LeAnn writes:
On Friday, November 16, 2007, my dog, Catfish, died. Catfish died from ingesting a toy I bought her from the Dollar Tree. This was a dog toy by “Paws N Claws”, called a “Chase and Fetch Chew Toy”. It was a plastic boomerang distributed by Greenbrier International Inc. from Chesapeake, Virginia.Here is an account of how things happened…
When I purchased this boomerang, there was no label on it. Catfish enjoyed this toy, so when it got old, I bought another, and later, a third one. None of these toys had any labels on them. I noticed that Catfish chewed off pieces of the toy, but did not think she was ingesting those pieces. I would find lots of parts of the toy chewed up laying around the house. She had obviously discarded them. I would pick them up and throw them away.
On Thursday, November 8, 2007, I woke up to my dog crying. I got up, and there was vomit everywhere. Some of the piles of vomit had blood in them. The vomit was a deep brown liquid. I called my vet and was told not to feed her for 24 hours. I did that. She was constantly shaking badly, and would hide under tables and chairs. The next day, Catfish was still sick. She was no longer vomiting, but she would not drink any water, was not interested in eating, and was still shaking and hiding. She just seemed really ill, so I called the vet again. The vet suggested feeding her some white rice and boneless, skinless chicken breast. I cooked these things, but Catfish did not want it. During the course of the day, I got her to eat a tiny bit of it. That evening, she threw it all up. I made an appointment for the next day, Saturday, at the vet. That day, the vet pulled some pieces of the plastic boomerang from Catfish’s rectum. We all hoped that that was the answer. However, Catfish continued to shake terribly, and still refused to eat and drink. Monday morning, I took Catfish back to the vet. The vet was able to pull another piece of this toy from her rectum. These pieces of toy were extremely sharp and pointy. I knew that these were parts of the boomerang, because of the color, texture, and the fact that all of her other toys were intact. The vet had me purchase some items for Catfish- a nutrition paste, and another paste intended to lubricate the digestive track making it easier for defecation. However, Catfish remained ill. She was still refusing to eat, and I had to force water into her mouth with a syringe. An appointment was made for Thursday the 15th for exploratory surgery. The vet opened Catfish’s intestines and stomach. Lots of the toy was found. Parts of her stomach were necrotic, and the vet sutured them. There was a massive amount of scar tissue on Catfish’s insides. The vet recommended that I leave Catfish with her until at least Saturday, however Catfish did not make it that long. The vet took Catfish home with her that evening, but on Friday morning she died. The doctor said the toy may have been toxic and gotten in her bloodstream, however, the death may have been due to the extreme scar tissue.
We buried Catfish Friday morning.
I have all of my receipts from the vet, as well as a bag full of the toy that was in my dog’s stomach. I have since been back to the Dollar Tree to purchase an identical toy. I mentioned that the toys that I purchased had no labels on them- This time, I dug through the toys thinking that surely there must be a label stating who made the toy, etc. After tossing aside 5 boomerangs with no label, I finally found 1 with a label. It is a piece of paper that easily slides off. While this paper did have a warning about supervising your dog while it plays with any toy, this warning was not provided to me when I purchased not only 1, but all 3 boomerangs.
I bought Catfish this toy because I wanted her to be happy. I wanted her to play and have fun. I never ever thought that I was killing my dog. If I had not bought this toy, my dog would be with me today.
Catfish was an excellent dog. A few months ago, a man tried to break into my apartment, but was scared off by Catfish. Less than a week later, that man was arrested for breaking into another apartment and sexually assaulting a woman. That is one example of how Catfish was everything you could want from a dog.
Unfortunately, to find out whether or not the toy is toxic would take way more money than I have to spend. I paid a great deal of money trying to make my dog well. No amount of money will ever comfort me. However- someone should pay for the death of my best friend. No other dog or dog owner should ever go through this. I want these toys taken off the shelves of every store. And I’d like for everyone involved in the selling of this toy to know how devastated and crushed I am by the loss of my poor dog.
Thanks for your time,
LeAnn Waters
Your story literally brought tears to my eyes. I’m truly sorry for your loss, and thank you for sharing your painful story. We hope you also send a copy of this letter to Dollar Tree and Greenbier.
Please don’t buy your pets cheap plastic toys from dollar discount stores. If they’re gnawing toys into shards, it’s possible for those shards to get lodged in your pet’s digestive track and possibly kill them.
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@Klink: Actually, I think plastic would show up on an xray. It might not be distinct, but I’m sure it would show up on the xray as an area of higher mass. I don’t know if there are any nuke techs out there who could back me up, but I’d welcome the correct info.
@GitEmSteveDave: I went to radiography (x-ray tech) school. I didn’t finish the program, but I was attentive while there, and I’m pretty sure plastic can show up in an x-ray. It depends on where in the body it is (whether concealed by bone, mainly) and how much radiation is used. For example, an x-ray of a human abdomen uses much less radiation than a human chest, so less radiopaque things (like plastic or normally more often of interest in abdominal x-rays organs) would show up better than more radiopaque things (like bone).
I found this image of an abdominal x-ray showing plastic. You can see that it is faint but visible:
[www.biomedcentral.com]
Sorry for your loss.
I worry about a related problem with my border collie–except it isn’t with dog toys. He won’t touch pet toys, but my daughter’s Polly Pockets, Barbies, and so forth are of great interest to him.
Good luck.
sorry for your loss.
I don’t want to be callous, but why would anyone buy a chew toy for a dog that was not leather or some sort of hide? It’s much more durable and if the dog’s teeth did chew off pieces, they won’t be lethal. Leather also has a “flavour” that many dogs seem to like.
It’s too late for the unfortunate pet owner, but that would be my advice to other owners (unless leather isn’t safe…).
I also don’t want to sound mean, because I know how hard it is to lose a pet, but the responsibility for Catfish’s death seems to lie squarely on the owner’s shoulders. If Catfish had chewed up bits of plastic previously, why on earth would you buy the dog another one? I had a cat I loved dearly. I let her out, she got hit by a car. I’m not blaming the driver, the maker of the car, or the town for having roads, it was my fault. Accept some personal responsibility for this and learn from your mistakes.
@KJones: Do tennis balls count? I know a lot of pet owners buy their dogs extra large ‘doggie’ tennis balls.
I’m terribly sorry for your loss, and I love that your dog’s name was Catfish. Vet screwed up, you should take that up with whoever can deal with that properly. Certification board, perhaps?
@KJones: You have to be careful with leathers and hides due to processing procedures in different countries. Some still use poisonous chemicals, and this can stay on to the final product. What you let you pet play with should be based mostly on how they treat each toy. Some dogs will not chew a certain toy, but will chew others. I have many toys that I will let my dog play with when I am watching him/around, like his firehose squeaky, and his rope bone. But I always inspect them, and never let him play unattended. The only item I will leave him with unattended is his Kong, which is filled w/peanut butter, and he will lick the peanut butter out for hours.
Having a dog of my own who means the world to me, I really sympathize with LeAnn. Reading this story makes me really sad, Losing a loved pet is never easy and my heart goes out to you. I think it would be a good idea to pursue this in whatever way you can in an effort to prevent others from experiencing the same thing. Sometimes all we can do is try to find some good within the bad..
I just have to chime in again because I am saddened and angered by some of the posts here suggesting that this is LeAnn’s fault. We all do the best we can with the information we have at the time. Before any signs of Catfish’s illness showed up, it sounds like LeAnn found bits of the toy around the house – enough to make her think that the dog was tearing the toy apart but not ingesting pieces. It sounds like she just wanted to keep giving her dog a toy she enjoyed. Furthermore, it’s not her fault for simply following her vet’s directions. The manufacturer of the toy should not be making a chew toy out of material that is so prone to splintering with the potential to do internal damage to an animal, and the vet should be able to give credible advice to trusting pet owners who call in with problems. Anyone on this board who suggests otherwise is not only wrong, but also cruel and inconsiderate.
I’m sorry but this is most definately LeAnns fault. I would never buy a plastic toy for my dog once I saw that it had torn the first one to pieces. Any dog owner knows that dogs will swallor anything given the chance. I’m sorry for her grief but the one who should pay is her.
A dog is similar to a baby, if you saw your child tearing its toy into bite size pieces would you go out and buy another one? I am sick of irresponsible owners trying to blame everyone but themselves for their own stupidity. The first clue should have been that she is buying her beloved pet a toy from Dollar Store, that’s the same type of store that sold humans poisonous toothpaste. She even said when she purchased the first Boomerang it had no label, would you buy canned food with no label? People claim to love their dogs so much and think of them as part of the family but then buy them cheap toys from a dollar store with no label. You get what you pay for.
And since when is a Boomerang an appropriate toy for a dog? Give it a raw hide bone or a ball or something, what the hell would it do with a Bommerang other that chew it up and swallow it?
It’s your fault LeAnn, take responsibility!!
I hate to sound paranoid, but NEVER give your dogs rawhide to play with. They can chew off pieces of the toy, and it can cause a blockage. It’s scary what people think they can give their dogs, but really shouldn’t. You really shouldn’t let your dogs play with tennis balls, since they can wear down their teeth. Plastic toys are bad too, since they can break and the dogs can swallow them.
Best bet, get a Kong or similar toy. Take the toys away from your dog when you’re not watching them. Trust me, take the toys away during the day while you’re at work, and more likely than not your dog is going to plop down on the couch and sleep. Also, keep an eye on the toys. If they’re starting to look in poor shape, get rid of them. Sharp pieces? Broken pieces? Frayed? Time for a new toy. You wouldn’t be cheap with a toy for your child, don’t be cheap with a toy for your pet (same goes for cat toys).
Also, home remedy for wood/glass/bone splinters:
Bread, or even better, cotton, soaked in gravy or water. The bread or cotton will catch all the pieces too small to appear on an xray, and it makes it easier to pass without tearing up the lining of the intestines. I prefer bread, since I am afraid cotton will cause a blockage. I know this, because my dogs will eat ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.
LET THE BUYER BEWARE in today’s world. I feel for all of you who have bought dog items only to have your pet feel pain and not pleasure from his/her new toy. Be very wary of Dollar stores. Most of the items are imported from China. I bought a glue gun for small project use. My grandson had just finished with it, when I picked it up. As I squeezed the trigger, the entire gun shorted out and shot sparks at my face…smoke billowed. I was so thankful that I held the glue gun at the moment. I raced down to the Dollar Store and told the manager. He offered a replacement glue gun! You get what you pay for when it comes to quality, which is fine. But you shouldn’t have to bargain for the safety of your family and pets.
I am glad that I read this article, I just got a puppy less than a week ago. I have never owned a dog. He was very playful the first couple of days. My son bought him some toys from the dollar tree, which also included the round disc thing. My dog started to act funny yesterday, very lethargic and wouldn’t eat or drink. I took him to the vet right away. Three vets later he is now having surgery to remove toy particles. I have learned an important lesson about dog toys and will monitor them more closely now. I am just sorry my puppy had to go through this. I am sorry to hear for your loss.