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Originally Posted by capt_noonie  We don't know what caused Scrappy to start having seizures, but his vet suspected rat poison. It certainly was possible since MIL kept some in her garden in random places. One night Scrappy was chewing on his favorite toy after dinner. Bf noticed blood on the toy and looked in his mouth. It looked like an impacted tooth so we took him to the vet the next day. The Dr took out the tooth that he thought was the problem. Within 24 hrs he started getting seizures. They got worse and worse throughout the day. He did not want to eat at all. His breathing very labored. He struggled to get up and all he wanted to do was drink tons of water. I rushed him back to the vet and just around the corner of the vet he had another seizure and peed all over me. (He had not gone all day.)
When the vet stabilzed him he looked him over and saw bruising on his inner thigh. He did not fall or anything. He thought he must have internal bleeding and thought it was rat poison. He could not stay stabilized without being hooked up. Even in the oxygen box he could not stay up. By this point he was bleeding from the nose, and we decided it was best he be put down.
If he did not get some poison I have no idea what could have caused for him to go from perfectly normal to that in less than 48 hours. I highly doubt yours got into rat poison bc the symptoms don't sound like what we went though. I'm glad yours are doing better. It sure is very scary when something like that happens. I still haven't forgiven myself. |
I'm so sorry about Scrappy. Please forgive yourself; I'll bet Scrappy would and wouldn't want you to feel bad. We do the best we can with our beloved pets. Unfortunately we can't be with them every second, and rat bait is made to smell especially tasty to animals. He probably gobbled it up before anyone could notice.
From what I've read, most dogs don't show any symptoms until it's too late--days or weeks, I can't recall. Then they show the symptoms yours did. My dog/dogs vomited fairly soon after they ate this blue-green stuff that I believe, after researching and looking at pictures of the poison and vomit with the poison in it, was rat poison or something made to look exactly like rat poison. If one or both of them had not vomited, my story would probably end as sadly as yours, unfortunately, did. I still don't know what the final outcome will be, though I'm hopeful. I'm also afraid that, since I don't know what they found or where they found it, that it could happen again and next time I won't be so lucky as to see evidence almost immediately.
I was told that the key is to get dogs in, preferably within two hours so they can induce vomiting or at least within a day or two so they can get treatment to keep them from bleeding. But how are we supposed to do that unless we see them eat it, or find evidence.
In my research I learned that a rat, for example, can nibble on the poison and carry the rest of it someplace else where pets can get it, or the rat may die of the poison someplace that is available to your pet and your pet gets poisoned by eating or nibbling on the rat carcass. A poisoned mouse can squeeze through tiny cracks. They're made that way.
I read about dogs digging under fences to get at the poison the neighbors put out on the other side of the fence. The smell apparently is irresistible to animals. Other people put rat or mouse poison in their houses where none of us would think a dog could possibly get it, but the dog found a way. Dogs are more resourceful than we think they are.
Whatever made my dogs sick, I'm very grateful that they seem to be okay at the moment, and very sad that it didn't work out for Scrappy. I had to put a dog down nine years ago and I still cry when I think about him. So sorry for you loss.
But don't blame yourself. I'm sure you loved Scrappy and did your best. It's just that sometimes our very best intentions and all the love and caring we feel for them isn't enough. Though they feel like our children, they have canine impulses, and we can't act on what we don't know. Take care and thanks for posting.