Don't lick toads

Every morning the cats and Joe (our male Border Collie) like to go out on the back screened in porch after they have their breakfast and potty.  They just like to sit out there, watch the birds, sniff the air etc..  Mia (our Papillon) and Frolic (our female Border Collie) usually choose not to go out there because they want to be wherever I am.  But this morning they both ran out there and I thought, well good; it will be easier for me to get ready to go out and feed the sheep and lambs with no animals underfoot. 

But a few minutes later, I could see through the window the Mia had something cornered on the porch.  I went out there and it turned out to be a toad.  Mia must have tasted him somehow and it made her drool.  The BCs and cats just looked at me like, "We're not going anywhere near that thing!"  Mia had already drooled on the concrete floor quite a bit and was still obsessed with the toad.  I brought all the animals inside and examined the toad which seemed stressed but didn’t seem to have any bite wounds at all.

I called the vet's office since all I could remember is that toads have something yucky in their skin that makes other animals leave them alone.  And since Mia is just over 5 pounds, I wasn't sure if a small amount of this "yucky stuff" could hurt her.  The vet said that the toads in this part of the US aren’t poisonous but some dogs can have sort of a reaction and I could give her some liquid Benadryl at home or could come into the office for a shot of atropine.  But during the time it took the receptionist to go talk to the vet and come back and tell me, Mia had mostly stopped drooling.  So I told them if it wasn’t really poisonous, I would just watch Mia since she seemed to be improving on her own.

So I made Upal keep her up in his office while I went out to do the sheep chores.  He said she drooled a tiny bit but then stopped.  So I didn’t do anything about it and she is fine now.  I decided it would be best to leave well enough alone.

I still have absolutely no idea how the toad got in there.  The porch has a concrete floor and is completely enclosed on 3 sides with screening.  It is attached to the house on the other side.  The other thing I can think of is that maybe Upal left it a bit ajar the other day when we grilled hamburgers outside.  Or it hopped in when we were going in / out.   Wouldn’t you think the toad would be afraid of us or the dogs/cats?  I relocated him to a shrub outside and when I went back he had hopped away.

We are hoping that Mia has learned her lesson and will steer clear of tasting toads from now on...

Here is Mia on a happier, toad-free day:

Posted by Firefly Fields at 6/10/2008 9:23 AM
Categories: nature
 

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