Beloved Family Dog Dies After Eating An Ornament They Made To Celebrate Their Baby’s First Christmas

You can find salt dough ornaments on most Christmas trees. People often make them with their children as a fun activity, sometimes people even make them with little paw prints inside to celebrate their dogs. What pup parents don’t often think about is the danger that these sweet sentiments pose to their dog.

One family discovered this fact in the most tragic way.

On December 15, the Pospisils’ dog, Lexi, ate a Christmas tree ornament. This isn’t an unusual thing for a dog to do, lots of dogs get curious about Christmas decorations and sometimes munch on them. At first, Hope Pospisil and her husband Larry were simply angry with their pup for misbehaving – as anyone would be. The ornament was special. They’d made it to commemorate their daughter’s first Christmas. But their frustration soon turned into heartbreak.

The family left the home for a few hours, and when they returned, their beloved Lexi was already beyond help. Hope wrote on her Facebook:

She had peed all through her kennel and was shaking uncontrollably. She couldn’t even make it back up the stairs, as she fell backwards. We immediately took her to the Vets & we had only 2 options because her body temp was 107 and already caused neurological damage. We could either take her to A-Vets & possibly,if she even made it that far, save her but be a completely different dog or put her to sleep. With heavy hearts, we decided to put her to sleep. We are so heartbroken for not only her but for Alice because Alice & Lexi LOVED each other and she was the best dog anyone could ask for.

You can feel her heartbreak simply by reading her words. The amount of salt in the ornament was too much for Lexi. It wrecked her body. The Pet Poison Hotline says:

Salt poisoning in dogs and cats results in clinical signs of vomiting, diarrhea, inappetance, lethargy, walking drunk, abnormal fluid accumulation within the body, excessive thirst or urination, potential injury to the kidneys, tremors, seizures, coma, and even death when untreated.

The Pospisils hope that by sharing their tragic story that they will save the lives of other pets. They want all pup parents to know that, even though these ornaments seem harmless – they are just dough, after all – they are extremely toxic to pets.

Hope has been sharing stories and photos about Lexi on her Facebook page, each of them more touching than the last.

Watch the local news story below to hear the Pospisils talk about Lexi and the tragic accident that took their beloved pup away from them.