This is a copy of the e-mail that my neighbor sent to her friends and contacts in her address book. I have chosen to post it here because it does have good information and because you were all so AWESOME in your good thoughts and prayers for Rusty:
As some of you already know, Rusty is at the hospital. He will be fine but we had a scare for a day due to Rusty eating a handful of raisins. Raisins and Grapes are toxic to dogs and can cause renal failure. Rusty does not usually eat people food so this would not have been an issue. However, I was stupid and gave him some of the raisins I was eating last night. He began passing gas (and Rusty has never had gas) and for some reason it triggered me to look up “dogs and raisins.” (I am sure this is because someone had mentioned this to me before but I had forgotten.)
The 24 hour Emergency Vet had me call the poison control for animals. The vet at poison control said we needed to take Rusty in. Rusty had to have his stomach pumped last night and will have an IV for 48 hours to ensure his kidneys are flushed of whatever the toxins from raisins are removed from his body. We are blessed that Rusty will be ok but this was a very costly lesson learned. Our vet bill will be about $1,500.00…all because of a handful of raisins that cost less than 50 cents.
Please share this with your friends. I would hate for this to happen to someone else. (As much as we hate to have these types of emails because many are myths, I assure you this is not a myth.)