Dog owner Lori Burns is counting her blessings after her dog accidentally ingested oxycodone on a walk last week and nearly died.
Burns, a publicist based in Los Angeles, met a friend in Santa Monica last Sunday and brought her young rescue dogs Chance the Rapper and Banksy along for the walk. About 20 minutes into their stroll, Chance “just collapsed,” Burns recalled to PEOPLE. “It wasn’t hot out but he was panting, looking almost aimlessly into the sky.”
After giving the dog a few minutes to potentially recover — and beginning to realize he wouldn’t — Burns ran to her car and found the nearest emergency pet hospital. Thinking her pup was overheating, she handed him to a veterinarian for a temperature check, only to be told Chance was at 106 degrees Fahrenheit.
“They started by icing his body, giving him oxygen and an IV and running blood and urine tests,” Burns recalled. “I looked at the vet in disbelief and asked, ‘Is he going to be okay?’ and the vet said, ‘I don’t know at this point. It’s really serious.’ “Urine tests eventually showed oxycodone in the dog’s system; vets observed the dog for more than 12 hours as the drug worked its way out. Burns doesn’t have a prescription for oxycodone or keep it in her home, so she can only imagine the dog somehow ate it during their walk.
“I don’t know what form it was in, I didn’t notice him eat anything,” Burns shared. “I don’t think he’d just eat a pill? He’s pretty picky. We didn’t even stop moving.”
When doctors called Burns to pick Chance up after he’d recovered, they had more news: the dog was blind.
“They’d kept using the words ‘his eyes aren’t tracking’ while talking to me during his recovery but truthfully I wasn’t thinking about what that meant,” Burns said. “The vet said there is some activity in the retina, so that’s their ray of remaining hope that it’s possible some vision could come back. But we just don’t know. It’s wild that something that happened so quick has changed his life.”
For now, Burns is helping her pup adjust to his new normal, keeping him close and talking to him when she leaves a room or steps outside.
“He’s adapted nicely,” she said. “And he is very happy. But I don’t want him to be by himself.”
Though Burns doesn’t plan to take further medical or legal action at this time, she’s sharing her story in the hopes that other pet owners will stay aware of their surroundings when out with their animals.
“I think about what would’ve happened if I’d driven him home to relax instead of going to the hospital,” she added. “It’s terrifying. He could’ve died.”
