BC vet saves pup with naloxone, fears addicts may target clinic
Posted December 23, 2016 10:26 am.
Last Updated December 23, 2016 11:12 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SAANICH (NEWS 1130) – A Victoria-area veterinarian who used naloxone to revive a puppy that ate some sort of opioid says she fears word of the successful treatment could put her clinic at risk.
Helen Rae says she was at the clinic in Saanich, just outside Victoria, late last week when the owner of a barely six-month-old puppy brought in the wobbly pet because it had eaten something during a walk in a nearby park.
Rae says over the next hour, the pug-cross puppy became almost comatose and showed symptoms of a narcotic overdose, but it revived minutes after receiving a dose of naloxone.
It’s only the second time in 18 years of practice that Rae has seen an opioid overdose in an animal and she adds there’s no way of knowing which of the many types of opioid, from oxycontin to morphine to fentanyl, could have been involved.
The clinic stocks naloxone for treatment of other animal complications, but Rae is concerned that her timely use of the opioid-reversing drug could lead some to believe fentanyl or other drugs are on site, which isn’t the case.
She says because of heightened concern about fentanyl overdoses and in the wake of media coverage about the revived puppy, staff worry the clinic may be targeted by someone in search of drugs.
