A peculiar situation recently emerged in the Roaring Fork Valley region of Colorado where human excrement left on hiking trails and camping grounds almost literally became a new drug for dogs, The Aspen Times reports.
Commenting on this development, Dr Scott Dolginow, owner of the Valley Emergency Pet Care in Basalt, theorised that the afflicted canines probably consumed human excrement which contain enough THC, the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis, to induce a "second high".
"Seventy to 80% of people say they have no idea where their dogs got it, but they say they were out on a trail or camping. I can’t believe that the owners are lying", Dolginow remarked, adding that he’s seeing from 3 to 10 dogs suffering from marijuana toxicity per week, and noting that "most dogs will eat human faeces given the opportunity".
The doctor also pointed out that the sheer number of dogs plagued by this affliction suggests that his theory is true, because "it’s unlikely that many people toss an edible or a roach on the side of the trail", and that the "level of toxicity" witnessed in the affected canines also seems to point at faeces being the source of the problem.
The newspaper also noted that vets are often unable to do much in cases like these, with the owners’ options usually being limited to just waiting for the drug to leave their dogs’ system, though Dolginow added that in "more severe cases" the dogs are sedated or treated with IV fluids.
