Talljake6110

Recipes 

Hello to everyone. I just wanted to post this as a source of information to all brewers. I have been brewing for about a year and half now. My friend decided that he wanted to grow hops and had told me that he couldn't put them in the back yard because they were toxic to dogs.

Until yesterday, I had no idea how serious this actually was.

After a day of brewing I had all of my spent grains i a bucket to dispose of them. I was also cleaning out my hop bags. I emptied the hops onto the top of the bucket of grains. Before I poured out the bucket, I had let my 55 pound english bulldog out to potty. As i've discovered before, dogs really like the taste of spent brewing grains.

Trying to get to the grains, my dog age up some of the hops. I only used 1.75 oz in the whole brew, and much of it was still left in the bucket. In fact, it looked like for the most part it had just been pushed to the side. I caught him quickly after he started, but he had already managed to injest some of the spent hops.

I honestly thought that because the hops were spent, and that because he only got a little bit, he would be fine. A couple of hours later, he started panting heavily, i noticed that his nose, and mouth became very flushed, and he was hot. He was also downing water very quickly. Once again, I still was not attributing this to the hops, i figured he was just running around and excited. Until he vomited.

At that point i did a quick google search for hops toxicity in dogs and a couple fo the notes said that even in spent hops they were toxic. And the symptoms matched my dogs exactly.

My wife and I rushed him to the emergency vet clinic. They put him on an IV, and did some bloodwork and x-rayed him. Within an hour they were able to get his temperature, which was 105 when we got there, back down to 102, and all of his bloodwork came back pretty ok.

The vet was most concerned about internal issues such as liver, and other organ failure, gastrointestinal issues, and most concerned with internal bleeding.

At midnight we recieved a call saying he needed to get a plasma transfusion to be on the safe side. This all happened less than 12 hours ago, and as of 11 a.m this morning, he was doing good, but the vet had put another iv in him, and said that he was not out of the woods yet.

I am writing this to urge all brewers that are also dog lovers, please dispose of your hops somewhere your dogs cannot get to them. Don't leave them for a second when your dogs could be around them. Trust me, thats all it takes to potentially lose your best friend.

eastoak

Recipes 

there is a sticky about this somewhere on this forum.

Sheldon

Recipes 

I am sorry for what you are going thru, every 6 months or so there is a posting similar to this. I wonder if we can somehow get the companies that bag the hops to place a warning sign/label on all bags sold. I truly hope you friend makes a full recovery.

NCGrayson

Recipes 

Good luck to your best friend

Brew_4iT

Recipes 

Wow man, that would be horrific if future health concerns persist, sorry to hear about your pooch. It really is something I can see overlooked often.

I don't have a dog, but I do have a cat. Do you know if it is the same for cats, I've read this about dogs their is actually a sticky in the hops section I believe but never googled 'cats and hops' (doing now).

__________________
"Good people drink good beer" -- Hunter S. Thompson

“The original American patriots were those individuals brave enough to resist with force the oppressive power of King George...Patriotism is more closely linked to dissent than it is to conformity and a blind desire for safety and security.”
― Ron Paul

friday

Recipes 

My dog got into some spent hops. I got lucky she didn't need to go to the vet. I let her out to use the bathroom, she got into the hops and luckily came inside, immediately jumped into my bed and puked all over.

Lesson learned.

Baspronick

Recipes 

Wow, hope your dog is ok. That will make me think twice about where I wash out my equipment. I just washed out my pliny clones secondary carboy in the back yard due to the three inches of hop trub in the bottom. Luckily my 100 lb american bulldog must have left it alone.thanks for the tip though.

IrregularPulse

Recipes 

Glad to hear he's hanging on. I've always heard that once they ingest, it's pretty much too late. I also believe, spent hops are the real danger, as dogs naturally have no interest in fresh hops. Cover them in warm sticky sweet wort, and there's another story. Good luck.

__________________
Tap Room Hobo

I should have stuck to four fingers in Vegas. :o - marubozo

frazier

Recipes 

My Airedale had some hops once. Now he has an insatiable desire for Pliny the Retriever, Alpha Dog King, and, of course, Raging Bitch.

Um, sorry to make light. Hope your friend recovers fully.

__________________
~
"Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly." ~~ Mae West

Rev2010

Recipes 

It's stickied under the general beer forum.


Rev.