Dog owner's horror as border terrier nearly dies after swallowing muscle relaxant tablets

Jack the pedigree Border Terrier
-Credit: (Image: Wear Referrals)


A much-loved dog, who nearly died after accidently swallowing muscle relaxant tablets, spent 48-hours in a coma.

Nine-year-old Jack, a pedigree Border Terrier, was rushed to his registered vets who started his first dose of treatment, helping him become relatively stable, before referring him to Wear Referrals in Bradbury, near Stockton, where he was taken straight into intensive care for further treatment, monitoring and possibly mechanical ventilation.

Jack’s owner, Calder Percival from Carlisle, said: “I found Jack downstairs lying in his own sick and once I brought him round he was moaning and getting stressed. I thought it was a stroke initially but then I saw the box of ripped baclofen in his bed and I knew it was serious.

“As soon as we arrived at Wear, the vet and nurse were waiting for us. The vet confirmed my worst fears that Jack was very poorly and that they would give him intralipid emulsion therapy in the hope that they could help him survive by getting the drugs out of his system.”

Baclofen is a skeletal muscle relaxant used to treat muscle spasticity in people but is highly toxic to dogs as it prevents all the muscles of the body contracting, including those used for breathing, swallowing and walking. Jack spent 48-hours in a coma in our intensive care unit under the care of Georgina Marshall, advanced practitioner in emergency and critical care, and Karen Batey, lead out-of-hours veterinary nurse, along with a whole team of dedicated emergency and critical care nurses from both the day and night teams.

As well as intralipid emulsion therapy to remove any remaining baclofen from his circulation, Jack also received medication to control his neurological signs, as well as antibiotics for his pneumonia. Georgina said: “We even had to enlist the help of nurses from all the other disciplines within the hospital to help with Jack as he was such an intensive case.”

Calder added: “We drove over when Jack was well enough. He was walking around, and we couldn’t believe it.

“We knew we weren’t out of the woods yet, but this was better than anything we could have hoped for. The team at Wear looked after Jack and were with him 24/7, they cared as much as we did about him.”

Georgina added: “Jack made an amazing recovery and was discharged to his very happy owners after 48-hours in our intensive care unit. It was an amazing result and the whole team at Wear couldn’t be more delighted for Jack and his owners.”

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