My Perspective - A corny mistake

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life. Some big ones, lots of small ones, and a few corny ones. A good example of a corny one happened on Labor Day weekend.

After a few wild weeks with both work and family things in late August/early September, I was enjoying a nice quiet day at home on Labor Day. I had finished up a few jobs at the office in the morning and stopped at a sweet corn stand on the way home to grab some corn on the cob for supper.

It was a good batch, and my family all enjoyed them. As I was cleaning up after supper, I saw a cob on one plate with some corn kernels still on half of it, and another half cob still sitting in the pot. I was planning to throw them away when I noticed one of our dogs watching me. He gave me a look that said, “I would be willing to help you out with that.” We have two dogs so I let them both out on the deck and tossed them the cobs. Yes, I know I’m not supposed to give the dogs table scraps... but this one seemed harmless enough at the time. There is corn in dog food, right?

Our dog, Kona, looked at her cob and walked away. No interest at all. The other dog, Copper, grabbed his cob and started chewing right away. After doing the dishes, I went back over to the deck and saw Copper sitting on the deck with a smile on his face. Both cobs were completely gone. I guess Copper really likes corn, I thought.

About a half hour later, Copper was sitting next to me and was breathing weird. Copper is about 14 years old, so he breathes weird often (and makes lots of weird noises in general), so I didn’t think much of it. My wife (who has told me not to give the dogs table scraps a time or twenty) googled “should dogs eat corn on the cob?”

Within moments, my relaxing Labor Day evening was over. The Google results revealed the following: “Dogs should never eat cooked corn cobs because the cobs are completely indigestible. If your dog just ate a piece of corn cob, this is a major veterinary emergency. Do not wait for symptoms to start -- contact your veterinarian or emergency animal hospital immediately.”

Turns out, a cob cannot be broken down by stomach acid and acts as a plug. It gets stuck in the stomach or intestines, stopping food and water from passing, often resulting in intestinal wall tears, organ failure, and death. That didn’t sound good.

Not sure how I didn’t know that before, and maybe I did know this at one point... but it wasn’t in my brain when I tossed them the cobs.

I have always considered myself a fairly responsible pet owner. This wasn’t a good example of that. I goofed.

Some background on Copper. He is a Brittany Spaniel... and not in the best health. He is nearly deaf, has cataracts, has pretty bad arthritis, some tooth decay, and a bunch of benign fatty growths all over his body. And did I mention he is 14? The chances of him making it to 15 years old are not great. That fact was important to consider. Another fact...  Although they realize he is not going to be around for years, my three boys love Copper and I enjoy him.  

Since I did not want to be the one who would forever be known in the family as “the one who killed Copper,” I needed to act fast. 

This might have been an easy fix if it was a regular time and date... but it was now 8 p.m. on Labor Day. I started calling around to learn my options. Our local vet was not open, but was able to reach them through their off-hours hotline. They gave me some options for emergency services. One option was St. Cloud, an hour away. Unfortunately they were minutes from closing their doors for the night. My next options were Twin Cities or Fargo, both a couple hours away.

It was going to be a long night.

Copper and I decided to take a late night cruise to Fargo.

Copper enjoyed the ride. He was comfortable. He didn’t even make any weird noises along the way. Good thing he can’t hear much or he would have heard my wife and I having the important conversation of how much we were willing to spend to save a dog that was 14 years old and failing.  

When we arrived at the animal emergency clinic, Copper still wasn’t showing any signs of discomfort. He was enjoying quality time with “dad” and very excited about the smells he found walking up to the clinic. That told me he hasn’t lost all his senses -- he can still smell.

Once inside, they took Copper in the back, made him throw up and discovered a bunch of small pieces of at least one cob. When Copper eats, he usually doesn’t chew much (just inhales his food), so I was a bit surprised. I thought they might find whole cobs. It was good news because if they didn’t get all of the cob pieces, he probably was going to be okay since they were so small and would probably pass through. Also, because this was a basic treatment, the price tag wasn’t too bad.

After he got a little nausea medication, Copper and I were back on the road. Although this sounds like a quick process, it was not. There was a lot of waiting in the waiting room... hours in fact. Since they treat animals in the worst condition first, and Copper wasn’t considered as high risk, I spent hours in the waiting room. This gave me plenty of time to think about a few things:  First, I will never give a dog a corn cob again. Lesson learned. Second, I was happy my other dog didn’t eat the cob I gave him or the bill would have been double. And finally, I brushed up on my knowledge of people foods that can hurt dogs. I have never given a dog an avocado, and it sounds like I never should. Good to know.

We arrived home around 3:15 a.m. Copper was doing fine, and has not had any other issues since, besides all his normal ailments listed above.

It was quite an adventure for an old dog like Copper. And quite a long night for an old dog like me.