Puppy rushed to emergency vets after swallowing cannabis dumped at Merthyr Tydfil beauty spot

A 10-month-old cockapoo was rushed to the emergency vets after she swallowed cannabis believed to have been dumped at a local beauty spot.

Owner Stephen Davies had noticed his pet's health deteriorate after returning from a walk at Giant's Tooth, between Abercynon and Merthyr Vale.

Stephen said the puppy, named Pepper, had been sniffing around in an area of fly-tipping during their walk earlier that day, but he initially "didn't think anything of it."

He said: "I constantly walk the mountains and if there’s any fly-tipping on the mountains, I will try and report it.

"About three-quarters up the mountain road, where it started to level out before it drops back down, there was a substantial amount of rubbish including plastic, plastic bottles, takeaway rubbish and a mattress.

"My dogs were sniffing around and we carried on walking for an hour after it."

When Stephen returned home to Abercynon, he and his family noticed that Pepper had begun to display worrying symptoms.

She appeared to be having "mild" issues with her back legs, which they initially put down to her being tired after the long walk.

But soon afterwards, Pepper began vomiting and drifting in and out of consciousness, and lost the use of her hind legs altogether.

"She was sick with what looked like excrement," Stephen explained.

"She’s a scrounging dog and I remember on the walk she picked up what looked a bit like excrement and I told her off and she dropped it.

"We immediately got hold of an emergency vet down in Taff's Well. We went there and it cost us £225 because we honestly thought our puppy was going to pass away."

Stephen said that after describing Pepper's symptoms, the vet suspected Pepper had consumed an illegal substance. They went on to test her urine, which came back positive for cannabis.

Stephen added: "It could have been a lot worse because a large ingestion of cannabis can cause seizures in dogs, particularly in younger ones."

The family were advised to wait and see if Pepper improved, and were reassured that she shouldn't deteriorate.

"The vet said the fact she had already vomited means she didn’t like it in her system, but it had already taken effect so she needed to sleep it off like a human would," Stephen said.

"If she was having fits and convulsions, they would have had to put her on a drip and sedated her a little bit."

Thankfully, Pepper was back to her usual self after 24 hours, while their three-year-old cockapoo, Roxy, appeared to stay well.

Stephen confirmed that Merthyr Tydfil council – which the fly-tipping spot falls under – had been contacted. It is also understood that the incident was reported to South Wales Police.