When I was researching rodenticide poisoning, I remember that they (vets) recommend a medicine that everyone should have on hand in case your dog got into something that could be fatal, especially if you are more than a few mins from a vet clinic – time is literally life or death in many of these situations. I will have to look up what that med is….I teach all of my dogs the ‘leave it’ command & strictly enforce it. I even set them up as a training exercise – in the last month I have read (from friends) about dogs going to dog parks, picking up a toy that was on the ground, & then either becoming gravely ill or dying cause some sicko put poison on the toy. Yes, it takes a lot of time to teach a dog to not touch a yummy piece of elk that I’ve dropped on the floor, but it is possible. I even train them outside to ignore live rabbits, horse poop, deer poop, etc.
Here’s the big reason why……people put out poison for mice, coyotes, etc. – if your dog eats that dead mouse, or dead coyote, then your dog just ingested poison, indirectly. Even if that mouse/coyote/bird has been dead for 2 months that poison is still toxic – most of them have a half-life of YEARS! And if your dog dies, & you think it was from poison, you still may never know exactly what happened. I suspected poison when my dog died so unexpectedly (asleep for 8 hrs on my bed & jumped off yelping @5 am) but the pathologist told me (the day my dog died) that i had to know which poison because they don’t do like a ‘total poison screen’ test – they have to test for each individual possible poison! Well, hell, do you know how many poisons there are out there? I didn’t then, but there are a LOT & yes, most of them will kill your dog in less than a day, but, now there are some ‘newer’ poisons that take longer to work & many dogs show no symptoms & then if they do start showing signs, by then it is too late to save them. Sorry if I am scaring you guys, but there are a lot of dogs dying from suspicious causes & there is no single test that the pathologist can use to determine cause of death. I will try & find out what that med is that they say you can give your dog if you suspect poisoning….. & also, they don’t always advise making your dog throw up, it can actually make the situation worse in some cases.
