My dog just ate a small tube of Blistex Medicated lip balm. Ingredients are beeswax, camphor, cetyl alcohol, cetyl palmitate, candelilla wax, isopropyls myristate and palmitate, lanolin, lanolin oil, menthol, ozokerite, parrafin, petrolatum, polybutene, propylparaben, red 6 lake, cocoa seed butter, titanium dioxide. Is this toxic to him? He is 11 months old, 65 lbs shep mix. Thank you.
Optional Information: Type of Animal: Shepherd Mix Gender: Male Age: 11 months Already Tried: Nothing yet. Just found him with the evidence.
Welcome to JustAnswer! I would be happy to assist you. I am a 2003 graduate from UC Davis and a Medical Director of a 4 veterinarian practice.
Hello
The good news: He is a big puppy!
Generally, larger size dogs are less susceptible to toxic problems than little pets.
So, I have no reason to suspect it would cause any toxicity.
Now, if he ate any of the plastic parts, that would be more concerning for something that could get obstructed in his stomach or intestines.
If chewed up little bits, you should keep an eye out for what he is pooping over the next few days.
Worst case: it still could predispose to some stomach or intestinal upset (vomiting, diarrhea, panting to suggest nausea, or loss of appetite).
If any was evident, he should get into a vet for some basic supportive care.
Hope that info helps
he did eat some of the plastic parts but not the part that pushes the balm out.
Okay.
So, same rules apply. Watching for any vomiting or bad diarrhea with or without blood.
He is sleeping now. I dont know how long it will take for him to digest what he ate to potentially cause these upsets.
The blood would be from ?
any injury to intestines with sharp plastic pieces passing through, or with bad diarrhea from what was ingested.
ok. If he vomits, has diarrhea without blood that would be normal for this ingestion if its upsetting to his system then. Panting too?
in other words not needing to go to the vet. I live in a very rural area with one vet who is mainly here for the horses and cows. His regular vet is 75 miles away.
Understood.
OK. Anything else I should know or keep an eye out for?
No, if any vomiting or bad diarrhea (with or without blood), I would see a vet, any vet, for at least basic supportive treatment.
Excessive panting often suggests nausea or pain, so that would be a red flag sign as well, especially if over several hours.
ok. Would this include charcoal treatment or Vitamin K as supportive treatment?
Vitamin K. No. that is really for when pets ingest rat/mouse baits.
Charcoal treatment. Not as much with this...
Probably more supportive medications to help with nausea, diarrhea. More "general" treatment, as opposed to, actually treating for toxin exposure.
I Understand. Good. Should I continue to let him sleep or wake him to play outside to help push this through his system with exercise?
No. Don't do anything different. Don't even feed differently. Because of something goes wrong, we won't know if it was from a change of his routine, what he eats, or from the lip balm ingestion.
Dr. Andy
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Thank you :)
You bet. Good Luck
XO Big hugs!
Thank you
Experience: 2003 UC Davis Veterinary Grad