A black Labrador has been rescued from Britain’s highest mountain after becoming seriously ill after eating cannabis, his owner has announced.
Five-year-old Tokyo became unwell and even lost consciousness hours after hiking on Ben Nevis in Scotland last Sunday, according to his owner Christina Blume.
“She was very happy eating and drinking treats and being her normal, very active self,” Blume, a professional dog trainer, told CNN on Monday. The two were trekking with Blume’s 17-year-old son, Magnus, and their 2-year-old golden Labrador, Blaze.
Things then changed dramatically as they approached the 1,345-meter (4,413-foot) summit.
“We were about an hour away from reaching the top when we noticed that Tokyo’s hind legs were quite weak,” Blume said.
“At first I thought maybe it was a vertebrae or a disc that had climbed up and caused her to slip. But then she started slipping in and out of consciousness. I stood on that mountain and thought, oh no, I’m going to lose her.”
Blume initially tried to carry Tokyo off his shoulders, but that proved too difficult, as he weighed 24 kilograms (53 pounds) and was particularly wet from heavy rain.
Eventually, a fellow hiker suggested calling emergency services, and a mountain rescue team was dispatched.
Fortunately for Tokyo, volunteers from Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team were nearby and had just taken part in another emergency on the summit.
“They put her on a stretcher and I grabbed one side and pulled her down the mountain,” Blume said. From there, she drove to Tokyo to visit a nearby veterinarian.
Blume said veterinarians quickly realized that Tokyo’s symptoms were caused by neurotoxicity rather than pain.
“She had all the symptoms of cannabis consumption and she had blood tests done. What really made it clear was when we took her temperature she had gas and it totally smelled like cannabis. It was like someone was standing next to someone smoking cannabis,” he said from his home in Surrey, southeast England.
“It wasn’t funny, but it was kind of funny,” she added.
Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team posted about the incident on Facebook at the weekend, saying they were called to “help a downed dog”.
It later confirmed that Tokyo had “made a full recovery”, adding: “It is now suspected that Tokyo, who is normally a very healthy and active working dog, may have ingested something that caused him to become seriously unwell.”
Staff at Crown Veterinary Medicine near Fort William connected Tokyo to an IV and administered activated charcoal to absorb the toxins. When Blume returned to pick her up the next day, Tokyo was much better.
“She was so happy and wagging her tail and ready to go, and the next day I never would have imagined something like this would happen to her,” she said.
The veterinarian told Blume, who had never heard of dogs ingesting cannabis, that Tokyo likely ate edibles left along the road or human waste that contained traces of cannabis.
Blume said she has since been overwhelmed with messages from other animal lovers saying something similar has happened to their dogs.
“I learned a lesson about scavenging dogs,” she said. “I’ve never put too much emphasis on it… They love to sniff and forage. But I’m definitely going to be a little more careful about what they put their noses into in the future.”
