We are doing some home improvement projects this week, one of which required the use of spackling compound. After using up the remainder of the spackle from the container, we set it aside and ended up having to get a new tub to complete our project. We never thought twice about leaving the empty tub on the floor where the rest of our mess was waiting to be cleaned up.
Later in the evening, while taking a break, I heard the sound of one of the dogs licking something in the loft area just outside my studio door. Thinking it was our little elderly dog, Holly, who likes to lick her paws, I thought nothing of it. A couple minutes later I got up to leave the room and saw Trixie just lying there licking the inside surface of the spackle container. I ran over and grabbed it away from her. There was some dried spackle compound remaining in the container. We looked at the label and saw that it contains ethylene glycol. Then we proceeded to freak out.
We called the emergency pet care center here in town, who referred us to the animal poison hotline – ASPCA Animal Poison Control, to be specific. We called them and they were extremely helpful. After the rep took our information (dog breed, weight, amount of substance ingested, how long ago, etc), she put us on hold to presumably consult with colleagues or a database, and got back on the line with us. She gave us great news – because of the very low concentration of ethylene glycol in the compound, and Trixie’s weight and the small quantity we estimated that she ate, the rep reported that we should not have anything to worry about. Trixie might have some stomach irritation, if that. As it turned out, she never developed any noticeable signs of irritation.
Whew! Just never even thought a dog would go for that. A google search shows that it happens frequently. It was a hard way to learn a lesson – we will be much more mindful about this type of thing from now on!
Trixie's Tales 
We are very glad to hear she is okay. Those darn kids.
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Ain’t that the truth!
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Just as long as the precious pooch is ok :) . We have animals roaming around and over time we have also learnt the hard way to put all possible toxins away. We even use organic insect killers.
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Thanks for the concern :) Wow – I’ll have to look into organic insect killers. I try not to use pesticides at all, but we live in the woods and occasionally have an issue. I’m looking to install a bat house this year to help with that :)
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I guess there are lots of things out there that are potentially harmful to our pets that we don’t think about. I didn’t realize that spackle had ethylene glycol in it! Thanks for the heads up! Glad that Trixie is going to be okay.
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Thanks so much! Thanks for stopping by – i love your blog btw :)
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Thanks. I have been a little lax in posting a blog lately. I’m trying to post at least once a week, but, sometimes, life gets in the way. Hoping to put up a new post tomorrow. Thanks for following. I look forward to reading more of your posts also.
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Close call! My greedy dog ate some pieces of bath soap and loss his balance. We revived him and he never looked at another bar of Irish spring soap again.:-)
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Makes you wonder why things like soap and spackle taste so good to dogs! I am glad to hear your dog is ok :) Thanks for checking out my blog! I am headed over to yours.
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