I got this from a Blue Doberman Yahoo Group
> ***PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST TO YOUR RESPECTIVE DOG LISTS & BEYOND****
>
> I'm not sure how I should start this off, but suffice to say that
> I hope
> that everyone learns from it, and that it NEVER happens to them.
>
> On Thursday this week, I came home as usual, put the 3 puppies I
> have here
> (Trace/Hannah/ Smartie) into their puppy pen so I could let the big
> dogs out
> to do their thing. As usual, after the big dogs were done, they all
> came
> into the house and I let the puppies out into the big yard to play and
> explore with me as I go around picking up poopies and sticks and
> stones
> before the lawn got cut. At 5:30pm as usual, I tell the puppies
> that it's
> supper time, and in I go to make up their dinner and they all
> follow me to
> the gate. I quickly answered (an OK typed) email to a prospective
> puppy
> client while the dinner is warming up, look out to the side yard,
> rap on the
> window and tell them to leave it (I thought it was white plastic)
> and come
> for dinner. This was a space in time of under 10 minutes. I go out
> to the
> gate, and as usual, Trace is sitting at the top of the stairs
> waiting for me
> and Smartie comes along staggering and whimpering and can't get up the
> stairs. I'm thinking sh*t, what is going on here, grab the 'phone,
> call my
> veterinarian, screaming at the gals that it was me and I was coming
> in, that
> I have a puppy crashing and putting Smartie into one kennel and
> Trace (who's
> fine by the way) into the other. I'm running around looking and
> calling for
> Hannah and I can't find her and not thinking that she was in
> trouble, I kept
> thinking she's escaped (although there is no open holes or anywhere to
> escape from). My clinic fones to tell me that the 'phones are being
> put onto
> pager, and I'm just screaming that I can't find the bitch and ask
> (I think
> it should be I told her ) to get Gywnne, my vet tech friend to wait
> by her
> cell and I'll 'phone when I hit the road. It took me what seem like
> hours,
> but only minutes to find Hannah, under the porch in a very dark
> place behind
> the lattice work and I just ripped the lattice work off, pulled her
> out and
> put her on the bed inside my truck, and hit the road. What usually
> takes me
> 40-45 minutes to drive, took me 16 minutes with my flashers on,
> high beams
> blinking at those stupid people that insist on driving in the
> passing lane,
> and horn blaring.
>
> I hit the back door of the clinic with a seizuring Hannah and Gwynne
> grabbed Smartie and we (I was helper only) prepped them for IV's
> with a
> quick assessement by my beloved veterinarian Al. This clinic is
> emergency
> trained and there was 3 techs, 1 runner, Al, and myself scrambling
> to get
> these puppies stablized. They were crashing and crashing fast.
> Protocol
> warrants Valium for seizuring dogs, so after a quick weigh on them,
> Valium
> was given to Hannah through the IV and whatever the prescribed
> amount was
> for her weight, a lesser amount of 0.5mgs (?) was given, and as
> they are
> working on Smartie, I'm with Hannah & Cathy (vet tech), and
> IMMEDIATELY she
> stops seizuring and her heartrate is going down fast and stops. Out
> comes
> the emerg kit, she's tubed and atrophine is administerd to bring
> her back
> and after a few minutes she comes back and appears to stabilize
> again. It is
> a given that her stomach needs pumping however at that moment in
> time it was
> impossible as they were trying to keep her alive. Smartie at that
> moment, is
> still with us and then I bring Trace in for assessment and he is
> fine (thank
> god for his food hound attributes, cause food is his life and
> thanks to his
> sire is probably why he is still alive)...... ..and then
>
> ......Smartie crashes..... ...
>
> When it finally appeared that things were settling down (a matter of
> minutes, not hours), Al wanted us (Gwynne & me) to go home, look
> for the
> cause and of course, Gwynne was to monitor the other dogs vitals,
> just in
> case. We looked around in the area where I had seen them playing
> for that
> brief moment and found mushrooms... .Gwynne called Al.......
>
> The pieces we found explained the small piece (the size of an
> eraser on
> the top of your pencil) that was pumped from Hannah's stomach. At
> that time,
> they were being monitored and appeared stable and much the same as
> when we
> left them. Within the hour (although my sense of timing by this
> time was
> gone), Al 'phoned and told me what was going on and that all his
> training,
> all his experience, all his energy, could not save these puppies
> and that
> the best thing would be to let them go. The decision was made to
> let them go
> as they were in a coma and being kept alive by machine and human
> hands.
> There was nothing else that could be done......they were just 4 months
> old........and so I let them go.
>
> So, from my tragedy, I hope you learn about these mushrooms. Of
> course, we
> can't have our dogs living in glass houses and not be allowed to be
> just......dogs. .....I have almost 6 acres of property and 1-1/2 is
> fenced
> for the dogs and the dogs DO NOT access the rest of the property. I
> clean up
> poop daily and pick up anything that looks or could look to be
> offensive to
> the dogs. What else can I do? I have never, in the 24 years of
> living on
> this property with puppies and/or adults, lost dogs to this. Of
> course, when
> poop scooping, like all of us, we get rid of mushrooms as we find
> them, as a
> precaution, but to have this happen is a shock.
>
> These particular mushrooms are not prevalent in this area. There
> is one
> school of thought that they appeared on Vancouver Island in
> '98....others
> say there are not on the Island. There is at least 2 species from
> what I
> learned in my research and it is not certain if these are the
> mushrooms I
> have found or not. When Gwynne and I were searching for the cause
> we found
> more and they were taken to the clinic for evaluation. I found 6 or
> 7 on the
> Friday, none on Saturday, and one today (Sunday). They are not
> dangerous in
> their button stage as juveniles as they haven't developed the
> spores to
> reproduce, but they will kill if ingested! Mushroom fanatics have died
> simply by touching them, cross contaminating them to their edible
> mushrooms
> and cooking those.
>
> When in the juvenile stage, they are pretty much white and level
> with the
> ground and they hide under vegetation which makes it difficult to
> find them.
> I have had to rake the area north to south and south to north, then
> east to
> west and west to east morning and late afternoon to try and find
> them. I
> have not found many more. They were in one general area where lots of
> sunlight hits the ground but with some low growing vegetation that
> keeps the
> ground moist. Every one I have found, save one, since the incident
> has been
> in it's juvenile stage so they won't be reproducing. Given time,
> they will
> be gone, but they could crop up again from the adults that had
> spores that I
> did find or that the puppies had eaten. When the Summer hits, they
> will go
> dormant and sometimes not always, reappear in the Fall.
>
> I have been in contact with a mushroom expert and I am awaiting his
> instructions. The pictures I have sent to him appear to be of one
> species
> and their odour is nauseating. The link I am providing
>
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Amanita_phalloid es is one of many. You
> may
> cross post to any dog lists or friends that you think may benefit
> from this
> or if any of you are involved in a dog magazine, you have
> permission to use
> this article along with my name.
>
> Finally, I would like to send out a HUGE THANKYOU to my clinic,
> Prevost
> Veterinary Clinic in Duncan, B.C. Canada, specifically Dr. Allan
> Longair,
> Cathy, Gwynne, & Erin (all 3 are Veterinary Techs) and Karen who
> was a big
> help in trying to keep me calm. They went above and beyond to save
> Hannah
> and Smartie.
>
> May the shamrocks fall softly you two......Darkenwald 's Lit'l Miss
> Sunshine (Hannah) and Darkenwald's Smartie Jones (Smartie); January
> 4th,
> 2008 to May 8th, 2008, exactly 4 months and almost to the hour when
> they
> came into this world, they left it. Someone said 'God musta wanted
> Hannah &
> Smartie back. When I figure out the reason why, I'll let you all
> know......
>
> Leslie Anne Davey
> Darkenwald Setters (1968) & K9 Clips(1988)
> Ladysmith on Vancouver Island
> Beautiful British Columbia, Canada setters@shaw. ca
>
Caution for mushrooms 
Mr.Inside Out Ears. 
Linear Mode
