Pup Poisoned

[RWDSteve 0]

Just thought I'd put this post up so that anyone else who might get these symptoms stands a chance of saving their dog.

 

About a month ago I'd been out round the back of my house changing a wheel on the car while my 9 month old pup Alfie (Whippet x Beddi) was messing around in the field and routing up and down the lane. I finished the job and went shopping with the pup in the car with me. An hour later on my way back home Alfie would twitch now and again, kicking a back leg out or shaking his head. I carried on home so I could have a proper look at him.

 

He seemed to walk around the house as if, to him, nothing was wrong. He wasn't distressed at all at this point. As after about 20mins he hadn't improved and he had started panting. I tried to give him some water and calm him down but the twitching got worse. By the time I left the house to get to the vets he was starting to go into a fit and by the time I got to the vet he was having a full blown one.

 

I sat and waited for the vet, not having a clue what was going on. When the nurse got Alfie in to assess him she covered him up with a towel at which point he went completely rigid, she picked him up and rushed him off into the next room. Five minutes later the vet came in to give me the bad news. Telling me it was some kind of fit or seizure, he may have been epileptic. All this happened in about an hour! Needless to say I was absolutely gutted as he'd hardly ever left my side since I'd had him and people often commented on how good condition he was in (in fact someone had that day).

 

That evening a neighbour came round and told me that a few cats had gone missing recently, a few had thrown up some blue stuff and a cat from down the road had been taken to the vets with the same symptoms as Alf. The rumour was that it was rat poison but I never really believed that.

 

Getting to the point now The other day I had the TV on in the background when I heard somebody mention Rottweiler and Poison. On watching this episode of an Ozzy version of Pet Rescue, the dog was displaying the same symptoms as Alfie. The poison, it turned out, was Slug Pellets or Snail Bait.

 

This stuff often crops up in cases of animal poisoning. It contains Metaldehyde which causes the following;

 

Obvious Twitching

 

Signs of poisoning begin fairly quickly after the poison is consumed. The dog will begin anxious twitching at first only slightly and then uncontrollably. This progresses to seizures and potentially to death. The muscle contractions of the twitches raise body temperature so high that brain damage can result, leading to the colloquial emergency room term “shake and bake syndrome.â€

 

Patients can also exhibit racing heart rates, vomiting, diarrhea, and rigidity, and respiratory failure.

 

I can't help but think that, due to the amount of pets affected, somebody did this on purpose. I had looked around the next day for any signs of what could be poison. The fact that there was no evidence of any being put down anywhere suggests this stuff had been put out as a bait. I had heard that a woman up the road had found somebody had thrown a handful of Slug Pellets over her fence. I found that hard to believe at the time as I didn't even think it would be that poisonous, now I'm not so sure.

 

I'll probably never find out the culprit, but if my experience might one day help some of you save your dogs then at least some good might come of it...

 

I hope I do find out who it was though!

 

In memory of Alf, my little mate

 

 

[PORK CHOP 13]

IM SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT THAT TERRIBLE NEWS MATE I HOPE YOU CATCH THE B*****DS WHO DONE IT AND MAKE THE F***ERS PAY ATB MATE PORK CHOP

[Mars 42]

Sorry for your loss...

 

And Thankyou for the heads up....

 

Mars.

[Guest manda]

rip alfie, some people are wrong in the head

[bird 9,864]

Bad luck mate, have you got a run , to put your next pup in.? if you get another.?

[RWDSteve 0]

Cheers guys

 

There's no point in me having a run. The garden is quite big and dog proofed, and he lived in the house. The village I live in is only one row of houses and under normal circumstances letting him play round the back while I'm about wouldn't be considered a problem. Think whoever did it was probably just after cats. Won't take the risk again mind. He got plenty of exercise and like I say I almost always had him with me whenever possible, being self-employed I can take a dog with me most of the time.

 

I bought another pup off here last week. young Burt the Blue-Eyed Boy

 

[Kay 3,709]

Thats really heartbreaking i dont know how anyone can do a thing like that , it beggers belief , really sorry to read this post

 

Chin up

[RWDSteve 0]

well in a lot of cases you will find thats its crows and other large birds are inclined to pick these things up and drop them as there are flying.

 

I know its a possibility and its easy to start pointing fingers. Its just with the amount of cats that went down during that week it seemed very suspect, there are a few odd-bods up here If it was somebody doing it on purpose we won't find out now.

[sniper 30]

Very saddening mate...i just hope you don't have the same bad luck with Bert as you did with Alf...good luck with youre new addition..

Edited May 20, 2009 by sniper

[digger63 3]

Sorry about your dog mate,slug pellets are lethal and apparently slightly addictive to dogs.

 

My mates dog was poisoned about 18 months ago,i had a look on the net for info on poison types and surprisingly found out raisins and grapes are poisnous to dogs,

ive never heard that before so i thought it might be worth mentioning,not sure if its fatal though.