A 9-pound dog got a second chance at life after a deputy saved her from a suspected opioid overdose, WKYT News reports.
According to the news outlet, Tracy and Frank Patterson — a couple originally from Canada — had visited the United States for the winter. With them were their two dogs, Sadie and Mocha, whose breeds haven’t been identified. As reported, the Pattersons were staying with their canines in a hotel in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Tracy said her husband carried his prescribed pain medication with him on the trip. Then, on the night of Jan. 9, as she was preparing to take the opioid pills to him, the unthinkable happened.
“When I was getting my husband’s pills out, I put them on the table and I went to get a different pill for him,” Tracy shared. Upon returning, she realized the drug “wasn’t on the table anymore.”
Immediately, a panic-stricken Tracy suspected one of her dogs had probably ingested it. Unfortunately, and true to her suspicions, Mocha had swallowed the powerful opioid.
Dog administered Narcan following opioid overdose
Without delay, the Pattersons rushed Mocha to a nearby veterinary clinic run by Dr. Abbey Biddle.
“We needed to take pretty quick action,” Dr. Biddle said. Shockingly, the small dog “had ingested almost 20 times her dose of the medication.”
Addressing how they handled the emergency, the Georgetown-based veterinarian shared they “called in the Scott’s County Sheriff’s Office to bring in some Narcan and help us in that way.”
Thankfully, one deputy with the sheriff’s office — identified as Deputy Gary Whaley — brought the life-saving drug and administered it to Mocha.
“In this community, pets are just like us — they’re family,” Whaley said. “So we knew we needed to get something here quick.”
Undoubtedly, the swift, collaborative actions of the sheriff’s office and the vet clinic saved Mocha from a potentially fatal overdose.
“Mocha’s alive because of them,” the Pattersons shared. “If we lived there, they’d be our new vets.”
