EVERETT, Wash. — A Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) K-9 is recovering after being exposed to fentanyl during a drug search in Everett on Thursday.
Five-year-old K-9 Sully and his detective with the SCSO assisted the Skagit County Interlocal Drug Enforcement Unit in searching an apartment in Everett.
“He is a drug dog, so he's on our drug task force,” said SCSO Public Information Officer Courtney O’Keefe, while speaking of K-9 Sully. “So, he works with an undercover detective and he is trained in cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.”
The apartment he was at on Thursday ended up having numerous drugs including nearly 500,000 fentanyl pills and fentanyl powder.
“They were searching around for about 10 to 15 minutes,” said O’Keefe. “K-9 Sully indicated several different areas where he scented drugs.”
After K-9 Sully’s job was done he was put in his kennel, but about 15 minutes later when his detective came back outside, K-9 Sully was unresponsive.
“He did have two doses of Narcan nearby in the door right next to his kennel. He grabbed those and administered them to Sully,” said O’Keefe.
But the two doses did not work and the detective called for another officer on the scene to bring a third dose of Narcan.
“He administered that third dose to Sully and Sully was still unresponsive. At that point he grabbed Sully, jumped into the driver's seat, and raced him to the emergency vet,” said O’Keefe.
After the third dose of Narcan, K-9 Sully start to wake up and was monitored at the hospital and released later in the day.
“You know, something new that we're seeing with fentanyl that we haven't seen in the past during this epidemic is one dose of Narcan is not enough with fentanyl,” said O’Keefe. “We're seeing one, two, three, four doses be used to revive a human, and in this case, K-9 Sully.”
The detective who handles K-9 Sully sent videos and pictures from Friday showing K-9 Sully back to his normal, hyper self and running around a field.
“He’s running around, full of energy. So, it does appear he made a full recovery,” smiled O’Keefe.
SCSO said their drug detectives always carry extra Narcan in case it is needed for their K-9s, but that this was the first time it actually had to be used. It is the first fentanyl exposure to one of its K-9s that it is aware of.
The department said if it wasn’t for the quick action of the detective who cares for K-9 Sully, he may not be here today.
“It's a very scary, very scary situation for the handler,” said O’Keefe. “But thankfully, he was very quick to jump into action and most likely saved Sully’s life.”