Sharing my experience - "My dog may have eaten some rat poison. What do I do?"

As a pet guardian, one wouldn’t want to be asking this question - "What do I do if my dog may have eaten some rat poison?" ... but it’s exactly what I googled a week ago and found articles like this - Rat Poisoning in Dogs

The other day, my wife and I got a scare when we found a packet of rat poison lying around where Leo, our Beagle was playing. Looking at the plastic wrapper, I realized where it was from – I had using a few cubes from that packet to place in a secure area in the garden infested with rats. A few cubes were remaining in the packet that I had left in the window ledge.

Either the wrapper with the leftover cubes had fallen down or the cubes had rolled into the garden while Leo had been simply sniffing around. Either way, the fear of poisoning began gnawing in our minds. 

An hour after that Leo had his food but vomited it  out and had peed near where he sat, something he rarely ever did. We read up on rat poisoning and most articles talked about the “golden hour” before any of it can get ingested  in the bloodstream.

I decided to drive Leo over to the vet-clinic in our neighborhood, and the Vet agreed that we did the right thing by bringing him in even though Leo was active and didn’t show any symptoms.

He asked the attendants to feed Leo a bowl of dogfood and gave him a Vitamin K injection to induce vomiting. I took Leo out and walked him around and he began vomiting the food and bile. He did this about 5-7 times till he became weak and sat and continued to gag.

The vet then examined him and asked the attendants to administer active-charcoal paste that they fed him with a syringe. By then Leo was quite weak but still alert and active.

The vet said he seemed all right and could rest at home overnight and come back for a follow up.

After coming back home, Leo got really thirsty and drank a glass of water which he rarely does. He slept in fits and starts that night though he was alert and ready for a walk next day. His poop the next morning was dark, probably due to active charcoal being flushed out.

We were really glad to have taken timely steps to prevent things from getting worse with Leo. The message here is simple

"If your dog eats rat poison (regardless of amount or active ingredient), take them immediately to a local veterinary hospital for evaluation and treatment."