Poisons - What You Need To Know

Hello everyone

as promised we are going to be doing lots of blogs about all the stuff you need to know as a pet owner.

This blog is about some of the most serious poisons/toxins that our pets can come across but we have focused and the things we don't want our dogs and cats getting a hold of. We will go into a bit of detail with some of the most common poisons but the general rule of thumb is that if your pet has come in to contact with anything that you think may cause them harm, ring the vet as soon as possible for advice. 

Do Not Wait For Symptoms To Start!!!  Act Before This Happens!!!

Some of the common toxins that you may have heard of are;

• Chocolate
• Raisins / anything from the grape family
• Vermin control products e.g. rat poison, slug pellets, ant killer
• Lilies
• Poinsettas 
• Daffodils
• Adder bite
• Many human medications including, paracetamol, some anti-inflammatory drugs,  (always check with your vet)
• Blue/Green algae
• Caffeine
• Ethylene glycol (anti-freeze)
• Some nuts, including peanuts, macadamia
• Nicotine
• Salt (do not make any animal sick with salt water)
• Toad venom
• Vitamin D
• Xylitol (found in chewing gum)
• Dog flea treatments can be fatal if applied to cats 

In most cases of poison/toxin ingestion our first aim is to rid the body of said poison, which is done by given an injection of apomorphine in the scruff of the neck.  This can only really be done up to 2 hours after ingestion as the stomach will have likely emptied after this time.  We will often recommend Intra-Venous Fluid Therapy which is exactly the same as when we are put on a drip at the hospital, the aim of this is to dilute and flush the toxins from the body and to support the kidneys are they are often the target organ for poisons to affect.  In some cases we will also advise charcoal ingestion as it acts as a sponge for the toxins and absorbs them before they can cause harm to the body.  

Depending on what poison and when it was ingested and will determine what treatment we recommend, but as stated above DO NOT wait for symptoms to start!!! Act straightaway!!!

We also induce vomiting when animals have eaten things they shouldn't such as socks, underwear and all the other strange and wonderful things our pets think are a good idea to eat.  The only time we wouldn't induce vomiting is when the eaten product may cause further harm on its way back up the food pipe e.g. caustic substances like bleach or anything sharp like a needle. 

Below is some information on the top 3 poisons we see in our practice;

Chocolate - The toxic ingredient in chocolate is theobromine, which is found in cocoa. Therefore the higher the cocoa content the more toxic it is, so dark chocolate in more harmful that milk chocolate.  Theobromine increases the heart rate and affects the nervous system.  

Symptoms - vomiting, increased water intake, excitement - if left untreated tremors and seizures can develop.  Cardiac arrest is the most severe outcome but also kidney failure can develop, which in its own right can be fatal.

Raisins/Grape family - These food types are very dangerous to dogs and cats, the ingredient that causes the harm is not yet known but even small doses can prove fatal.  Grape and raisin ingestion causes acute renal disease (sudden onset kidney failure).

Symptoms - lack of urination or only urinating small amounts, Vomiting and or diarrhea, reduced or loss of appetite, dehydration (this can be identified by a skin tent of sticky gums), lethargy or weakness. 

Lilies - All parts of the lilie are poisonous -  It is quite well known that lilies are poisonous to cats but they can also be poisonous to dogs too.  The general rule of thumb is that if you have pets - don't have lilies... Lilies are actually my favorite flower but I never have them in the house because of Charlie and Dobby, my dog and cat. 

Symptoms - drooling, vomiting, anorexia (loss of appetite), dehydration and again because it's the kidneys that are affected we see lack of urination.

Probably the best advice we can give is that if your dog or cat has eaten anything that you are unsure is safe or not, give us a call.  There are times that even we don't know but we have access to the Veterinary Poisons Information Service who are always on hand to help out. 

Stay safe :))

We're All About The Ears

Welcome to our first ever blog post, the aim of this blog is to keep in touch with you, our clients and fellow pet lovers with all the up to date comings and goings of Barnsley Vets4Pets.  We will share our knowledge with you to provide hints and tips on keeping your pets healthy and happy. If you have a topic you would like us to post about just let us know and we'll do our best to please :-)

Lets get started with ears, a strange topic you might think but ear problems are certainly in the top list of reasons why you guys seek our help for your pets.

There are many different problems that can arise with ears such as infection, haematomas, parasite infestations and so on.  

The good news is, that for the most part these problems can be prevented!!!  But how?

1. some breeds have hair that grows inside of the ear, this poses a problem as it provides the ideal environment for bacteria to hide out and multiply.  To prevent this we recommend having the hair plucked on a regular basis.

Here is an example of what we're talking about.

After de-fluffing ;-)

2. Cleaners - As well as removing hair from your pets ears it's a good idea to use an ear cleaner on a regular basis, this gets rid of wax build up... again some breeds are prone to this and no one knows this better than our nurse Hayley who some of you will know is the mum of Dobby the Sphynx cat.  Dobby's ears get very dirty very quickly and so Hayley cleans them at least twice weekly with a liquid ear cleaner.  Here are some before and after photos. 

Before :-(

After :-)

3. Foreign Body - If your pet seems even slightly irritated by their ears come and see the vet. On a daily basis you never think of your ears and neither do our pets... until something is irritating them and then it seems it's all you or they can think about.  It's normal to have the odd itch but get used to what your pet does as 'normal' and as soon as this changes get it checked out.  Often your pets sudden irritation with their ears is a sign that something's not quite right, such as an infection starting or even something like a foreign body such as a grass seed.

Can you imagine how painful/irritating this would be?!

4. Allergies - ear problems can be caused by skin allergies, when the skin becomes inflamed and painful.  This can then lead to infection and if left untreated or in severe chronic cases the ear canal can become what we call stenotic (narrowed).  

This stenotic ear canal improves the living conditions for bacteria as it is warm and hard to reach with ear cleaners/treatments. It's important to not only seek help for the initial allergy but also monitor your pets ears and seek medical attention as soon as your pet is having a 'flare up'. 

:-( as you can see here, there is hardly any ear canal = 5 star accommodation for bacteria and other nasty organisms. 

5. Pendulous ears - breeds that have the floppy down ears vs pointy ears (very technical wording I know) are more prone to ear infections.  This is due to if the ear gets wet it doesn't easily dry out.  I know people who use a hair scruncie to tie their dogs ears up on an evening to allow air flow :-)  

6. Swimming - for the same reasons as above, plus the microscopic contents of water, pets who like to swim can often find themselves with ear infections.  Our advice, use an ear cleaner every time after your pet has been swimming.

We hope you have found our first post helpful and if you have any questions at all please contact us on 01226 289000. 

Thanks guys, see you soon.