Baxter Drinks a Bunch of Pancake Syrup

A couple months back, Baxter sucked down a pretty large amount of pancake syrup. Suffice it say, he's now on a first name basis with Aunt Jemima.

A couple of lucky coincidences kept this episode from being far worse. But, it was still quite messy.

We had some friends over for brunch one Sunday morning, and made blueberry pancakes. Because, who doesn't love blueberry pancakes? Jenny likes her syrup served hot, so we microwaved the syrup and set it on the table in measuring cups. One was regular and one was reduced sugar.

After eating we walked our friends out to their car to say goodbye. Baxter didn't join us -- he sensed an opportunity.

While we were outside, Bax jumped up onto the table and went to town on one of the cups full of syrup, sucking it dry. He must have had his fill, because he left the second cup alone.

We returned moments later, unaware of his latest conquest. Everything was normal for about 30 minutes.

This picture was taken before all this went down. You can see there's
just less than a cup of syrup in the measure on the right. Not for long!

I was in the kitchen cleaning up when Bax came in and got a drink of water with unusual gusto. He was slurping water with such vigor that it struck me as a little odd. Sure enough, within moments he puked in the living room.

This was not a normal batch of vomit. It was golden brown in color, thick and viscous. Kind of like ... hmmmm, syrup? Jenny and I realized it at the same moment. We checked the table and confirmed that one of the cups was empty, even though we knew we hadn't finished it.

Here's a recreation of what we think happened.

Jenny called the emergency vet right away. They suggested that we come in immediately and call a veterinary poison control center on the way.

Oh my god. Seriously? The emergency vet again? We called animal poison control and hoped it wouldn't come to that.

First of all, who knew a veterinary poison control even existed? Turns out to be a great service. For $60 they take open a case for you and a vet reviews your info and tells you how to proceed. (See the Animal Poison Control site for some great info)

We gave the vet all the info, including the type of syrup. Turns out Bax had chosen the low-sugar variety. In a great stroke of luck, the syrup didn't include the fake sugar xylitol. If it had, he probably would have died.

The vet was concerned that such a spike in blood sugar could lead to a serious but treatable condition called pancreatitis. She told us to monitor him, withholding food and water, for two hours. After that, we were to introduce a little water and see what happened.

OK, so far so good. No emergency vet, and no immediate life-or-death danger.

The bad news? I had heard of projectile vomiting, but projectile diarrhea had now commenced. We spent the next two hours in the backyard watching Bax spew liquid from his butt. It was like his body had completely pulled the plug and was bailing everything. It was a mess and a little sad to watch.

Neighbor Phil submitted this recreation of what happened AFTER Bax sucked down the syrup.

As the vet warned, his metabolism was in high gear and he was dying for food or water. He had even tried to drink from the toilet at one point, something he'd never done before or since.

Eventually, the anal leakage slowed and we gave him a little bit of water. He slurped down the little bit we gave him, and we waited to see if he would vomit again. Everything went smoothly from there on out. We were on "pancreatitis watch" for the next 48 hours, but he showed no further signs of sickness.

We had all dodged a bullet. And Baxter learned a healthy respect for Aunt Jemima.