Give the Dog a Joint

A strange case arrived at the clinic Saturday. It was a boxer dog named Flash, obviously overweight, heavy breathing, wobbly on his feet. The owner was a 30ish male, very proud of his upper arm and chest muscles. He said Flash was stumbling around, breathing hard and loud, seemed swollen around his neck and was not acting normal.

The owner declined blood work that would help the Dr. make a diagnosis, but gave approval for
x-rays. The Technician and I were very careful when positioning Flash for his x-rays to prevent causing any further respiratory distress. Odd thing, Flash had no problem with our manipulation of his body, not a normal reaction of a patient in respiratory distress. He fell asleep during the x-rays.

The Dr. couldn't hear his heart through the stethoscope due to his loud snoring. She pushed on Flash, prodded him and he finally woke up with a dumbfounded look on his face like asking why he had to wake up.

The Dr. asked the owner if Flash could have ingested any pills or medications. Owner with wide eyes said, "Oh no, we don't have that kind of stuff". The Dr. then asked if Flash could have ingested any marijuana pot or other such drugs. The owner said while hesitating, "Pot? No, we don't have pot".

Since we don't have immediate doctor care on Sunday, the Dr. recommended transferring Flash to the Emergency Hospital and called the Dr. there to alert him to the arrival and give him case history. She said Flash seems okay in every way, respiratory distress is gone, owner denies access to drugs. He seems like he needs to sleep it off". We will be very surprised if Flash's owner took him the Emergency Hospital.

Flash is a highly energetic dog. Maybe the owner got tired of his energy and thought giving him some pot would calm him, but panic arose when Flash got hard of breath.

As a side note: Flash's owner sat in our lobby flexing his muscles for whoever was there and then fell asleep on the bench.