Spokane's drug overdose crisis has ravaged the city, killing hundreds of people and sending thousands to the emergency room.
Now it also appears to be impacting dogs.
Over the course of just two weeks in May, there were at least three incidents where dogs in Spokane had to be given overdose reversal medication after consuming what their owners believe was fentanyl left on the ground.
Last year, 194 people died from overdoses involving fentanyl in Spokane County, a 592% increase over 2020, according to the county medical examiner's office. The three Spokane dogs that appear to have ingested fentanyl survived. But the string of incidents — while dwarfed by the ongoing loss of human life — highlights how widespread the drug has become in Spokane.
Fentanyl is generally smoked off pieces of foil, which are often discarded in the street and can contain drug residue.
Bettie Espinosa-Kibala said she believes her dog, GracieLu, consumed one of those foils while on a walk to the post office on May 22.
At a town hall meeting last month, Espinosa-Kibala told Spokane City Council members that GracieLu, a service dog provided by Veterans Affairs, stopped and sniffed a pile of trash that "looked like someone's leftover lunch."
Fifteen minutes later, GracieLu was staggering. The 95-pound bernedoodle fell sideways and let out a "combination bark and scream," Espinosa-Kibala said.
The owner raced her dog to an emergency veterinary clinic. While signing in, GracieLu vomited up a piece of tinfoil, Espinosa-Kibala said, and the veterinarian told her, "Don't wait for the labs, we're giving her Narcan."
Narcan is the brand name for naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug that is administered nasally. The drug is designed for humans, but it also works on dogs.
GracieLu eventually recovered, but the experience was still deeply troubling. Espinosa-Kibala met with Mayor Lisa Brown and told her about the incident.
Brown says she talked about it with the city's Homeless Outreach Team, which responds to homeless encampments and cleans up illegally dumped trash around the city. The incident highlights how important it is for people to call 311 if they see garbage they think the city needs to address, Brown says.
GracieLu wasn't the only dog to fall victim to fentanyl in May.
On May 15, a couple rang the doorbell of Fire Station 4 in Browne's Addition and told firefighters that, during an evening stroll, their chihuahua became lethargic after ingesting a piece of foil they believed contained fentanyl. Firefighters administered Narcan, and the dog immediately began to recover.
On May 29, the Spokane Fire Department responded to a reported overdose in the Hillyard neighborhood. When firefighters arrived, they encountered a "distraught" woman holding a 3-pound, 9-month-old chihuahua, according to a department Facebook post.
The dog was distressed and lethargic — with slow breathing and pinpoint pupils. The owner told firefighters it had become difficult to rouse the dog and keep it awake after she discovered the dog chewing on a pipe in her backyard.
Firefighters administered two doses of Narcan, and the dog recovered.
Justin de Ruyter, a spokesperson for the fire department, says the fact that both dogs responded to Narcan makes it highly likely that fentanyl was the culprit.
The fire department administers Narcan to humans every single day — they used it to treat 91 patients in May alone. But de Ruyter isn't aware of any previous instances of firefighters using it on dogs.
Other drugs are also impacting dogs. Owners in the Spokane area have reported their dogs becoming seriously ill after consuming marijuana products. Shana O'Marra, who teaches emergency and critical care at Washington State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital, says she's also seen an increase in dogs treated for methamphetamine exposure in recent years.
Samantha Pittman, the office manager for the Pet Emergency Clinic on Division Street, says it isn't uncommon for owners to bring in pets that have accidentally consumed opioids, methamphetamines or other narcotics.
"Animals use their smell and their taste to identify a lot more than humans do, so it does make sense," O'Marra says.
Because animals can't talk, the clinic often has to administer urinary tests to figure out which drug a pet has taken.
The Pet Emergency Clinic has given 104 drug tests to pets so far this year, Pittman says, though it's unclear how many of those came back positive. In some cases, household products like antifreeze can cause symptoms similar to drug exposure in pets.
O'Marra, the veterinarian with WSU, says dogs have strong livers that can actually metabolize opioids more effectively than humans. But dogs don't have that same protection if the opioid has direct access to their bloodstream through their gums or nasal passageways, she says. Dogs are also a lot smaller than humans.
"A 10-pound chihuahua as opposed to a 200-pound man — that's 20 times the dose," O'Marra says. "It's really unpredictable."
In addition to methamphetamine, O'Marra says it's also become common for dogs to become ill after ingesting marijuana products. The potential for life-threatening toxicity from THC exposure is very low, but it still tends to be a "pretty miserable" experience for dogs, she says.
Skyler Oberst, the executive director of Spokane Arts, believes his dog Bowie accidentally consumed an edible or other THC product during a morning walk in mid-April.
Oberst doesn't keep marijuana products in the house, so he suspects that Bowie, a 2-year-old golden retriever, found the cannabis while playing around in some bushes near Shadle Park. When Oberst and Bowie arrived home 45 minutes later, Bowie immediately started throwing up. That night, Bowie started whimpering and "basically lost motor function" while trying to walk, Oberst says.
"He looked up at us, and we just knew he was in trouble," Oberst says.
Oberst took Bowie to an emergency clinic, where a veterinarian told him Bowie's symptoms were consistent with other THC exposure cases they'd seen. The veterinarian explained that dogs are especially vulnerable to THC poisoning because they have more cannabinoid receptors than humans.
Months later, Bowie still seems to have lingering neurological effects. He leans slightly to the left when he walks, refuses to go down stairs and isn't great at catching a ball anymore, Oberst says.
"It's really scary," Oberst says. "I've been telling everybody with dogs: Do be careful and make sure they aren't picking anything up."
O'Marra says dog owners should be cautious whenever their dog is in an environment outside their control. In addition to drugs, there are a number of dangerous objects and toxic plants that dogs can ingest. ♦
