Help! My dog ate rat poison!
Rodents have always been a problem in Anek’s grocery shop. And she’s thankful that her dog, Ocui, a thai-ridgeback is a good rat-hunter cum killer. As if Ocui did not do his job well, one day Anek bought some rat poisons (rodenticide) and mixed them with some cheese cakes in her shop.
One night, she found Ocui goblling up the cakes.
What Anek shouldn’t have done: Left Ocui accessible to the poisoned cakes.
1. Induce vomiting- she may do so by making Ocui drink some real salty water, or detergent, but all the same becareful of salt/detergent toxicity. Hydrogen peroxide may help sometimes.
2. Bring Ocui to the vet ASAP. Remember to bring along the poison label.
3. The vet’s priority is to reduce/stop the poison absorption. Some vets may continue to induce vomiting, while some will do gastric lavage and some will give activated charcoal to adsorb the toxins.
4. Depending on Ocui’s condition, the vet may decide to hospitalize and set him on drip/ blood transfusion, or send him home with some medications.
FACTS
Most rodenticides contain anticoagulants (ie warfarin, bramadioloneetc) as their active ingredient. Anticoagulants generally affect the body’s vitamin K cycle and thus Ocui may suffer from blood coagulopathy (clotting problems). With this in mind, most vets may inject Ocui with vitamin K1, or discharge him with vitamin K1 tablets.
A dog suffering from anticoagulant toxicity do not always show clinical signs until things get really bad - bleeding gums, dark tarry stools, vomiting blood, urinating blood, anorexia, lethargic, pallor (indicating internal bleeding).
Bear in mind tat while some poisons produce clinical signs in a matter of hours, some rodenticides may depress the blood clotting system for up to 4 weeks!
Thus it is very important for the pet owner to visit the vet for follow-up checks, just to make sure that things are indeed ok. 
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Why couldn’t Anek give the dog activated charcoal? Why waste precious time and have the vet do what you should’ve done right away?
The thing with dogs (as we all know) is they can’t talk and they can’t tell you where they’ve been, what they’ve eaten and if they feel sick.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Good question.
Giving activated charcoal is ok. But if you waste the precious time trying to get the activated charcoal into the dog, instead of bringing to the vet first, it’s not a good decision.
If Anek could feed the activated charcoals within seconds, she should do so, then quickly send O-cui to the vet. =)