Festive pen eating Bulldog!
Discussion
Our bloody English Bulldogs munched her way through a pen. We appear to have gotten most of it back but she has ink in her mouth. Have wiped as much as we can out and the cloths now are clear.
Any advise as I am sure it won't do her any good! She is 7 and fit as a fiddle so should know better.
Any advise as I am sure it won't do her any good! She is 7 and fit as a fiddle so should know better.
If it was a fountain pen or rollerball, then their ink is water based and is not harmful.
However, Biro ink contains a few nasties that could be bad if the dog has ingested enough quantity:
"Ballpoint pen ink is about 50 percent dye. Black ink gets its color from carbon black, a fine powder made from soot. Red ink is made from eosin. Several dyes are used to make blue ink, but the more common ones include substituted triphenylmethane dyes, copper phthalocyanine blue and crystal violet. Black and blue inks often contain iron sulfate, gallic acid and tannic acid.
The dyes and additives are dissolved in a solvent, often ethylene glycol or propylene glycol. Then synthetic polymers, often nitrocellulose-based, are added to help disperse the dye through the ink and adjust the viscosity and surface tension"
Iron sulfate is harmful
Gallic acid is an irritant
Ethylene and Propylene glycol are extremely harmful, toxic and teratogenic
The other chemicals I havent emboldened are not considered harmful according to their chemical safety data, at least not in anywhere near the tiny quantity in a Biro. To be fair, even the bold ones would not cause a human any problem from sucking on pen, but I do not know how the dosage to body mass ratio works so I cannot comment for dogs. the best bet would be to ring a vet, mention the chemicals and see what they say.
Sorry I can't be much more help but I hope I've given you something to go on.
However, Biro ink contains a few nasties that could be bad if the dog has ingested enough quantity:
"Ballpoint pen ink is about 50 percent dye. Black ink gets its color from carbon black, a fine powder made from soot. Red ink is made from eosin. Several dyes are used to make blue ink, but the more common ones include substituted triphenylmethane dyes, copper phthalocyanine blue and crystal violet. Black and blue inks often contain iron sulfate, gallic acid and tannic acid.
The dyes and additives are dissolved in a solvent, often ethylene glycol or propylene glycol. Then synthetic polymers, often nitrocellulose-based, are added to help disperse the dye through the ink and adjust the viscosity and surface tension"
Iron sulfate is harmful
Gallic acid is an irritant
Ethylene and Propylene glycol are extremely harmful, toxic and teratogenic
The other chemicals I havent emboldened are not considered harmful according to their chemical safety data, at least not in anywhere near the tiny quantity in a Biro. To be fair, even the bold ones would not cause a human any problem from sucking on pen, but I do not know how the dosage to body mass ratio works so I cannot comment for dogs. the best bet would be to ring a vet, mention the chemicals and see what they say.
Sorry I can't be much more help but I hope I've given you something to go on.
You should really phone your local vet and ask.
My instincts would tell me there can't be anything horrifically poisonous in a pen since children have easy access to them.
You're not the first person its happened to - https://www.google.co.uk/#q=dog+ate+a+pen - and very quickly reading a couple of them it doesn't appear to be anything that serious.
My instincts would tell me there can't be anything horrifically poisonous in a pen since children have easy access to them.
You're not the first person its happened to - https://www.google.co.uk/#q=dog+ate+a+pen - and very quickly reading a couple of them it doesn't appear to be anything that serious.
There is little the vet can do at this stage tbh. Biro case will not show up on xrays and they wouldn't operate unless signs of abdominal discomfort/vomiting.
Most small plastic will pass through fine, perforation is a possible complication but would be very unlucky.
Phoning vets for advice would be sensible though. I'm not too concerned about the ink.
If it had happened in last hour I would have suggested some watered down milk to dilute the ink and weetabix or wholemeal bread to move things through the gut (could still do this unless otherwise advised by the vets it may not make such a difference)
Most small plastic will pass through fine, perforation is a possible complication but would be very unlucky.
Phoning vets for advice would be sensible though. I'm not too concerned about the ink.
If it had happened in last hour I would have suggested some watered down milk to dilute the ink and weetabix or wholemeal bread to move things through the gut (could still do this unless otherwise advised by the vets it may not make such a difference)
We got most of the pen back including the lid and nib. She has had dinner since and seems to be her normal self, ie; ignores you unless there is food involved.
Fingers crossed she was just chewing it although god knows why as she always has a selection of bones to knaw on! We jumped in as soon as we heard something anyhow.
She does have a habit of smashing bones if we don't renew them fast enough so hopefully she has learnt to spit out hard stuff, her normal food is oven cooked chicken, steak, rice, broccoli and a few dog biscuits so it's not from a need for more!
Fingers crossed she was just chewing it although god knows why as she always has a selection of bones to knaw on! We jumped in as soon as we heard something anyhow.
She does have a habit of smashing bones if we don't renew them fast enough so hopefully she has learnt to spit out hard stuff, her normal food is oven cooked chicken, steak, rice, broccoli and a few dog biscuits so it's not from a need for more!
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