Vet: Colorado Pets Eating More Foreign Items During Coronavirus Pandemic

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ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) - Animal Urgent Care in Arvada has seen a sizeable increase in the number of pets eating things they shouldn't and then needing surgery.

"We've seen an uptick in both THC ingestion as well as foreign material foreign body surgeries," said Animal Urgent Care Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Ashley Ackley. "Marijuana, foreign objects such as toys, kids toys, their toys, cloth material, and I've seen a couch ingestion recently tore up the couch and ate a bunch of it."

This has led to a 215% increase in surgical cases at their hospital to remove these foreign bodies.

Ackley doesn't know for sure why our pets are doing this, but all the recent changes could be a possible explanation.

"We think it's great. 'Oh yay, we get to be home with our pets all day,' but it definitely disrupts a routine that they're used to and so that's a hypothesis of ours, as maybe the animals are just as stressed as we are potentially with the situation and maybe getting into things that they wouldn't otherwise," she said.

(credit: Animal Urgent Care)

And if they get into marijuana edibles, you'll want to call your vet right away.

"They typically don't enjoy their high the way that many humans do or we kind of associate, 'Oh, they're probably feeling great.' It's not usually a fun thing for them," said Ackley

She says the best thing we can do for our pets is try to maintain a routine as much as possible and if you are new pet owner, take this as an opportunity to work on training.