BEWARE! RAT/MOUSE AND SNAIL/SLUG BAIT POISONINGS
Unfortunately over the past few weeks, we have been seeing a number of cases of pets (mainly dogs) being poisoned by eating the baits that have been laid in the home or yard for rats/mice and snails/slugs. PLEASE be careful about where these baits are stored, and make sure your pet cannot access them. They are designed to be appealing to rodents or snails, and so this makes them also appealing to inquisitive pets!
RAT AND MOUSE BAITS:
Rat and mouse baits can contain a number of active ingredients, but the thing they all have in common is that they are ANTICOAGULANTS. This means they cause the blood of the pet to stop clotting, and then the pet can suffer from bleeding either externally or internally. Rat and mouse baits take approximately one week to start poisoning your pet, so there is a window of time after they have eaten a bait, to get them onto treatment before they get sick. Early treatment is Vitamin K1, which helps restore the blood’s clotting ability, and pets are treated until the toxin is clear of their system, which can take up to 6 weeks! Severely affected pets can bleed to death, or require a blood transfusion to save it’s life. One recent rat bait case at MMVH was saved by Jim and Renae’s dog Alice, who provided the blood for a much-needed blood transfusion. Thanks Alice!
SNAIL AND SLUG BAITS:
Snail and slug baits mainly contain either metaldehyde (green) or methiocarb (blue), both of which are NEUROTOXINS. This means the baits cause neurological signs, mainly salivation, muscle tremors, twitching, agitation and seizures. Untreated seizures can result in heat stroke, organ failure and death. Treatment involves removing the toxin from the body either via causing vomiting or using a stomach pump, and often an anaesthetic to control the tremors and seizures until the toxin is excreted. We had a recent case where the dog had eaten a large amount of pellets, and needed a long anaesthetic and stomach pump to remove all of the poison. Luckily this fellow made a full recovery.
DO NOT BE FOOLED by so-called “pet friendly” snail and slug pellets. These baits contain an excess of Iron EDTA, which can result in severe gastrointestinal ulceration at the time of ingestion, and permanent liver damage afterwards. Treatment is much more complicated, and the long term affects on your pet are more serious. We do NOT consider these baits to be “pet friendly” at all.