Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 3/21/2011

Question
my family has 6 dogs, which include a lab, a boxer, 2 chihuahuas, a basset hound and a pit bull mix. some of them love to chew on things, especially their raw hides, tennis balls,(which have been chewed to shreds) stuffed toys,(chewed open to get at the squeaker). my husband likes to hide his keys, wallet and medicine. yesterday he swore he put one of his medication bottles into our bill divider that hangs on the wall. when he went to get it it wasn't there. i'm not sure if it fell out or not. he looked all over the living room, kitchen (cabinets and everything), bathroom and was not able to find it. he has kept saying/screaming in very crude terms that i took it and am hiding it since yesterday. i have literally been in tears ever since. this morning my lab was playing with several of her toys, and i did hear her chewing on something but i thought it was the inside of a stuffed toy. when i went to check and take it away from her, she had a prescription bottle between her paws, literally all chewed up, with the safety cap included. the label was basically all gone. my husband said he had 4-5 pills in there, but i didn't see any pills around her, under her, or in her mouth. i even checked under the recliner, and the beds. this was a pain medication (hydrocodone 10mg). do dogs eat or chew pills? she appears to be fine, i've not seen any signs of lethargy, vomitting, diarrhea, or convulsions, but is there anything else i need to watch out for? she weighs approximately 62 pounds. thank you.

Answer
Yes they do eat them and 4 or 5 hydrocodone are enough to kill her. If this just happened you need to get her outside and induce vomiting by giving her peroxide orally. You should call the poison control center as well and make sure that that will be enough for her.

1-800-222-1222 is the number to call for humans, but they can give you some information for dogs as well. Either that or get her to an emergencey veterinary hospital.

Dogs will wolf down pills without a thought so fast you never see them.
If this happened yesterday and she is acting normal, then it's possible that she didn't eat them at all. But with that many dogs it's hard to tell who is acting like what.
It's the Tylenol in the pills that is deadly to their kidneys.
In any case, you need to call a vet by you and run this down to them. I wouldn't wait much longer.

I hope that they will ALL be okay.