs like Skye – can become very sick after ingesting marijuana.
“Sometimes they can just sleep it off,” Craven said. “But other times it can lower their heart rate and affect their liver and kidney functions, and they need hospitalization.”
Craven added that there isn’t much treatment other than supportive care. She also urged dog walkers to be vigilant.
“If you’re in a public space, especially with a puppy, you have to be really cautious,” Craven said.
The most important thing, according to local veterinary offices, is to have the dog evaluated right away and to encourage as many fluids as possible.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported the dog was hospitalized. In fact, the Welsh terrier was treated at the ER at Kingston Animal Hospital and then sent back home to recover the same day.
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