Jake’s Electrifying Adventure
This morning Jake decided it would be a great idea to see what electrical cords taste like. I was sitting in my office at 6:30 a.m. drinking tea, browsing my RSS feeds, trying to wake up when I suddenly hear the most horrific screaming coming from the side of my desk where the dogs’ beds are. I thought Jake and Chelsea might be fighting, but when I jumped up to intervene I saw Jake laying on his side, his jaw locked around the white extension cord he’d just chewed into. The current had locked his jaw around it and he couldn’t let go.
I knew I was not supposed to touch him until I got the power off, but I couldn’t help grabbing him and trying frantically to pry his jaws apart. I couldn’t get them open and he was screaming in pain, causing me to freak out and the other two dogs to run in crazy circles. I tried to pull the cord from the wall, but realized it was plugged in across the room and behind a table. I redoubled my efforts and finally got his mouth open. He scrambled away, still screaming in pain and fear. By this time I was screaming too. He ran downstairs and crawled under the kitchen table, and I followed him down there, bawling hysterically, sure that any second he was going to keel over dead of heart failure. He sat under the table, not continuously screaming any more, but letting out these piteous howling/screaming sounds every few seconds. I didn’t want to agitate him, so I went and sat on the couch, hoping he would come to me. Eventually he came out and went to lay in the bed in the corner, looking at me all bug-eyed and distrustful. I got a hold of him and looked at him, he seemed to be breathing normally. I carried him upstairs and Googled “Help, my dog just electrocuted himself” or something similar. What I found was that in most cases the dog is knocked unconscious and their heart stops. Most of the first-aid advice dealt with how to get their heart started again. In a case like Jake’s where they’d been shocked but not knocked out, I had to look for burns in his mouth and watch him for signs of shock. There was a chance his heart and/or lungs had been damaged too.
I looked at him, and he looked back at me all googly-eyed, like nothing had happened. I decided that we were going to the vet no matter what, I wanted him checked over. I still thought he was going to keel over any second, and I just kept thinking “He could have died just then. He could have died just then. He really could have died. That would be it. No more googly-eyed retard Jake, all his short little boundless-energy-filled life would have been gone, over, done.” You may guess as to whether I was also working myself into greater and greater heights of hysteria by now.
I emailed work to let them know I wouldn’t be in for the morning, and we went off to the vet. Their vet opens at 8 a.m. and I got there at 7:45, so I stood outside the door with him in my arms, looking to see if I thought his gums were pale, trying to see if his mouth was burned, and crying like Nancy Kerrigan. I went in at 8 and the doctor looked him over, had a peek inside his mouth, listened to his heart and said that he was not in shock, and the chances of him going into shock at this point were very small. However, he did hear a slight heart murmur, and there was none when I had him in for his shots a month or so ago. Heart murmurs are not normal in dogs his age, and he didn’t know if that could be caused by a jolt of electricity. Also I have to bring him back tomorrow for an x-ray of his lungs, since he could start to form small pulmonary edemas. Those wouldn’t be visible for the first 24 hours, the damage takes some time to develop. Overall he pronounced Jake incredibly lucky. The only reason I can think of why this didn’t kill him is that he was chewing an extension cord and none of the items plugged into the cord were actually on. I think that would mean that there is less electricity flowing through it, right? I don’t know. It’s not my area. But maybe he got the minimum jolt. As far as I can recall he’s never chewed an electrical cord before, I don’t know what possessed him to start now, but I think that when I get home this afternoon I am going to rearrange the office so that their bed is nowhere near any cords or outlets.
When I left him (around 9:30) he was happy as a clam, chewing on a chew toy that I gave him (so I don’t think his mouth hurts, even) and that’s how I hope to find him tonight when I get home.
Here’s the cord he chewed, with blood from his mouth and maybe a little puppy fur on it, though I don’t know if you can see that at this resolution.
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Side note: I don’t think my Dad has ever voluntarily called me about anything. Like, not even when I graduated from college to say “congrats”. He called me today and left a message, wanting to know how Jake was and saying he was really sorry that happened. Either my Dad’s softening in his old age or he loves that dog WAY more than he ever loved me.
Also he owes me $93.