Gorilla Glue

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Every morning my pup comes to give me a good morning snuggle and wake me up. Unfortunately he doesn’t differentiate between the weekends and weekdays, so he comes to snuggle me around 5:30 every morning. (Remember Lady and the Tramp?) In case you are wondering, he does not sleep on my bed. I certainly have no issue with that, but DH has a strict no-dog-on-the-bed rule which Ninja is actually afraid to break. If DH isn’t around, he gets to sleep on a blanket next to my bed, but that’s as close as it comes.

One work morning this past February the snuggly pup came to get me up. He always puts his paws on the edge of my bed and bumps my arm with his nose. I usually pet him, rub behind his ears, and mumble something about five more minutes. But this morning he had something hard and crumbly all over is face. My sleep deadened brain kept insisting it was frosting. MMMMM, frosting. No, there isn’t any frosting to get into.

I got up and looked at him and I realized it was some sort of yellow glue. I went downstairs to investigate and remembered that DH had glued some legs to a stool back on with gorilla glue the night before. Ninja must have gotten into it. I found the bottle in the backyard “lair.” It wasn’t opened and was in tact. It had a few bite marks on it, but no glue seems to have come out of it.

I didn’t think all that much about it. I put the glue away, went through my usual morning routine, got the kids ready and went to work. At work I started thinking about it. (This was before the rat poison incident.) How much of this stuff did he ingest? Was it poisonous? So I started looking on the internet. As with the rat poison, what I found scared me to death.

From the gorilla glue website:

“Gorilla Glue is a polyurethane glue. All polyurethane glues foam when they come in contact with moisture and may cause gastro-intestinal blockage if swallowed. This is not unique to Gorilla Glue, but true of all polyurethane glues. If you think there has been a case of ingesting the glue, seek medical or veterinary advice immediately.

For this reason, polyurethane glues must be kept out of reach of children and animals. Polyurethane glues are harmful or fatal if swallowed. Store Gorilla Glue in a safe location.”

From another website about pet safety:

“After being exposed to moisture, this product is able to expand to many times its original volume. If ingested in its liquid form (e.g., by licking up a spill, a towel, or item being glued) it can form a hard "foam-like" foreign body, generally in the stomach. An obstruction of the digestive tract can then occur.”

Now I was scared. Signs that there was a problem included loss of appetite, vomiting, enlarged abdomen, labored breathing . . . and worse. . .

It was about 11am by then and I was really worried. All I could think about was getting home that night and seeing the poor dog in serious trouble. It seems this stuff has a smell and a taste that is nearly irresistible to pets. It seems to me they could easily fix that part, but what do I know?

Anyway, remember that I work for the lady who owns Ninja’s mom? When I told her I was worried she sent me home. So I raced home with all of these terrible worried thoughts and rushed through the front door. . . to find Ninja bounding from the yard, thrilled to see me with absolutely no signs of any distress or illness.

I kept a hawk’s eye on him (and - what fun - all of his bodily functions) for 24 hours and saw absolutely nothing that would indicate a problem. I can only assume that very tiny amounts were on the stool that was being repaired and that most of it was on his fur rather than in his mouth. However it worked out, I’m very thankful that he was not harmed. He’s not a cat but he seems to have multiple lives. . .

When I told the story to my MIL she said she's surprised he didn't get stuck somewhere. Yeah really! What kind of glue is that anyway?