Spot recovers after poisoning

Spot, the 8-year-old border collie mix, is playing with Chris Martineau's other three dogs, barking and wagging his tail three days after the dog's life-threatening encounter with a poisonous cane toad.

"It seems to me he is doing fine," Martineau said Tuesday night. "He is starting to get back to a normal eating routine."

Martineau, who lives across the street from Woodlawn Elementary School in Sebring, said he had never seen a cane toad before Saturday morning when Spot bit it in the back yard. He added he hasn't seen any frogs or lizards with the four dogs there.

After doing some research, he found out the toads are attracted to gardens. Martineau said there is a garden on the side of an efficiency apartment on his property.

He said he has done some fishing for frogs and the toad he saw in his yard was "not a basic bullfrog." It was large and was brown and green in color.

Dr. Larry Jernigan, who treated the dog, said he has heard of cane toads found in the Indian streets of Sebring. He noted that veterinarians in Lake Placid have seen the toad over the years.

It is ironic that not long after working on Spot on Saturday, Jernigan's own dog apparently came in contact with a toad that evening in the back yard of his home on Edgewater Point Drive off Lakeview Drive.

Jernigan said Daisy, a miniature dachsund, started slobbering, so he got a garden hose and rinsed the dog's mouth.

His advice is to rinse out the mouth as soon as possible. There is no known antidote to the poison, he said.

When he first saw Spot, the dog was having seizures and wasn't moving. But Jernigan said the dog's color was good and his heart was good.

The doctor put him on one IV and the fluid was enough to flush out the toxin.

Martineau said people need to know about cane toads and how dangerous they are to pets.

Martineau said the family appreciates what Dr. Jernigan and his staff at Sebring Animal Hospital did and is very thankful.

"Without his help we probably would have lost my dog," he said.

"He definitely is a family dog and it wouldn't have been the same if we lost him."