# Dog ate lye (sodium hydroxide) HELP!



## dogs_RULE! (Jun 4, 2008)

I think my dog got into sodium hydroxide on Saturday. We took him up to the emergency clinic, but they didn't know what they were doing (asking us to call a telephone line that would have charged us $60.00 that they should have known about, on top of $85.00 just to see him), so we left. While he was there though, he was given a shot of benadryl and the following day, Sunday, his tongue was no longer red and the swelling went down. But he was still drooling excessively and would not eat.

By monday, he was eating half of those soft pepperoni snacks.

By today, he's eating frozen chicken tenders when we give them to him, but still not eating much of the dry dog food we usually give him. Some of it was on the floor when we came home today, signifying he was trying to eat maybe, or he did eat since he usually makes a mess when we eat. The 2 or 3 soft pepperoni snacks we put in the bowl were gone. And he's drinking water, too.

He's going to see the vet tomorrow. Could the lye, the stuff used to clean out lines in beer misers, burned his throat? Is this permanent? He's 11 and practically a part of the family. I really do not want to see him go.


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## JustTess (Mar 19, 2008)

I'm not a 100% sure but I think you could call the poison control hotline to get answers about harmful chemicals on people and pets.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Lye is VERY caustic, so he probably does have chemical burns in his mouth/throat, and possibly in his stomach as well. I don't know why the E-Vet would give him Benedryl  . Unless he was having an allergic reaction to the lye. Let us know what your vet says, Hopefully the burns aren't too bad, and he can recover uneventfully.


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## bamassee (May 12, 2008)

Run, dont walk to the nearest Pet Emergency Clinic. I cannot believe the Vet did not treat your dog. The fee you mentioned is "normal".....I'm guessing that it's from the ASPCA Animal Poison Control although there are several services that offer poison control, they all seem to charge a fee:

Ingestion: May cause severe and permanent damage to the digestive tract. Causes gastrointestinal tract burns. May cause perforation of the digestive tract. Causes severe pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and shock


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## mylittlebecky (May 27, 2008)

the charges they asked you to pay are standard for any emergency pet hospital! the emergency exam is around $90 and the phone call was probably to animal poison control. if you had allowed them to call they could have given recomendations as to the best possible treatment for your dog and also gotten a reference number so that the vets could call them back if any other complications from the chemical ingestion needed to be addressed. 

i hope you went to your regular veterinarian... this is a very very serious problem!!!


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