TV presenter Michaela Strachan has said her two dogs were left suffering seizures and “hectic trips” after accidentally being poisoned by crystal meth in South Africa.
The Springwatch co-host, who lives in Cape Town, said her pets Rio and Timmy suffered an overdose of the drug, which is known as tik in the country, while out on a walk.
It is suspected they must have eaten the human faeces of someone who had taken it, Strachan said.
It’s been a rough night! Had to nurse my dogs through a hectic Tik trip (Crystal meth drug)Vet reckons they ate human poo from a tik user.Had to nurse them through shakes,twitching, vomiting,peeing, disorientation & paranoia. Now through the worst of it. You couldn’t make it up! pic.twitter.com/bA5tLAzlrU
— Michaela Strachan (@michaelastracha) August 15, 2021
Fortunately, after being treated by a vet, both dogs are now “back to their old selves”.
The British TV presenter documented their ordeal on Instagram and Twitter, sharing a photo of the dogs and explaining what had happened.
“After walking my dogs through a ruined fort on the mountain yesterday, a few hours later they looked like they were both having seizures and couldn’t stand up,” Strachan wrote.
“We rushed them to the vet and she recognised the symptoms as an overdose of a drug called Tik, Crystal meth, apparently the ruined fort is where a lot of homeless people hang out and take tik so the dogs must’ve eaten human poo with tik in it!”
Strachan said she “spent the night nursing them through their hectic trips as they shook, twitched, vomitted and peed”, and that the dogs woke up “confused, disorientated, paranoid and spaced out”.
In a follow-up post, Strachan shared a video of Rio and Timmy on the beach, and said they were “seemingly none the worse for their guest appearance in Breaking Bad!”
The drug became prominent in the TV series, which launched in 2008. Starring Bryan Cranston as Walter White, it tells the story of a chemistry teacher struggling with a diagnosis of advanced lung cancer who starts to produce and distribute crystal meth in order to save funds for his family before he dies.
Strachan is best known as a wildlife presenter of shows including Springwatch and Countryfile, and former children’s series The Really Wild Show.
In 2008, the United Nations said crystal methamphetamine use had “exploded very quickly” in Cape Town, despite being “virtually unknown as late as 2003”.
