Reva, the black Labrador, was hospitalized on Wednesday after consuming what was believed to be methamphetamine on the playground at Cutten Elementary School in Eureka. (Pine Hill Pet Care/Contributed)
What started as a traditional walk to the native park the day earlier than Thanksgiving became a scary expertise for one Eureka pet proprietor final week.
Last Wednesday afternoon, Anna Thaler was walking her two dogs together with her son and he or she let the dogs benefit from the playground at Cutten Elementary with faculty out of session for the vacation, however after a short time Thaler heard Reva, her black Labrador, yelping and howling whereas operating round in circles.
Thaler initially believed that Reva should have stepped on one thing or had been stung by a bee. Thaler tried to take a look at Reva, however the canine was appearing unusual and was uneasy and wouldn’t enable her proprietor to check out her.
“She was very hyped-up and continued to vocalize or scream. I couldn’t get her to let me touch her,” Thaler mentioned. “I was trying to wait for her to calm down.”
But Reva didn’t attain a peaceful state, so Thaler took her to an animal hospital on the journey.
Once on the vet, the docs observed how stressed the canine was, as Reva refused to have the vet take a look at her as she hid behind her proprietor.
“They couldn’t touch her, she wouldn’t let them,” Thaler mentioned, “She jumped every time they tried to move. She was very alert to sudden noises or movements.”
Reva climbed on Thaler’s again however she finally settled, and the vet was in a position to hearken to Reva’s coronary heart price, saying her coronary heart price was “very accelerated.”
“They had to take her to a dark room and sedate her to get a temperature, they did and her temperature was very high and her pupils seem dilated,” Thaler mentioned, “The doctor came in and said ‘I’ve seen this before, I think she may have ingested some meth.’ ”
Thaler’s instant concern was how a lot meth Reva may have consumed and the results it may have on the canine’s physique and well-being.
“She’s not a big dog, I don’t know how much she ingested. I was worried there would be other side effects like brain damage or something like that,” Thaler mentioned.
Reva, after the analysis, received some drugs to calm her to permit her physique to course of it with out such an accelerated physique temperature and coronary heart price. After Reva was medicated, Thaler mentioned that the canine was “sleepy but still not quite herself,” sadly for Thaler, the animal hospital was closing for the night time, so Thaler transported Reva as much as Sunny Brae the place Reva may keep in a single day.
Reva stayed in a single day earlier than coming home on Thanksgiving morning. Thaler mentioned she was further drained however was making her manner again to regular.
“I was very concerned because I live right next to the school, I’m involved in the district, and my son attends Ridgewood Elementary and he’s going to go to Cutten next year,” Thaler mentioned
The subsequent day, Thaler and her 7-year-old son went again to the playground at Cutten Elementary searching for what Reva may have gotten into.
“My son really wanted to go back to the playground without the dogs and look around,” Thaler mentioned, “A little 7-year-old kiddo trying to spot meth on the playground. We didn’t really even know what we were looking for, I had to look up a picture of it but we didn’t see anything.”
Thaler reached out to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, who despatched a few deputies and a drug-sniffing canine to the playground, however finally they didn’t discover something.
“They could not locate any controlled substances or any other substances that could have caused this illness in the dog. At this point, we don’t have any corroborating physical evidence to determine what the dog ingested,” mentioned Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal of the deputies’ search at Cutten Elementary.
Reva will bear some blood exams subsequent week to watch her well-being, and whereas she hasn’t returned to the park but, she would possibly as soon as a bit extra time passes.
“I might be naive, but it didn’t feel like a neighborhood where there would be a lot of meth in the schoolyard.”
Thaler didn’t need to blame whoever could have left the medication on the faculty however it did function an eye-opener for her.
“I don’t want to say they’re a terrible person for leaving a drug. Maybe, to them, it might have seemed like an OK spot or maybe they weren’t in a mental capacity to really know where they were leaving it,” Thaler mentioned. “I don’t want to judge too harshly. But it’s scary that it’s simply out there and affecting people’s lives in a harmful way and that the collateral damage is dogs and children and people at parks who might come across it.”
Dylan McNeill could be reached at 707-441-0526.
