Pet pooch named Chance the Rapper BLINDED after eating oxycodone while on walk in Santa Monica
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA: A California woman is warning residents about the dangers of opioids on the streets being ingested by unknowing and vulnerable victims, mainly pets. On August 15, Lori Burns was out for a walk with her dog, Chance the Rapper, in Palisades Park, a sprawling 26-acre green space located along Ocean Avenue in the Santa Monica area of Los Angeles. During the stroll, however, her pet began to behave erratically, breathing heavily until he eventually collapsed.
“Out of nowhere he just stopped. I looked down and he collapsed,” Burns told ABC 7 about her small white dog, who gained his namesake from the famous musician by the same name. She then rushed the dog to VCA Animal Specialty and Emergency Center in West Los Angeles shortly after he began exhibiting the terrifying symptoms. Upon arrival, the veterinarian tested Chance’s urine and was able to confirm that the small pooch who was at that point measuring a 106-degree-fever must have ingested a pill that contained the highly addictive opioid while they were walking through the park where they’d spent so many other uneventful afternoons.
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"They said they needed to immediately ice his body and give him oxygen and start an IV and that’s when I looked at the vet and I said, ‘Is he going to live?’ and he said, ‘I really don’t know,'" Burns told KTLA 5. Fortunately for her and Chance, however, the 24-hour stay at the emergency vet, a visit that set her back $4,000, had a somewhat happy ending. Chance survived his close brush with the prescription medication, which is capable of killing human beings several times larger than the small canine, but he is now partially blind as a result. Burns said that she is thankful she decided to rush him to the veterinarian.
Fox 11 reported that further testing, however, has confirmed that there is some retina activity in Chance’s eyes and so there is the hope that he may one day regain more vision. Now, Burns wants her and Chance’s story to serve as a warning for other pet owners, noting that this could’ve easily happened to anyone else. “If I could give a message to people, it’s to know your surroundings and know where to go,” she told Fox 11. “Because had I not gone to the animal hospital and had I driven home, he would have died,” she added. Burns told the local Fox affiliate that her vet informed her that, unfortunately, the cause for her emergency visit is not uncommon.
Oxycodone was the only unusual substance discovered in the dog's system. Burns said nobody in her family takes the drug, so the pooch had to have found it during their walk, although she is unsure of the exact location.