Feb 26
Paintball warning!
Please read this if you own paintballs and have pets!
Yesterday morning we had all of out paintball gear laying in the living room before we left. One of my mom’s dogs, Lizzie, rooted through the stuff and ate about 50 paintballs. Since they are non-toxic we thought she would just throw them up and it woudlnt’ be a big deal. My mom called the vet just to be safe. The vet ended up ordering Lizzie to the doggie ER, where she stayed for 12 hours!
Apparently, even though the package says paintballs are non-toxic, they contain extremely high levels of sodium, which depletes the body of liquids, and causes the brain to swell which will kill the animal. Lizzie had to get blood and electrolites drawn every few hours, had IVs in, and her prognosis wasn’t all that great. She ended up being ok, and allowed to go home late last night.
The vet said that paintballs are made with fish oil, which is very attractive to animals. They think it’s food and will eat them ALL.
Lizzie’s large size helped her out in this situation, but the vet said that smaller dogs or cats have died from eating just a few.
Please be sure that your paintballs are stored away from children and animals of all sizes. I’d never want anyone to have to experience the scare that we did yesterday.
February 26th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Wow, glad to hear the dog is okay, especially after eating so many of them. I’ll be sure to keep Smokey away from them.