A pet dog was rushed to the vets after she ate cannabis thought to have been dumped at a beauty spot.
The owner of the 10-month-old cockapoo, named Pepper, said she lost the use of her back legs and vomited after her urine tested positive for the illegal drug.
It is thought she ingested the substance when Stephen Davies took his two dogs for a walk at Giant's Tooth just off Goitre Coed Road between Abercynon and Merthyr Vale. He said he stopped to report a fly-tipping incident at around 12.45pm on Saturday when he noticed Pepper sniffing around.
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The 46-year-old 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, take away rubbish and a mattress.
"I took a couple of photos and messaged the councillors. I didn’t think anything of it. My dogs were sniffing around and we carried on walking for an hour after it."
When Stephen, from Abercynon, got home, he said his family noticed Pepper stopped using her back legs as she normally would. However, at this point he said it was quite mild and put it down to her being tired after their eight-mile walk.
But after a few hours, Pepper started to deteriorate.
"A couple of hours later, my youngest daughter - who is nine - shouted that pepper had been sick," he said. "She was sick with what looked like excrement. 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."
As Pepper became even more ill, Stephen and his family began to wonder if something more serious was going on. She started drifting in and out of consciousness and completely lost the use of her back legs, he said.
Stephen said: "We immediately got hold of an emergency vet down in Taffs Well. We went there and it cost us £225 because we honestly thought our puppy was going to pass away, she was drifting in and out of consciousness."
Stephen said the vet tested Pepper's urine after suspecting she had consumed an illegal substance, which came back positive for cannabis.
The vet told the family to wait and see if she improved, reassuring them she shouldn't deteriorate. However, the family still feared for Pepper and their three-year-old cockapoo, Roxy.
"We were a little bit scared because she’s a fabulous dog and we were wondering if anything would happen with our other dog," Stephen said.
" The younger one who spotted her being sick was horrified, they thought they were going to lose their new puppy.
"It could have been a lot worse because a large ingestion of cannabis can cause seizures in dogs, particularly in younger ones.
"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. But if she was having fits and convulsions they would have had to put her on a drip and sedated her a little bit."
Luckily, Stephen said Pepper was back to her usual self after 24 hours, while Roxy stayed well.
He said Methyr Tydfil council - which the fly-tipping spot falls under - had been contacted. It is understood that the incident was also reported to South Wales Police.
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