Recently we were presented with a scary situation for one of our clients. The client has two toy poodles. The dogs had been outside for a few minutes and when they came in, one was chewing on a green colored block. The owner realized the substance looked like rat poison so she called us and brought her to the clinic immediately.
The owner did not use any rodenticides on their property so she had no idea how the dog obtained the product or what the product was.
On presentation, the poor little poodle was nervous but otherwise appeared normal. We gave an injection to induce vomiting. The medicine was effective but there was no obvious evidence of the characteristic green tint of the mouse bait. Since both dogs were together when they found the block of poison it was decided to induce vomiting in the other dog as well. Again we did not see evidence of granules of the poison.
Meanwhile, the staff were comparing pictures of rat bait with the block that the poodles were found chewing on. Pictures of Tom Cat Bromethalin rat poison matched the product.
Many people are familiar with rat poison that results in bleeding. This chemical is particularly deadly because unlike anticoagulant poisons, there is no antidote for Bromethalin. This chemical causes neurologic problems like swelling of the brain. If an animal eats this toxin, the only course of management is to induce vomiting if presented within 4 hours of exposure and then to give activated charcoal. The charcoal may need to be given multiple times over 2 days depending on the dose ingested.
In this case, we really didn’t know if one or either of the dogs ate any of the poison but we didn’t want to take a chance since these dogs were only 10 lbs. They were each given one dose of activated charcoal. Both were lucky. The owner still doesn’t know how the bait ended up in her yard. There have been reports in which rodents will carry baits out of traps and could have dropped it in the poodle’s reach.
Please be aware there are multiple types of rat/mouse poison on the market. Many people use rodenticides at this time of year when putting vehicles, etc. away for the winter. Pets can be very crafty in finding hidden poison so be extremely careful if you decide to use chemicals to control rodents. If your animal does get into a poison, collect the packaging and a sample of the product and contact your veterinarian. The products with Bromethalin really scare me since there is no antidote.
Nov 20 2015
