Poison Prevention

 March is Poison Prevention month and I found this adorable blog on the web that gives me every month’s animal holiday/awareness.

Quick Tip: Petful,  A Full List Of Pet Holidays Throughout the Year.  By Melissa Smith • Dec 30 2019

     Poison/toxicity cases come our way at an average of bimonthly.  Usually we get a call where the owner knows what the pet had ingested, which is always helpful so we can get ready.  We usually always call poison control especially for ingestion that are not typical I.e. mushrooms. Here are some typical poisons ingested by our furry children.  

Quick Tip: A helpful article listed the Top 10 Toxins 

Announcing the Top Pet Toxins of 2016

March 1, 2017

According to this article by the ASPCA the 1st top toxin is 

1. Human Prescription Medications: Granted this article was researched in 2016 this is a subject that I can not see changing to much.  In my 15 year experience in the Veterinarian world I have not seen too many cases of pets ingesting prescription meds. It could be my location, my whole career has been here on the Central Coast.  The saddest case I have been involved in with this matter was a small long haired Chihuahua who got a hold and ingested her Owners topical cancer medication. I have seen dozens of incidences where dogs have gotten into majiuana usually through an edible, one in particular almost did not make it he had severe hypotension and bradycardia.  
2. Over-The-Counter products. OTC: This one is I have seen a lot because people think its ok to give NSAIDS anti-inflammatory drugs.  Felines are especially sensitive to this otc because their metabolism is very different then dogs and humans, they metabolize nsaids a lot slower so it takes a lot longer to leave their system.  It causes major GI upsetness in both dogs and cats and neither should have human nsaids. There are veterinarian anti-inflammatory products made for dogs and a one I know of made for cats.  
3. Food: This one applies mostly to dogs.  My top most fearful food a dog gets into is grapes/raisins both being the same thing they both do the same thing which is renal failure ( kidney failure) The one I see the most though is chocolate ingestion.  A lot of people do not know that the darker the chocolate the more dangerous and higher in toxicity. A little chocolate usually will just cause GI up-setness with the possibility of vomit and or diarrhea. I have also seen some scary emergencies where the pet got into sugarless gum which has xylitol in it, this will lower a pets sugar level to a very dangerous level.  Hypoglycemia can cause coma and death. Other foods that are toxic towards pets are avocados, onions, and garlic, mushrooms (the few cases I have seen have been straight from the yard)
4. Veterinarian products: This at first surprised me when I saw it and I thought to myself how can I list this one.  After I thought about it for a minute I realized that I have seen toxicity and overdosing, which becomes poisonous.  I’ve been involved in plenty of cases where the pet got into a medication prescribed for them but actually ate the whole bottle which then became very dangerous.  I recently had a situation where an owner mixed up her pets meds and she overdosed her pet with a medication it was not supposed to have. I’ve seen owners put flea meds meant for dogs onto their cats which is very toxic to cats and causes seizures.  So it makes sense that it is on the board 
5. HouseHold Items:  There are lots of home chemical dangers that pets can get into!  Bleach, cleaners, glue, detergent, antifreeze would be the most common one I have experience in seeing. With food toxins we will induce vomiting but with harsh chemical that is actually contraindicated due to burning the esophageal and other soft tissues on the way up.  Instead we would coat the stomach with an absorbent and do other warranted treatments.   
6. Chocolate: which was covered in 3 but it obviously happens enough for the ASPCA to give it its own category. 
7. Insecticides: They reported that this one went down in popularity, from being #3 in 2015 to now #7 in 2016.  Partly because I know they make more pet safer products also when you tell a company that you have pets they will use appropriate products and still inform you how long to keep your pets away.  Personally I am very careful whenever using anything in my house like Raid, Ortho, Ant traps, I had a personal scare when my oldest fur child licked my brothers baseboards ( because that’s what she does, licks EveryThing!) He had just sprayed the inside of his apartment baseboards for ants and Shea went into acute renal failure!  Driving home a day later she urinated in my lap without giving any indication she had to go. I took her straight into work when I got home and did diagnostics. After some investigation and remembering seeing her lick the baseboards we discovered what happened. Well I got her in on time and she was on IV fluids for 2 days! We saved her life but I got a good scare thanks to pesticides. 
8. Rodenticides: I am surprised this one is only number 8,  In my 15years of experience mice and rat bait have been a common poison treated for pet ingestion.  One of the main ingredients in rodenticides is long-acting anticoagulants, this type of poison works by preventing blood from clotting, causing internal bleeding.  48 hours is the typical amount of time until it takes effect. Signs to watch for would be lethargy, exercise intolerance, coughing/difficulty breathing. Always look at pets gums for color, they should be pink and slippery if ever light pink or white then anemia is a huge concern. 
9. Plants: This one is for all the Feline lovers/owners.  Yes some dogs like to chew on plant leaves but not as much as I see cats do.  The most common flower I have seen poison cats are Lilies.  

Top 5 poisonous plants to our feline friends are 1) Lilies 2) Sago Palms 3) Azaleas and Rhododendrons 4) Dieffenbachia (Dumb Cane) 5) Cannabis

10. Garden Products: ASPCA said that this only accounted for 2.6% of their cases in the year of 2016 with herbicides and fungicides which would be products like Roundup or Crossbow.  Fungicides would be Scotts Disease EX, Bio Advanced, Daconil. 

Well that was a lot to cover!  Plain and simple if your pet has gotten into anything that it should not whether it be an overdose of a pet/human medication, human food , or poisonous products then call and prepare for a Vet visit!  It could mean life or death! 

Thanks For Reading 

Heidi Parker