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Chula

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Sigh. I'm already mad so don't beat me up too much. OH smokes. He left his pack of cigarettes on the counter and while I was in the bathroom Chula must have counter surfed and grabbed the box. I got the box away from her, no problem. Figured all was fine. Then 20 minutes later noticed a butt on the ground. She obviously chewed up the paper part, but I'm sure she ate the tobacco. We counted and she only got one. I can only assume she ingested the leaves because I didn't see her but there aren't any tobacco leaves on the couch where she had the box.

She seems fine. I'm confused about the nicotine levels. Everything I've read says one marlboro light has 0.8mg of nicotine which is nowhere near the lethal dose. But dog websites say cigarettes have 11-30 mg of nicotine. I can't find a single cigarette listed online with that level of nicotine so I wonder what I'm missing. They also say she should be salivating and vomiting and twitching by now, which she obviously isn't. She's digging and running and being normal.

I don't know if I need to make her vomit. She's running around happily sniffing things. I'm really surprised because on walks she never goes after cigarette butts.

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Oh Mishka done this once! She ate about half of two cigarettes (tabacco side) while I was in the shower, I was really worried but nothing came of it, she was completely fine, so obviously keep an eye on her but I think she should be ok

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

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Don't worry about it, she probably didn't even like the taste. Kira chewed mine a few times, think it was more about revenge for leaving her home alone, or she had to check what am I keeping from her in that box.

In such a small amount I think it's no more dangerous than if she chewed anything else (some important documents, toilet paper, couch etc. ;) )

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From my understanding, and trust me I am no expert on the matter, the tobacco is just that, yes there are some drying chemicals in it, but other than that, it is very similar to her eating leaves or sticks... Where the BIG problem is... The filter, there is where all of the horrific chemicals are located. Paper and Tobacco are both fairly safe. The only concern I would have is look on the pack of cigs and on the bar code look for FSC. This is Fire Safty Control... These are the governments idea of not allowing your cigarette to  burn on it own in areas of the paper.

 

There have been reports of people having sore throats, coughing more, having other health problems. If there is FSC above the bar code, then maybe make a quick phone call to the vet and see what their throughts are.

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Well, the good side to this is that you won't have to worm her for a while - the bad side is that she's apt to have to "go" more often and it may range down to diarrhea (thank the gods for spelling checkers, I can NEVER spell that word right!) Raw tobacco was often used as the wormer of choice a few years back.

Yes, nicotine is a poison but one cigarette shouldn't be enough to cause any serious effects on a dog the size of a Husky.  It *is*, however, enough to kill any intestinal bugs she might have. Now for some hard information:

 

 

The toxic dose for nicotine in pets is 1/2-1 mg per pound of pet body weight, while the lethal dose is 4 mg per pound of pet body weight. A cigarette contains 9-30 mg of nicotine depending on the type of cigarette; while a cigarette butt contains about 25% of the nicotine of the original cigarette despite its deceptively small amount of tobacco. (Smoking seems to concentrate some of the nicotine in the tail end of the cigarette.) Cigars can contain up to 40 mg. Chewing tobacco carries 6-8 mg per gram while the gum has 2-4 mg per piece and patches have 8.3-114 mg. Smoking a cigarette yields only 0.5-2 mg of nicotine but eating one is a different ballgame as all of the nicotine becomes available for absorption into the body. One way to rephrase this is that a 40 lb dog would get very sick after eating one cigarette but would need 11 cigarettes to die from nicotine poisoning.

HTH //al

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Interesting, I wonder why all the cigarette websites say cigarettes have like 0.8 - 1.2 mg of nicotine? She definitely didn't eat the butt. I watched her for two hours and she seemed totally normal, so hopefully she's ok. She still wanted to eat cheetos, and that's usually the test I use to make sure she's doing well. 

 

Just to add that she's less than 40 pounds and definitely didn't get sick in the first few hours, so hopefully she won't have any side effects later. 

 

This is a list of the nicotine content in cigarettes. I wonder where the 9-30 mg comes from? And I read that on several dog websites. It doesn't add up.

 

http://pw1.netcom.com/~rdavis2/cigra.html

Edited by Chula
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Sigh. I'm already mad so don't beat me up too much. OH smokes. He left his pack of cigarettes on the counter and while I was in the bathroom Chula must have counter surfed and grabbed the box. I got the box away from her, no problem. Figured all was fine. Then 20 minutes later noticed a butt on the ground. She obviously chewed up the paper part, but I'm sure she ate the tobacco. We counted and she only got one. I can only assume she ingested the leaves because I didn't see her but there aren't any tobacco leaves on the couch where she had the box.

She seems fine. I'm confused about the nicotine levels. Everything I've read says one marlboro light has 0.8mg of nicotine which is nowhere near the lethal dose. But dog websites say cigarettes have 11-30 mg of nicotine. I can't find a single cigarette listed online with that level of nicotine so I wonder what I'm missing. They also say she should be salivating and vomiting and twitching by now, which she obviously isn't. She's digging and running and being normal.

I don't know if I need to make her vomit. She's running around happily sniffing things. I'm really surprised because on walks she never goes after cigarette butts.

 

If it helps, Im giving up smoking from tomorrow so have bought some patches and they say the 21mg patches are equivilant to 20 cigs a day, which would mean your 0.8 is probably a closer guess.

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If it helps, Im giving up smoking from tomorrow so have bought some patches and they say the 21mg patches are equivilant to 20 cigs a day, which would mean your 0.8 is probably a closer guess.

 

Yeah, that's what I keep reading too, so I wonder why the vet/dog/animal sites all use a much higher number? Maybe they mean a pack of cigarettes? I can't figure it out. 

 

My brother started using a vaporizer to quit smoking. He really likes it. It's sort of disconcerting to see him "smoking" all over the place but it seems to be helping.

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Em, that's an interesting reference - seems as if a good sized dog would have to eat a couple of packs to reach a fatal dose.

 

I still would not be surprised if she were a little "loose" over the next day or so ....

 

Well if the tobacco is what does the deworming, then the nicotine level probably wouldn't matter much on that front. She is pretty reactive tummy wise, so she very well might be. I sure hope she doesn't poo in her crate and then roll around in it.

 

Of course a few minutes after I got the cigarettes away from her, I found her licking a (thankfully closed) container of vicks vaporub on the bathroom counter. MUST WORK ON TRAINING HER NOT TO COUNTER SURF!

 

Why are dogs such dummies!? My cats never ate anything they weren't supposed to. 

Edited by Chula
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Ralph likes tampons, the first time the vet and $250, the second time a friend of our told her about salt and we gave him a dose of salt and he brought it back up... I say WE like I was involved with that mess... HAHA My GF would laugh her head off right now! So whoever doesn't know Ralph, that is my GF's Polm/Shih Tzu. Precautions have now been enforced to prevent such fun times :D

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I wouldn't worry. Luna has gotten mine before. We only smoke OUTSIDE, and I left my pack on the porch with her accidentally. By the time I remembered, I came out to a shredded box, several cigarettes scattered about, and I was missing maybe 4-5. I found the filters but it appeared she ate the paper & tobacco. She acted completely fine.

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Yeah, that's what I keep reading too, so I wonder why the vet/dog/animal sites all use a much higher number? Maybe they mean a pack of cigarettes? I can't figure it out. 

 

My brother started using a vaporizer to quit smoking. He really likes it. It's sort of disconcerting to see him "smoking" all over the place but it seems to be helping.

 

Got one of those myself, but the problem is giving up smoking should be giving up an addiction. With vaping there is no end to it, your just replacing smoking one thing with smoking another (although I appreciate its a lot more healthy). I dont want to be addicted, its as simple as that.

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I quit smoking 2 years ago and use the nicotine gum. It worked good for me. I stopped cigarettes at the end of October and by the end of January I was off the gum. For me it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I wasn't a real heavy smoker though, about 10-12 cigs a day and smoked for about 18 years

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That's a really good point. It definitely hasn't helped him quit the need to constantly be puffing on something.

 

Got one of those myself, but the problem is giving up smoking should be giving up an addiction. With vaping there is no end to it, your just replacing smoking one thing with smoking another (although I appreciate its a lot more healthy). I dont want to be addicted, its as simple as that.

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