Dog Attends Party, Wakes up With Hangover
Cody is an adorable two-year-old Lab/Beagle cross who saw me at the emergency clinic on Sunday. He clearly is a very well loved family pet.
Friday was Cody’s second birthday and on that night the family threw him a birthday party. Twenty-five people attended. Many of them were children. All of them brought gifts for Cody. Most of the gifts were edible.
During the party Cody received and immediately devoured several rawhides, pig’s ears, and sundry other dog treats. He also took the opportunity to hoover up any human food that was dropped during the party. His owner mentioned that one partygoer accidentally dropped an entire hamburger on the floor. Cody wolfed it down as the crowd sang Happy Birthday.
As the owner recounted this story I thought to myself that this massive amount of dietary indiscretion sounded like a good way for a dog to contract pancreatitis. Pancreatitis is a life-threatening inflammation of an organ (the pancreas) that is involved in the digestion of food. I began to get worried about Cody.
The owner’s story continued. The party ended uneventfully and everyone went to bed. The next morning (Saturday) Cody woke up feeling awful. He could barely move. He had no appetite (which, the owner assured me, was most extraordinary for Cody).
The owner was not very worried initially. But by Sunday afternoon Cody’s condition still had not improved. He refused to eat, and he still was extremely lethargic. He therefore wound up in my office.
When I examined Cody I was troubled. He was very lethargic. His abdomen was bloated and painful. He was extremely dehydrated. I recommended hospitalization and tests to rule out a serious problem such as pancreatitis or a foreign object (such as an undigested fragment of food) in his intestines.
Cody seemed to feel better after he was re-hydrated. And I was happy to see his test results. He tested negative for pancreatitis and other serious metabolic disturbances. His X-rays were not consistent with a foreign object in his intestinal tract.
However, the X-rays did show a very large amount of food in Cody’s stomach. This was most extraordinary in a dog who hadn’t eaten for two days. And it led to a diagnosis in the case–the best possible diagnosis considering the circumstances. Cody appeared to be suffering from a resolving case of glutton’s remorse (term coined by my friend Reading Maley).
Canine glutton’s remorse occurs when a dog overeats in the extreme. The stomach becomes massively and painfully distended, and the dog feels markedly ill for several days as the food slowly passes out of the stomach and through the intestines. The condition is painful and rarely triggers a life-threatening condition called bloat. However, most young dogs make it through episodes of glutton’s remorse unscathed. In my experience the condition is most common in Labs and Beagles (remember that Cody is a Lab/Beagle cross).
The nursing staff administered an enema to Cody in order to help keep everything moving through his system. I expect him to make a complete recovery. And I imagine that he never again will party as hard as he did on Friday night.
Photo: Feed me. Please. By Mzelle Laure.
You have questions. 
Stories like this make me so grateful my dog is a picky eater. She may not always finish the food in her bowl, which is annoying, but at least she doesn’t eat everything in sight. Glad Cody is going to be okay, that sounds like a very unpleasant few days for him.
I am glad Cody is going to be alright. Any dog with beagle genes has to be watched when there is food around. My dog, a beagle, harrier, husky, with a little german shepherd mixed in (grandparents and parents had a lot of fun), use to be picky but as soon as the beagle genes kicked in food as be come is all. And mine is monitoring his love of all things edible and inedible. Would not want him any other way.
I totslly see my dogs overeating just like Cody. I’ll be more careful during our dogs parties. People bring a lot of stuff for the dogs.
Wow, poor guy. My sheltie isn’t a picky eater, but he doesn’t eat a whole lot. Still, I would keep an eye on him if he was given the run of the house while guests are around. People just love to feed dogs!
Beagles are some of the most food motivated dogs I’ve ever met. Plus, they have such adorable faces that it’s hard to resist slipping them a treat or two.
Relieved to hear Cody is doing well. However, humans are supposed to have more common sense than a dog, we must use it, and be responsible one-hundred percent with our furry friends. They depend on us!
Benny “The Tank”
Wow, poor Cody. Glad he’s okay!
Angel used to beg at the table (it was difficult to ignore her-she has the cutest face!), but by ignoring her, we trained her out of it. Hope this never happens again to poor Cody! Hope his owners have learned!