Anticoagulant poisoning - K1

[Keit]

Since there has been an increase in cases of poisoning by anticoagulant rat and mouse poisons, here's Dr. Becker's video about it. Also read the article.

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What's so insidious about this type of poisoning, that unless you'll notice what your dog has eaten, the symptoms may appear only after several days, and then it will be already too late. It's possible to try blood transfusion (and I saw one case when it worked), but what you need to do is immediately administrate vit. K1. If your animal has eaten the poison only several minutes ago, you can also try inducing vomiting, etc.

Just as Dr. Becker says, when you buy it, pay attention that it isn't Vicasol (K3), but specifically K1.

And just so you know, that maybe it is available freely in Europe, but in Belarus, for example, and most of the regions in Russia (except maybe for Moscow) you can't find K1 anywhere, and if you can - it costs like gold. K1 can and should be used on humans in similar situations, so I would advice to stock up on K1 just in case. It may save someone's life one day.

 

[will01]

Thanks for the info and the links, Keit. We have had a couple of dogs ingest these type of poisons over the years and were lucky on both occasions.

One dog ate some snail bait, but fortunately only a small amount that was not lethal. We were busy at the time, only noticing that he kept coming to see us and then would go sit in the dam and drink. He did this a few times, but showed no symptoms of poisoning (such as foaming at the mouth), probably due to the small amount ingested. It was only later that we found the poison container had been dug up and the contents tipped out. He must have found the bait appealing, even though this particular bait was supposedly formulated so as not to attract cats and dogs.

The second dog consumed a whole bowl of rat poison (at the neighbours place) which was left uncovered in the open. We were fortunate to catch him in the act and took him straight to the vet. They induced vomiting (administered through the eye, which is one of the fastest ways to get it into the body) and he recovered well.

We stopped using these poisons years ago. Even when the rat poison was locked in a special "bait station", with an opening only big enough for a rat and no way for the bait to fall out, I was still concerned with secondary poisoning. It is unlikely our cats would eat a poisoned rat, but you never know.

There are alternatives (such as various traps), which are a much safer option.