Mouse/Rat Poisoning in Dogs

[doco]

Another poster asked about GSP's escaping and why...Desire, Boredom and Drive. However there can be consequences we are unaware of.

As an addition to that topic on escaping, my FC Abbey got out last fri, through an open gate. My wife found her in the neighborhood 15 min's later and brought her home, no harm, no foul. So we thought! She came up lame yesterday, WED, she took her to the Vet and she was fading fast. She must have gotten into someones mouse/rat poison when she had escaped. Had to rush her 3 hours to the nearest critical care center. The new 2500HD Diesel handled well at 85 - 90. She was on her last minutes as we pulled in. She was beginning to pass gas, void urine, and gasp within the last 1/2 hour of the trip as my wife was holding her with an IV drip in. Her entire mouth was ash gray and ice ice cold. 2 blood transfusions last night and she is starting to come around. No proof or evidence of poison yet, and it is not my neighbors fault if she did, it is mine for her getting out. I can train the animals, I have not been able to train the children. All Gates will have padlocks this weekend.

The poison caused her to bleed out in the chest cavity. So between the chest tube and transfusions, she was able to start clotting again and the bleeding has hopefully subsided as her PCB levels are up and she is apparently not losing any more blood. She is probably 70% out of the woods. Not sure if any permanent damage and won't know for a while. If she makes it, and it does look good, she'll only be down for a month. She'll be down until summer or I see that she is ready to begin conditioning.

I wholeheartedly believe that if it were not for the extremely rigorous roading program I use, 12 months on and 0 months off, a cardiovascular weaker dog would have perished. I am well aware that many feel the dogs need a break, however, it is my opinion that the building up and letting down of muscle tissue is more detrimental than constant work. A person that gains and loses weight consistently stresses his body more than one that either gains it or loses it and maintains that level. Although the drive to survive is strong in our animals, they are only as good as their pump. All the blood in the cavity was compressing the lungs and causing the heart to work harder.

FYI do not use mouse/rat poison or if you suspect that your animal may have ingested some or they come up lame and there has been a possibility of it, look in their stools for the green undigestible blocks . Hopefully, a great ending will follow and I'll be able to finish her AFC this fall. Please be careful, I had never heard of this common occurence.

Bill

[Cajun Casey]

Hope things work out for her. Keep an eye on her pancreas from now on. On a brighter note, uncontained rodenticides are now off the public market, so perhaps thete will be fewer of these incidents in the future.

[bossman]

doco, Hope she is fine. Post contained good information. I have always admired your dogs when you have posted pictures. Great looking dogs! Best of luck!

[mcbosco]

Sounds like the dog is in good hands. This is one of those situations where the extra Vitamin K in dog foods probably came in handy. Im sure the vet gave some as well.

[wems2371]

Hope things work out for her. Keep an eye on her pancreas from now on. On a brighter note, uncontained rodenticides are now off the public market, so perhaps thete will be fewer of these incidents in the future.

Curious what you mean by uncontained? The farm stores still sell bulk blocks and pellets in buckets, to be used however. You can buy a bait block trap to put them in, but I doubt most folks do, at around $15 each. Tomcat makes less expensive bait block holders, that hold a single block, but they are flimsy plastic and would be easily chewable by a dog. I bought a few for my camper that sits outside over the winter.

[JIM K]

people throw their rat poison over banks here in renovo,pa .area to kill rats.
TOBY when he was young ate box.
lucky i saw box in brush.
i called vet and he said,JIM YOU GOT 30 MINUTES TO GET IT OUT OF HIM.
get bottle of epacat syrup .
it was midnight.

called everyone i knew, no one had it.
so i headed to the local pharmacist after notifying police i was going to break window aqnd get syrup.
had 5 minutes to go.
i was at door and brother found syrup.
gave it to TOBY.
he threw up this awful BLUE mess.
it looked like a big bowl of blue oatmeal.
if i would not have done this he would have been on k-1 shots for month.
possibly dead.
lucky i saw him eat it.

i got 3 bottles of syrup now at home and keep 1 bottle in my dog emergency kit while hunting.

[Thunder]

It is Ipecac syrup. It was used in small doses as an expectorant (to force up phlegm). In larger doses it is a powerful emetic agent (causes vomiting).
Not recommended for humans anymore though.

[Thunder]

I have a question that maybe someone here can answer. Clearly it is dangerous for our dogs to eat rodent poison... but what are the consequences when a dog eats a mouse that has succumbed to the poison? Is there enough residual poison in the mouse carcass to harm a 70 lb dog??

[doco]

All is well for now. She is home doing great, and all of her blood levels returned to normal within a week. When we left with her 5 & 7....5 days and 7K later, she still had a walnut sized clot in her chest where the bleed had started. Just did an ultrasound and the clot is completely gone. She is back to normal and I'll slowly bring her back into training within the next 1 - 2 months after giving her time to heal. Vet says there shouldn't be any permanent damage and I can begin working her for a month, but I don't want to risk it. Plenty of time this summer to get her back. Thanks for the comments and concerns.

I have a question that maybe someone here can answer. Clearly it is dangerous for our dogs to eat rodent poison... but what are the consequences when a dog eats a mouse that has succumbed to the poison? Is there enough residual poison in the mouse carcass to harm a 70 lb dog??

I had read that there shouldn't be enough poison in a dead rodent to affect a dog.

Bill

[mudpuppy1299]

Good to hear your pup is doing well. It is very terrifying going through a poisoning incident. My pup ingested rat poison when she was 8 months old. She carried the box to me, so I knew she had ingested at least a trace amount. We were told to induce vomitting with hydrogen peroxide; it did the job. She was still prescribed vitamin K for one month. From what I have studied, there can be enough residual poison in a dead mouse/rat to harm a dog; it depends on what type of poison it was though. Rozol, the most prevalent type used on farms, doesn't leave enough residual poison. The other type(can't remember name) can even seep into the ground where the animal who ingested it died. Either way, this poison is nothing to take lightly as, unfortunately, many of us have had to learn.

[birddogger]

You are very fortunate. Close call for sure but the fact that you acted so quickly and got cooperation from the authorities saved the day. Glad everything turned out well for you and your dog!

Charlie