South Florida family grateful after husky puppy miraculously survives ingesting rat poison

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PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — Nobody in the world was happier than two young South Florida girls when they received a husky puppy for Christmas.

But three months later, the entire Harris family was absolutely devastated when their brand new family member took a terrible turn.

“He was drooling at the mouth, bubbling at the mouth. It was just heartbreaking, it was horrifying,” said Scott Harris.

The family’s Siberian husky named Bodhi had gotten into a case of rat poison.

They immediately called poison control.

“We explained to the woman what had happened and she said, ‘Yeah, that’s a 15-pack package,’” said Harris. “So I had found three of the disks, thrown them away. Apparently he had eaten 12.”

One disk has enough toxin to kill a 25-pound puppy like Bodhi.

“This is bromethalin, there’s no cure for it,” said Harris. “It’s a poison that creates inflammation in the brain and the brain swells -- neurological damage that it creates -- and she said, ‘There’s no cure.’”

Unlike rodenticide that does have a cure, this dose of deadly toxins is expected to be terminal.

“It’s absolute death,” said Harris. “This dog is exhibiting the symptoms. He has so much poison in his system, there’s no way. Anything we do now is just going to be torturing him.”

After following their veterinarian’s orders, they fed Bodhi more than 100 active charcoal tablets, but the poison was still causing seizures and symptoms of neurological damage.

So they made the painful decision to euthanize their 4-month-old puppy.

“I was convinced that this was just a downhill slope and anything we did beyond euthanizing was just inhumane, was going to be torturing the poor puppy,” said Harris.

But behind the scenes, a rescue group was ready to take a chance on the beautiful blue-eyed baby.

Rebecca Landerman, with Rescue Dog Network, thought there was a fighting chance, so she lined up a foster family.

“The first night he came he was definitely not great,” said foster parent Martine Lebel. “He was not doing well, he had a hard time keeping his eyes open, he just kept falling on the side.”

Bodhi was sent to the ICU for 36 hours to receive fluids and a drug to reduce the swelling of his brain.

And then he had an unbelievable bounce back.

Bodhi was happy, healthy and healed!

“As a dog owner, to have your dog brought back from the dead, because they thought their dog was dead,” said Landerman.

That led to an emotional family reunion.

Nobody could comprehend how the dog that had eaten enough poison to kill a human somehow had survived.

“I still don’t know what to think,” said Harris. “I’m ready to change his name to Ghost, and the crazy thing is it all happened around Easter, so we’re like, this dog is being reborn.”

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About The Author
Jacey Birch

Jacey Birch

Jacey Birch is Local 10's Animal Advocate reporter and investigator for animal stories. She is also a weekend evening anchor.