Sunny’s Health Scare

When your new dog eats rat poison…

So from the title you can surmise that we had a health scare where my dog eats rat poison. Let’s have a story time, folks.

We drove down to Jacksonville Beach for a week long vacation on Friday, me, my son, one of his friends and our dog Sunny, a rat terrier mix of some sort. She’s too small to be full rat terrier, I think, as she’s just at 6.5 lbs, but she’s definitely mostly rat terrier.

The drive to Jacksonville Beach from Athens is not a bad drive and we made really good time. Yesterday was our first full day here and we got going early. I just got my dog in May, and am so in love with her. Sunny was awake at 6:00 and ready to go out on her first walk of the day. She likes to have at least three or four walks a day, the more the better with her, really. We watched the sunrise. When we got back I drank some tea and then went to take a shower.

Terrier Behavior

My dog is really a good girl but she has a propensity to get into things. She’s a terrier of some concoction, mostly Rat Terrier but probably some other things too. Her behavior is all rat terrier. She’s very curious and likes to get under things to sniff out potential vermin. It’s what the breed was bred to do, so it makes sense that she naturally gets into things. But sometimes that can be really bad.

When I got out of the shower she was so happy to present me with a green block that she’d found and subsequently eaten the corner off of. My first instinct was that it was rat poison, not that I have great familiarity with the stuff but it looked like the color of rat poison I’d seen before. It was big, though, like a block.

I asked my parents if they had rat poison traps out in the house. They didn’t know of any rat poison in their house. They had a rodent problem several years ago, but the company who came out had set traps instead of using rodenticide. They’ve had this house for more than a decade, so it might have fallen from the attic, or been under a piece of furniture that hasn’t moved since they moved it. Who knows really.

Normal Day

We went about our day. Sunny acted normal all day. Around 5:00 my son took Sunny on a walk. Just a few minutes into their walk he called me because Sunny had vomited twice. I circled back to worrying that the mysterious green thing she’d munched on and google image searched it and the worst scenario came true because it was indeed rat poison that she had ingested.

So what happens when your dog eats rat poison?

Someone who lives in my parent’s neighborhood works at First Coast Veterinary Specialists, a 24 hour Vet ER in Jacksonville Beach, FL and our first thought was to go to her house for a quick word and to see if she recommended we take Sunny in. I was already wanting to take Sunny to be seen but it was our first reaction to see what someone would say informally like that. She was very nice and highly encouraged us to take her regardless of the situation. We don’t know how much Sunny ate or how old the poison is, but it didn’t really matter.

So we got in the car and rushed to the vet. Luckily the Vet ER is right close to my parents house, like 0.6 miles close! We went inside and they suggested that I call the ASPCA Poison Control care line and complete a consultation with them. So I got on the phone right there in their waiting room and went through the consultation. They walked me through information about the three main types of rodenticide that are most common on the market and what potential decontamination protocols might look like for each of them.

Which kind of rat poison did your dog eat?

Since we do not have the packaging for the rat poison we cannot know for sure which sort of poison it is. It’s important to have the packaging so they can eliminate guess work, but in our case we don’t have it. The poison itself might have been a decade old!

Rodenticide is bad news, folks

So the vet errs on the side of caution and treats for all three major types. They are all pretty horrible, and I don’t agree with poison as a method of rodent control, personally. Quick death if any death is needed, is my point of view, so when a place has a rodent infestation I am all for quick trap death over slow poisoning because they all sound pretty horrible and inhumane.

Especially when one thinks about the same things happening to their beloved pets, I think it becomes easier to see how gruesome poisons are. Almost as bad a glue traps, which are incredibly inhumane and I am fully against as someone who has seen innocent snakes trapped in glue traps and painstakingly removed. Don’t use those, folks, really.

Dog Eats Rat Poison? Go to the vet

Anyway, Sunny got a full blood panel done, some anti-nausea medicine injected (the same that she was given after her spay only 11 days ago!), had activated charcoal administered and had subcutaneous fluids injected to make up for the dehydration from vomiting. We are monitoring her closely and taking her back to the vet for the next four days to recheck her bloodwork to monitor the levels of certain things in her blood. The vet was fairly sure that if by day 5 the levels are okay still we will be out of the woods.

This is terrifying as a new dog owner, but I am thankful the vets and the techs and everyone at First Coast Veterinary Specialists were so amazing and caring with us. Sunny came back after her bloodwork and injections with a spiffy new bandana that makes her look somehow even cuter than before and we are just watching her carefully for any symptoms of toxicity. We will take her back at 4pm today to get her second round of bloodwork done to monitor levels.

Keep us in your thoughts, she’s my baby!