A Nashville-area family is mourning the loss of their 3-year-old dog after it ate a piece of chewing gum.
Christy Figlio said her husky mix, Canon, seemed perfectly healthy until Saturday night.
She said they noticed Canon suddenly stopped eating and started drinking a lot of water.
"Then he started vomiting the water and so that kind of was the red flag that made us decide to take him to the hospital," she said. "They gave us some IV fluids, sent us home with a bunch of antibiotics, and told us if he got worse take him on to Nashville's Pet ER."
Shortly after the family got home from the hospital Canon dropped to the floor and started shaking.
They then rushed him to the emergency vet who told them his liver was failing due to an artificial sweetener called Xylitol.
"She said 'you know, I don't know if he's been into any kind of peanut butter, any kind of sugar-free gum' and I looked at home and we have Mentos gum and that was the number one ingredient," said Figlio.
Veterinarian Eva Evans says Xylitol is extremely deadly to dogs.
"The first signs you're gonna see usually are weakness, muscle tremors, inability to stand, and that progresses to seizures as their blood sugar keeps dropping lower and lower," she said.
Once a dog ingests artificial sweeteners it's a race against time to get them to the vet.
"It's a true emergency, because the longer you wait, the more damage it does to the liver," said Dr. Evans.
Unfortunately, the Xylitol had already done too much damage to Canon and his family had to let him go.
"I could just tell," said Figlio. "I knew we weren't gonna be bringing him home."
