Poisoning is the intoxication of an organism when poison enters it. Dogs are more likely than cats to be in such danger, as they are not very picky about food, they can eat whatever they give, pick up something on the street, chew on a poisoned object. Poisoning in an animal can be accidental, or maybe planned, when someone deliberately harms dogs. In this article, we will talk about the necessary actions if the dog was poisoned: what to do, symptoms and treatment of poisoning.
Poisoning hazard
In most cases, the owners themselves are to blame for the poisoning of the pet. There can be many reasons:
- Acute food poisoning can be caused if you feed the dog spoiled foods. Many people think that throwing away food is a pity, and the dog can digest everything, and nothing will happen to her. This is a huge mistake, because the stomach of the animal is much more sensitive than the human one, and expired, obviously sour foods cannot be given to dogs.
- A dog can play with an object that has fallen under its paws - bottles with household chemicals, hair dye, means for combating insects and rodents, and so on. Never leave things dangerous for his health in the four-legged zone of reach, they can not only harm the dog, but also kill it.
- An incorrectly calculated dosage of the drug is the main danger in self-medication. Even the means for worms and the dose should be prescribed by a veterinarian.
- Feeding a pet cheap food from an unknown manufacturer.
- Walking unattended. In the countryside, it would seem, nothing threatens the dog. This is not true. Doggie can enjoy poisonous plants, lick zucchini treated with poison from insects. In the city, a doggie can eat from a garbage can, play with a cigarette butt and swallow it - all this is a danger to the body.
Even under the supervision of the owner, the dog is not safe. Today on the streets of the city there are many "dog hunters" - dog hunters. They scatter goodies that are stuffed with poison in places where they walk. The eaten piece acts quickly, within a maximum of an hour the animal dies in agony. Unprepared for such situations, dog owners do not know when the dog was poisoned, what to do. Symptoms and treatment of poisoning, first aid measures - in the further content of the publication. All this should know every loving owner.
What are the poisonings?
Poisoning in dogs, as in humans, is food and non-food. The first species is more common. A dog may eat something that contains toxins. The poison enters the body, causing intoxication. Symptoms of dog poisoning, and what to do in such cases, will be described later.
The second type is not food poisoning. This happens when poisons get into the respiratory tract, on the coat and skin of the animal, on its mucous membranes. This type is much less common.
If the dog is poisoned, what should I do? Symptoms are the first thing we suggest considering. To begin with, we will understand the general signs of poisoning, they may not occur with every type of poisoning. Next, we will analyze the most common types of poisoning, find out about the symptoms and methods of first aid.
Symptoms of dog poisoning, and what to do first
Symptoms can be very different, but most often the following occur:
- vomiting - not single, but frequent;
- diarrhea;
- drowsiness and lethargy, or vice versa, overexcitation;
- cramps
- chills;
- salivation increases;
- breathing becomes frequent and shallow;
- tachycardia is possible.
If the dog has been poisoned, what to do first of all, everyone should know to provide assistance before the arrival of the veterinarian. First of all, call a doctor at home, or call and schedule an appointment so that you are already waiting. Next, you need to give the animal first aid.
First aid for poisoning
What to do, than to water a dog in case of poisoning? Many owners start a real panic, they just do not know how to help their pet. If you are sure that the dog did not pick up and lick anything on the street, then most likely the poison got into the body through the skin and coat. It is necessary to remove the poisonous substance, which continues to penetrate more and more. To do this, the poison must be washed off using running water.
With food poisoning, the first thing you need to do is to clear the animal’s stomach from the remains of a toxic substance. It is necessary to do a gastric lavage using a large amount of water, in which to dilute the salt (tablespoon per glass). A mixture of water with hydrogen peroxide, a proportion of 1/1, will also help.
What to do when a dog is poisoned through the respiratory tract? The first step is to take the animal to a well-ventilated room or to the street. If the poisoning was caused by inhaled gasoline vapors (this happens in garages and in the courtyard where the car is standing), you will need to drink two tablespoons of sunflower oil to the dog, and after a while give a laxative.
But each type of poisoning requires its own necessary assistance. We examined the options for first aid in case the owner does not know what exactly the pet poisoned. Next, we propose to consider what to do in case of dog poisoning, if it is known what caused this condition.
Poisoning by poor-quality products
If you are sure that the dog ate something spoiled, of poor quality, then you need to first cleanse the stomach of the remnants of this food. How to wash the stomach, we already wrote above, now we will consider the necessary further actions if the dog was poisoned by food. What to do besides gastric lavage? It is necessary to give the animal sorbents to cleanse the body of toxins. It could be:
- activated carbon - one tablet per ten kilograms of weight (if the dog is small, then one tablet);
- egg white separated from the yolk;
- kaolin;
- magnesia.
Also good for food poisoning helps milk, strong tea and a weak solution of manganese.
After first aid, you still need to see a doctor, even if the condition has begun to normalize.
If the dog was poisoned by doghunters
What to do if a dog is poisoned on the street? First of all, try to remember what and where the dog could pick up and devour. If this is just a bone, then the animal has a simple food poisoning, and the symptoms do not appear immediately. If the pet has found a treat abandoned by the doghunters, then the symptoms will manifest quickly - in half an hour or an hour, this is:
- confused consciousness;
- loss of orientation;
- the dog can start to rush, while it will swing;
- vomiting
- often bloody foam from the mouth;
- the dog becomes sleepy;
- oppressed breathing;
- cramps.
If you do not urgently take measures to provide assistance, the dog will fall into a coma, then die. Unfortunately, Isoniazid has already killed many animals. It is this drug that doghunters use to carry out their plans. "Isoniazid" is a medicine for treating tuberculosis in humans, but for animals it is a deadly poison that causes severe poisoning in dogs. What if these terrible symptoms appear?
- Always store "Pyridoxine" in the medicine cabinet - 1% vitamin B6. It will be he who will be the first necessary help in eliminating such poisoning. It is necessary to inject 30-50 ml (depending on the size of the animal) of the medicine intravenously. If you do not know how to do intravenous injections, then stab into the muscle.
- Rinse the pet’s stomach with the rest of the poison. This will require a saline solution or half a glass of sunflower oil.
- Of the sorbents, activated carbon will perfectly help - per kilogram of mass three grams of coal will be required.
- Give the animal "Corvalol" in the amount of 30 drops per 40 kilograms of the pet.
- Urgently call the veterinarian to your house, and while he is driving, give the dog a huge amount of water or give him water diluted in half with milk.
Dog poisoned with rat poison: what to do?
The four-legged can in the most secret places find this poison, which people use to fight rodents. If poison is the basis of drugs that violate blood coagulation, then there will be blood in the feces and vomit. If the dog ate Bromethalin, the symptoms will be as follows:
- lack of coordination;
- paralysis of the hind legs;
- epileptic seizures;
- complete loss of appetite, leading to anorexia;
- spontaneous muscle contraction;
- depression of the central nervous system.
The poison acts very slowly, and the first symptoms can appear only on the third or fifth day after eating the poison. If the dose is small, then the dog may not show signs of poisoning for up to ten days.
The first thing to do when these symptoms appear is to wash the stomach and intestines. If saline helps with the stomach, then a probe is needed to clean the intestines. While waiting for a doctor, you can give your pet a laxative. Next, you need a sorbent, activated carbon is quite suitable.
Further, the animal will need to administer intravenously "Vikasol" - vitamin K. The dosage is 1 ml for small breeds and puppies, and 2 ml for large dogs. Other drugs: anticonvulsants, for seizures and for the nervous system, only the veterinarian will prescribe, as well as the duration of treatment.
The dog needs to flush the stomach every 4-8 hours. At the same intervals, immediately after washing, it is necessary to give a sorbent.
If the dog is poisoned, eats nothing, what should I do? Do not force the animal to eat through power, cook the broth on the meat. Poisoning with rat poison fights off appetite for a long time, and the dog during this time is much thinner. After the pet gets better, take care of a nutritious diet with a lot of proteins and vitamins.
Acid or alkali poisoning
What to do when poisoning a dog with caustic substances? The main thing is not to harm even more. Do not induce vomiting, but rinsing is required. To do this, call the veterinarian, he will wash the stomach of the animal through a tube. While waiting for a doctor, you need to provide first aid:
- Rinse the dog’s mouth and nose with clean water.
- Forcibly pour into the mouth, and make sure that the dog swallows, from half a liter to a liter of water, in which you need to dilute a good sorbent. If nothing is at hand, strong tea will do.
- Do not pour neutralizing substances, such as citric acid or soda, into your mouth; your stomach can be harmed even more.
Arsenic poisoning
If the dog somewhere found and ate this dangerous poison, then from its mouth will smell like garlic! It is impossible not to catch this smell, so take action immediately, without waiting for other symptoms.
Rinse the stomach of the animal, this is a mandatory measure, because the remnants of the poison, soaking further, will only aggravate the situation. Next, you need a sorbent. After first aid, you need to drink 50-100 ml of solution every 15 minutes to the dog:
- half a liter of warm water;
- one hundred grams of ferric oxide;
- 20 grams of magnesium oxide.
It is necessary to drink about three times from the moment of detection of signs of poisoning. If after the third drinking does not get better, then you need to give a fourth dose while you wait for the vet.
Water is the first remedy for poisoning
Poisoning causes severe vomiting and diarrhea. All this dehydrates and depletes the body, it becomes even weaker, cannot resist to its full capacity. To help your pet, give him small amounts of water. If you give a lot at once, the dog will simply vomit. In small sips, water will have time to be absorbed.
When vomiting stops, watch for the dog to drink a lot. For him, food will not be as important as drinking.
How will the dog be helped in the clinic?
In case of any poisoning, you must definitely call the veterinarian at home or take your pet to the clinic yourself. This is necessary, because only on your own to help the animal will be very difficult. The doctor will definitely need to tell about all the symptoms, remember what he ate, where the dog was in the last 3-5 days. Perhaps the dog was poisoned by rat poison, and the owner thought that he got poor-quality food or a stale piece. The veterinarian will more accurately determine the cause of the poisoning, and prescribe the appropriate treatment.
How will the veterinarians help the dog when handling:
- Rinse the stomach.
- They will make an enema, which will help to more thoroughly wash the remaining poison from the intestines.
- They will introduce an antidote, a special antidote that will speed up the healing process and generally increase the chances of salvation if the poisoning was caused by strong poisons.
- To quickly remove the poison from the blood, the veterinarian will prescribe diuretics.
- Next, treatment is carried out aimed at restoring breathing, the work of the heart and liver.
- If there are convulsions, then it will be necessary to introduce a remedy against convulsions. If foodborne toxicosis, then prescribed treatment with antibiotics.
Do not try to cope with poisoning only on your own. In the clinic, they will also put a dropper with saline or glucose so that the animal is not finished off by dehydration. The faster you seek the help of a veterinarian, the greater the chances of saving the dog. Even light food poisoning can cause permanent damage to your pet’s health.
Recovery period
What to do when the dog is poisoned, figured out. Now we need to touch on the topic of restoring a pet after intoxication.
The first is a mandatory diet. The diet in the first week after poisoning should consist of easily digestible foods. The day after poisoning, you need to give only water. From the next day, in small portions, you need to give such products as:
- oatmeal;
- boiled meat: poultry, veal, beef, rabbit;
- liver scalded with boiling water;
- boiled eggs;
- cottage cheese;
- yogurt.
Litter should be dry. If the dog is a yard, then put him on a recovery period in the house, the place should be warm, dry, but ventilated.
So that poisoning does not recur, carefully watch the animals while walking, do not allow anything not only edible, but also various objects to be lifted from the ground. Take toys with you so that the dog does not bite the stick. Clean household chemicals in the inaccessible zone. Never give your dog expired products. If the diet consists of dry food, then choose not the cheapest.