Patch spaced out after eating drugs

A dog owner came close to losing his beloved pet when it swallowed illegal drugs.

Neil Rogers had been walking two-year-old Patch around Dovestone and was beginning to make his way home past Tanners Mill when his beloved dog slipped through a fence and started eating something unusual.

Neil went to see what it was, and thinking Patch had found a collection of bird seed balls, pulled him away and carried on the walk home.

But as soon as they got to their house in Greenfield, Patch took a turn for the worse.

Neil said: “He had walked home absolutely fine, then I showered him down outside. As soon as he stepped inside the house though, he collapsed. It was like slow motion.

“His eyes were open but he just wasn’t moving.”

Neil’s daughter called an emergency vet at County End Surgery in Lees.

Neil said: “We took him straight there, but by the time we arrived he couldn’t even lift his head up.

His temperature was low, and his heart beat was weak. They started treatment on him straight away, and he stayed in overnight with an IV drip in his leg.”

The family and vet suspected Patch had eaten rat or slug poison, so he was left to rest.

Neil said: “When we went the following day, things had obviously got worse. He was just lying there.”

The family returned home, but got a call from the vet later that night who was becoming increasingly concerned.

“She explained that his heart rate had dropped dramatically, and we started to panic.

“I thought it wasn’t looking good,” Neil added.

But a day later, Patch rallied, however, the vet still didn’t know for sure what the springer spaniel cross had eaten.

Neil said: “When I got home from work I decided to go back up to where he had started eating, and collected some of the stuff, which looked like cannabis, home.

“I got back and found my wife had brought Patch home which was a lovely surprise.

“I asked my daughter to look on the internet to see how cannabis would affect a dog if they ingested it, and it came up with all the same symptoms that Patch had suffered with.”

Neil took the bag over to an ex-policeman who lives on his street, asking him to confirm the substance.

“I told him where I’d found it and what had happened and he said that it definitely was cannabis.

“It was heartbreaking to watch Patch like that.

Neil later took investigating police officers to the spot where the cannabis was found, amid reports that more dogs had been similarly affected.