What a way to wake up

I awoke around 3:30 this morning, pretty much the normal time for me.  Having been a bit under the weather, I decided to take a Day-time Alka-Seltzer Plus first thing.  I opened the blister-pak of two and put the two gel-caps on the little table beside my recliner (where I've pretty much spent all my time for two days).  I then got some water, set it beside the gel-caps, sat down, and allowed Gabe-the-Mini-Schnauzer on my lap, where he usually spends the first two or three hours of each day on my lap.  I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds, but opened them when I felt Gabe straining toward the table beside us.  I opened my eyes while pulling him back and noticed there was only one gel-cap there.  Oh no!  Had he swallowed a pill that quickly?  He eats anything and everything!  I got up and checked in and around the chair, even turning the chair over.  I double-checked again on the little chair-side table:  Nothing.  I shook out my clothes and shook the blanket I'd had over me, all to no avail.

The active ingredients in these particular pills are acetaminophen, dextromethorpan, and Phenylprine Hydrochloride.  The one that worried me most was acetaminophen, since it causes liver failure in an overdose.  This 13-pound dog apparently had just swallowed 1/2 an adult human adult's dosage.

I searched Google for advice:  Most advice was to give the dog 3 mg of hydrogen peroxide to make him vomit.  I don't keep that stuff in the house, since it's useless: ( Parents and school nurses might insist otherwise, but researchers have found that hydrogen peroxide has little ability to reduce bacteria in wounds and can actually inflame healthy skin cells that surround a cut or a scrape, increasing the amount of time wounds take to heal.)    

Google also told me to get the dog to a vet immediately, but of course this would involve my waking Cliff up.  He doesn't wake up gracefully, especially for the benefit a dog,  It would also involve doing a search for overnight vets and driving to the city.  Cliff doesn't drive to the city gracefully, either.  Not to mention the amount of money one would have to pay a special animal doctor who stays up all night!

However, Gabe has lately been vomiting after he eats and drinks too fast.  What if I let him eat and drink all he wanted?  That ought to make him regurgitate, right?  I totally filled the water bowl and put a very generous portion of his dog food in the other bowl, and the pup was glad to oblige me.  He cheerfully ate all the dry food, so I gave him more.  He didn't quite make it through that.  After half-an-hour he still hadn't vomited, so I got some canned food, positive that would do the trick, since he puked up the last serving I'd given him, at which time I had resolved to never feed him canned food again.  

He was peacefully snoozing on my lap after eating so much, unaware of the danger he might be in.  I'd pat his head thinking pleaseGod, pleaseGod, pleaseGod please let him be all right.  Gabe would look up at me and then flop his head back down and sleep.  

At some point I went to sleep with him still on my lap.  At 8:15 I awoke to the sound of Cliff making coffee in the kitchen.  Usually Gabe jumps off my lap and runs to greet Cliff when he arises, but this time he slept through it, not giving a sign he even knew Cliff was up.  When I told Cliff about my worries, his first question was, "Did you actually see him eat it?"

"Well, no," I answered, "but I've looked everywhere it could have possibly fallen."

However, when I walked back into the living room I realized there was one place I hadn't checked:  the other recliner on the opposite side of the table where I'd placed my pills.  I tipped it over and there was the missing gel-cap.  Whew!  

I'll be a lot more careful with pills from now on, let me tell you.  

Peace.