Dog possibly ate mouse who possibly ate poison- so worried

[lulubelle1977]

Goodness I'm so worried- we've had a mouse problem for the last week. This weekend put some traps and poison behind the snoring boards. Dog kept safely away. Tonight- the cat bought a mouse in from outdoors, I heard the cat flap, dog chased cat and mouse, and I THINK, grabbed the mouse and tan outside. DH said that the mouse could have eaten the poison and dog ate the poison through the mouse!

I'm so worried! This was at 10pm. He's not been sick or anything yet. Just sleeping as we're all in bed as normal.

He may not have eaten the mouse. The mouse may have been from outside and not had the poison yet.

I'm googling and it all sounds horrific. Will he be okay? I'll of course go the vets tomorrow but with no sickness or diorehea yet, all seems okay for now.

Bump- I'm awake and wondering if anyone has advice

How big is the dog? The amount of poison a mouse could eat before realising its poison is unlikely enough to seriously harm a dog, but of course it is possible to make them ill. Keep a close eye.

Well putting poison down when you have a cat and a dog doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do...

Maybe you should take the dog to the OOH vet to be on the safe side?

I had a cat that did this.

Take the dog to the vet first thing tomorrow or earlier (emergency vet) if he shows any signs of being unwell - vomiting, diarrhea, or just not himself.

No signs at all yet. He's a Labrador.

Am absolutely keeping an eye on him. Can't sleep, won't sleep. Am waiting for morning to come. If he's sick through the night then we'll go, but for now, it's been 6 hours and all normal. Just wanting to know if I should go to bets even if he's not sick or showing any illness. Or some reassurance if this has happened to you

Our lab got his nose into some poison once(we only worked this out later on), but I have no idea how much, if any, he ingested. He had diarrhoea for about 3 days. No other change in behaviour.

Rodent poison effects in your dog will NOT show up for several days - you do not want to wait until then, the best thing to do is to make him sick NOW. Please ring your vets right now OP! Delayed treatment of rat poison is much more expensive - and risky- than immediately making them vomit. Waiting for symptoms or waiting until tomorrow will be much too late to stop him absorbing the poison. You have a very narrow window of opportunity to make them sick and he may be past it or almost past it already

This.

There are humane, non-poisonous ways to deal with rodents. Think about it.

Lesson learned. Believe me.

When I was worried about our cat doing similar I read that the amount it poison that kills a rat is far less than what would kill a cat, and dogs tend to be bigger than cats. No need to worry.

While a wait and see approach might be OK for some toxins, different poisons work in different ways.

Most rodent poisons do not cause vomiting (ever), nor do they cause immediate symptoms, even in lethal doses.

They cause internal blood loss which usually does not begin for several days, even up to a week. People often get caught out by waiting for symptoms as that makes treatment much harder, and much more serious. However, if you treat ASAP, treatment is straight forward.

Just seen he ate it at 10pm. It might be too late to make him sick now. But ring your vet anyway and see what they advise. There is an antidote. But please don't trust random advice online as every case will be different.

I can't be sure he ate the mouse. He chased it, I think he caught it, but can't be sure. So going tonight, with no sickness or symptoms seems too much. I will go tomorrow, but how do vets check this internal bleeding part?

In the nicest possible way, I think you've missed my point. The effects don't become apparent for several days. Even at dangerous doses. So a lack of symptoms now tells you nothing.

It is absolutely up to you to wait and see, but for the benefit of others reading this thread in future, the much much cheapest and straight forward thing to do is an immediate (ideally within 2 hours) vet visit.

You don't have to take my word for it. There is an excellent information service called VPIS, run by toxicology experts, that will give owners expert advice on poisons 24/7 by phone - although I think they charge for the service.

Anyway OP, it is treatable by antidote and only an unlucky few die of it, I'm sure if you pursue treatment tomorrow your dog will be fine, so please don't lose sleep over this tonight.

It is just potentially more expensive to wait, and - if you actually did decide to just wait for symptoms - at that point it is a lot more dangerous.

Please listen to this advice, and see your vet tomorrow morning for the antidote.

Pleaae listen to @CheeseWineBainne advice.

Do you still have the packaging? Knowing the name of the product will be helpful for the Vet/VPIS.

Is the dog a labrador by any chance? They just eat everything. I have had so many hours of worry with ours over something he may or may not have ingested (doggo is now 4 and has lived to tell the tale despite many mishaps and vet visits…)

I wouldn't worry at all. The potential quantity of domestic mouse poison consumed will be far too small to damage the dog.

Lets assume that it's a 20g mouse and a 30kg labrador and lethal dose is 10%. (mice are usually smaller, dogs bigger, and lethal dose closer to 20%)

The mouse needs a lethal dose of 2g which is 10% of it's body weight.

The dog would need a lethal dose of 3kg which is 10% of it's bodyweight.

That means that the dog would need to consume 1500 poisoned mice to ingest lethal dose.

He's possibly eaten one.

Disclaimer this is for the anti-coagulant first generation poisons

There is also a difference between commercial rat poison and domestic.

he ate the mouse which ate the poison
or he may be ate the mouse which maybe ate the poison

seems an unlikely concern

Thank you for the replies. He seems okay and hasn't been sick. Stole a cushion today and so I think he's feeling fine!