Grateful dog owner describes mountain rescue after canine apparently ingests cannabis
LONDON -- Christina Bluhme was high on the flanks of Britain's tallest mountain with her dogs and one of the hounds was a lot higher — and not in a good way.
Tokyo, a 5-year-old black Labrador retriever, had apparently ingested cannabis along the trail and had to be rescued after she began to sway like she was drunk and then couldn't walk at all.
“She had a very bad trip,” said Bluhme, who was mystified at the time about what nearly doomed her dog during the July 5 hike. “It was a very terrifying experience.”
Bluhme knows a thing or two about dogs, having worked as a canine trainer for 25 years. But she never suspected Tokyo might be stoned.
While cases of cannabis toxicity in pets is rising in the U.K., it’s an even bigger problem in the U.S., where marijuana has been legalized in many states and is available as a medical option in others. Marijuana and other drugs entered the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals top 10 list of toxins for pets for the first time in 2023. Its poison control center said 10% more calls were related to potential marijuana ingestion than the previous year, and they had increased nearly threefold over the past five years.
With the dog collapsed, Bluhme, her son and two dogs were more than three hours into their climb and near the peak of Ben Nevis, the 4,413-foot (1,345 meter) mountain in the Scottish Highlands. The weather, which had been clear at the start of the day, had turned to rain and the temperature had plunged to 5 C (41 F).
She told her son, Magnus, that their quest to reach the summit was over.
“I said, listen, we’ve got to turn around and get her down,” Bluhme said Monday. “There’s something completely wrong here.”
Her son called for help but police said they weren't sure they could send a rescue crew.
Luckily for Bluhme and Tokyo, though, a crew from the all-volunteer Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team was already making their way down from the peak after helping a helicopter airlift an injured hiker. The crew put the 55-pound (25-kilogram) dog in their stretcher and quickly carried her down the steep, slick, rocky trail, making it to the trailhead in about an hour.
“They were almost running,” Bluhme said. “I was clinging on to the stretcher. They were so agile and so fast. It was incredible.”
Police had called Crown Vets in nearby Fort William, and a veterinarian was standing by when Bluhme arrived.
Veterinarians initially thought the animal had a spinal issue but a senior vet concluded she was on some kind of neurotoxin because she was drifting in and out of consciousness. When they consulted with a poison control center, her symptoms checked all the boxes for cannabis intoxication.
The dog was given activated charcoal and made a full recovery overnight.
After fearing she would lose the beloved dog on the mountain, Bluhme said the 1,000 pound ($1,335) vet bill was money well spent.
“The next day it was like nothing ever happened,” said Bluhme, who lives in southern England. “She recovered so quickly, and I’m the one still hanging a bit.”
