Is your dog poisoned?
According to the Veterinary Institute of Integrative medicine, rat or mouse poison can result in chronic hemorrhage- (bleeding) – and bruising. Mouse and rat poisons can look like a yummy thing to eat to most dogs-(maybe that’s due to the shape of the tiny green blocks.) Your pet can easily detect and gobble up these harmful poisons without your even being aware of this!
As far as possible, protect your dog from rat and mice poisons. In the unlucky event of your dog unknowingly swallowing some, you will find an increased tendency to bleed due to ‘Anticoagulant rodenticide toxicity’ or poisoning. The bad news is that this bleeding appears days after ingesting the poison.
Alarmingly, a poisoned pet might start bleeding from the mouth, nose, urine or stools. Bad as this may seem, internal bleeding is scarier, as it can go on unnoticed till more serious respiratory problems or shock sets in. Poisoning can prove fatal; so make sure that you treat it on an urgent footing.
Rat poison in a pet can lessen your pet’s Vitamin K storage and without vitamin K the blood is not able to clot properly. If your canine looks depressed and is bruising and bleeding from any part of the body, while having difficulty breathing, along with signs of weakness—then the chances are that your pet is poisoned.
Vital self –help tips for poisoning
If you know that your canine was poisoned two to three hours ago, the best thing to do is to try and make them vomit it out.
- Your vet could give your dog the required dose of hydrogen peroxide or apomorphine to induce this vomiting.
- A dose of activated charcoal can also be given to soak up traces of leftover poison in the gastrointestinal tract.
- Next a blood test will locate any clotting abnormality.
Make sure that you give a Vitamin K supplement to your pet for from three to four weeks, depending on the type of poison found by your vet.
Remember to re-test these clotting times at the end of the treatment when your pet’s ability to clot blood should show a marked improvement.
But if you are treating your pet about three days later-after the symptoms show up, then there is no point trying to flush the poison out as indicated above. At this stage the only thing that could save your canine is an entire blood transfusion.
You will also need to treat the anemia with plasma and Vitamin K in order to control the bleeding. Sadly, a complete cure at this stage is rare. This is why it is so important to protect your canine from any kind of poisoning.
Where poisons lurk…
Keep your pet away from lawns and gardens that have just been fertilized- since iron-based fertilizers contain harmful herbicides like ‘mulch’ found in cocoa hulls. Like chocolate (YES CHOCOLATE!) Cocoa hulls can be toxic for your pooch if eaten in large enough quantities.
Other danger spots are piles of leaves that could conceal fungi and harmful molds that can produce toxic substances. Protect your pet by covering these piles of decaying matter and remember to clear them away as soon as possible.