It is not easy getting a dog drunk!

At this point in time, I think it's finally safe to tell this story. I'm a bit of a superstitious person so I haven't wanted to write this out just in case something went wrong, but I think we're ok now.

So, Monday night, Brian was working on the Saab out in the backyard and letting the dogs wander around as he worked. He'd emptied the antifreeze from the car into a bucket and set the bucket to the side of the car. He really didn't think about it again until he was under the car and heard Buick take about three laps of antifreeze. Brian yelled and scared Buick off and later said to me, "Sorry if you have a dead dog in the morning." We both knew that antifreeze was toxic for dogs, but we didn't know how much was toxic. So, I went to the internet to do some research and then called the Pet Urgent Care to see what they recommended.

At ten o' clock on Monday night, we rushed Buick over the the Urgent Care. We walked in, sat down, and immediately a vet technician came out and asked, "Is that the antifreeze dog?" We said yes, and he rushed Buick back to the exam rooms.

A little while later, the vet comes into a room that they'd moved us to and told us that they made Buick puke and were giving him charcoal to absorb the leftover antifreeze, but he'd need the antidote to save his kidneys. If we didn't treat his kidneys, they would fail and we'd have to put him to sleep. She brought in the estimate for all the procedures and the total was almost $2000. Naturally, I freaked out because we don't have that kind of money, especially with Autumn coming any day now. But on the other hand, we weren't ready to put him to sleep either. Whether we care to admit it or not, he's now part of the family and only a year and a half old, so we didn't know what to do.

Anyway (sorry this is a long story), so the vet explained that they have a test to see how much antifreeze a dog has in it's system but she isn't very confident in the test because pet owners will come in and say that they think their animals have gotten into antifreeze, but the test will come back negative and then they treat the animals anyway. We decided to just have the test done and make a decision from there. I prayed the whole time that there would be antifreeze in his system, but not enough to kill him. If the test read that there was antifreeze in his system, then we knew we could trust the test. Well, as luck and prayers would have it, it did come back positive for antifreeze, but at a low enough level that we knew Buick would have some kidney damage done, but it wouldn't be enough to kill him.

The vet explained to us that the poor man's remedy for antifreeze poisoning is to keep a dog drunk on grain alcohol (80 proof) for 72 hours after exposure. For those who don't know, this is basically vodka! She told us we could do this to help lessen the amount of damage done to Buick's kidneys. She didn't have enough alcohol in the clinic to help him, so she told us good luck and that we just might have to wait until the morning to get him a drink.

Brian and I decided to try the State Liquor Store, but it was closed. Because we live in Utah, no grocery store sells hard liquor. So, we'd just about given up when Brian decided to head down to Provo Center Street to hit the bars and see what we could get.

The first bar didn't sell hard liquor. They sent us down the street to another bar that did. Brian approached one of the bar tenders who'd gone outside to smoke. I watched while he talked to her and then watched him walk back to the truck. He opened the door and I said, "So, what did she say?" Brian said, "She can't let us take alcohol off the premises, but she asked me if I had the dog with me and when I told her I did, she told me that he can come into the bar and get a drink." So, at 12:40 in the morning, Brian and Buick walk into a bar to get the dog a drink!

Buick didn't love the vodka cause I guess it burns really bad (that's what the bar tender told Brian). But we got enough into him to get him buzzed decently and brought him home. He staggered up the front steps and ran right into the front door. It was so hilarious and so sad all at the same time.

Tuesday morning, Brian ran to the State Liquor Store and bought some vodka for the dog and we've kept him nice and drunk since. We tried many different ways to make the vodka more appealing, kool-aid and vodka (smelled like vomit), soup and vodka (worked the first time then Buick remembered on the second time that this soup makes him not feel good), ice cream and vodka (still not sweet enough), milk and vodka (the vodka made the milk curdle). So, we ended up just forcing it down his throat with a turkey baster.

It's been a long week. It's not easy having a 95lb drunk dog wandering around the house. I've been super protective of him this whole time too. I've been making sure he's still drinking water and watching to make sure he pees when he goes outside. Like I said, it's been a long week. Hopefully, all is well now!