Hay River family thankful for help after dog gobbles full bottle of medication

When an N.W.T. family’s dog got herself into trouble a week before Christmas, it took the help of a veterinarian from out of town and a number of community members to make sure Denali the beloved (and giant) bull mastiff recovered.

Trevor Beck of Hay River says he was out of town when his family discovered that their dog had swiped a new bottle of Apoquel, its daily allergy medication — but he soon heard about it. The pills had been accidentally left out on a counter.

“My daughter discovered it within half an hour,” Beck told CBC News. “It's [the medication] in treat form, so it looks like a piece of kibble."

Denali had eaten 100 pills, he said.

Beck said the family immediately “went into panic mode” trying to get help for their dog. There's no permanent veterinary clinic in Hay River, so he and his wife Andrea started calling around.

They managed to reach Dr. Jenn McCracken, who's with the Manning Veterinary Clinic in Manning, Alta. McCracken is among the vets from that clinic who periodically travel to Hay River to provide services.

“I got [McCracken] on the phone, thank God she answered,” Beck said.

McCracken said Denali is about 150 pounds, so that amount of medication "would have been toxic for her."

“She was probably able to just walk past it and grab it off the counter, considering she’s so big,” McCracken said.

Fortunately, Denali had also gotten into other things that day.

“She also ate a loaf of bread, and got into the garbage and ate a bunch of other things — I think that’s actually what probably saved her life.”

While McCracken was helping from afar, the RCMP also stepped in. McCracken had left some medication with them for use in cases such as this.

That medication, which makes dogs throw up, worked quickly.

“We could tell that a lot of the [Apoquel] hadn’t actually entered her bloodstream, which was great,” McCracken said. “We found some activated charcoal to give her, which helps absorb toxins — and that was a hunt as well.

“We were able to get some more and thankfully she ate it and nobody had to wrestle her.”

Beck’s mom helped find the activated charcoal, and Staff Sgt. Phil Unger with the Hay River RCMP helped as well.

Beck credits the community for stepping up to help. He was back home by the end of the week, and is thankful Denali survived the ordeal.

“We just have a great group of people,” Beck said.

“Everybody saw it was important enough to help … I just want to thank everybody. It means the world to me.”