poisoning
symptoms
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Lethargy
- Lack of appetite
- Staggering
- Difficulty breathing
- Hyper-excitability
- Muscle rigidity
- Tremors
- Sensitivity to touch, light, or sound
- Seizures
- Coma
- None of the above - a dog may not show any outward sign of discomfort after eating a known toxin. This does not mean they have not been affected - if you know they have eaten something toxic, always phone your vet. No matter how well your dog appears to be, the toxin could be doing irreversible damage to your dog's internal organs.
What to do if you think your dog has been poisoned
Phone your vet immediately. Tell them what your dog has eaten, if you know, and what their symptoms are. Advise your vet that you have activated charcoal and an emetic of some sort (powdered mustard, hydrogen peroxide, etc) to hand and ask them if you should use them and how much to use. Different kinds of poisoning will be treated in different ways, always defer to your vet's wisdom on this matter.
warning
Never administer an emetic if your dog may have scavenged something sharp such as a cooked bone or stone, or something petroleum based/acidic. It can cause terrible gastric/oesophageal damage.
prevention
- Never allow your dog to drink from puddles as they can contain anti-freeze which is lethal in very small doses.
- Never use slug pellets on any part of the garden that your dog has access to.
- Never store medication or household chemicals within reach of your dog.
- Do not feed your dog chocolate, raisins, grapes or macadamia nuts. In general it takes a large amount of these foods to poison a dog. However, some dogs can be extremely sensitive so never assume that there is a 'safe' amount for these foods, avoid them altogether.
- I refer you to the Dog's Trust website for the most exhaustive and up to date list of common poisons that I could find, although they missed out Macadamia nuts which can be extremely toxic to dogs.
- Some types of cat litter are clumpable and can cause an obstruction if eaten. If you have cats, only ever use non-clumpable litter in their trays.`