Friday, August 30, 2013

Simple Guide to Dogs: Rat Poison Symptoms


Rats are one of the most annoying visitors on our house that we often want to get rid off by putting baits or poisons in the area where they usually harbors. Incidentally these rat poisons could also pose great danger to our beloved cuddly best friends. Our pets can sometimes get poisoned by these rodenticides either by directly eating the bait or by eating the corpse of a poisoned rat or rodents.

Rodenticides contain warfarin and other poisonous chemicals that when ingested could lead to internal bleeding and hemorrhage. Although they are mainly designed to kill rodents, the same chemical is deadly to other animals especially to house pets. However, poisoned bait does not kills rat abruptly, it usually take few hours or days for the poison to enter their system, unfortunately during this time poisoned rats can go to different area in the house until they die, this is when our dogs or other house pets could possibly eat their corpse. The sad part is that dogs that were poisoned by rat killers do not show immediate symptoms, similar to rats, it will take hours or days before showing obvious signs such as external bleeding and blood loss, making the medication too late to save our pets.

There are ways however to determine if your dog or other pet is in danger of poisoning, you may not be able to cure them directly but knowing these symptoms can help you in determining whether your pet needs immediate professional attention before it's too late.

1. Food aversion or loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting

2. Fatigue, trembling of muscles, uncoordinated gait and difficulty in breathing

3. Bloody urine and bloody or bright green stool

4. External bruising, hair loss or coma

5. Weakness, exhaustion and inability to stand

6. Mild to severe cough, lung problems, diarrhea

7. Nose bleeding or blood in saliva

8. Gum bleeding or lung bleeding

9. Drooling, slobbering or salivating

10. Depression, despair or dejection

Sometimes the surest way to avoid dogs from rat poisoning is to keep them contained in a cage, that way they will have no chance of wandering around the corner of the house and eating decayed bodies of rodents or accidentally eating the poison designed to kill those annoying pests.

Pesticides and other harmful chemicals should also be kept locked up in a secure place that cannot be reached by dogs accidentally.

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