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Rodenticide Toxic Levels

jon2008
December 25th, 2007, 02:08 PM
I am posting this so that others can learn from our mistakes.

About 6 months ago we had a problem with rodents and somebody had the poor idea of using a rodenticide in the house despite the presence of 2 cats. The poison in question was rodentex, the active ingredient being 0.005% Bromadioline. When I discovered that the product had been put down I demanded that it should all be removed and thought that had been done.

However on Saturday evening my wife had moved the washing machine to clean behind and found a pile of the poison. She momentarily left to grab the dustpan and brush, but when she returned one of our cats (Sully - a 5yr old Russian Blue) was standing over it. She shouted and he moved away, but ominously licked his lips. Not knowing whether or not he had consumed any we immediately started to enquire both with the emergency vet and on the internet as to the correct course of action. To summarize the collective advice: 2 hours window of opportunity to prevent slow painful death, with recommendation to induce vomiting as soon as possible. Best method of inducing vomiting - 3% hydrogen peroxide, with varying amounts recommended depending on bodyweight.

We made a decision to try 3tsp of the stuff, but that only made the little guy gag a bit. We repeated with 2tsp about 10mins later. Same effect. Took him immediately to emergency vet 30 mins away. Told them everything, INCLUDING THE CRUCIAL INFORMATION THAT HE MAY HAVE EATEN ONE OR TWO PELLETS AT MOST.

They induced vomiting by injection. In the meantime they looked up the required amount of the Bromadiolone that would have had to have been consumed by a 6Kg cat in order to be toxic and came up with 1.6mg. That translated to 32g of product. Immediately I was struck by the fact that it sounded like a lot and there was no way he could have consumed anywhere near that and told the vet so. Nevertheless the vet went on to administer active charcoal (disgustingly unpleasent) and recommended a course of Vitamin K.

We took Sully home and he was in a horrible state, vomiting up and pooping out the charcoal. He got really sick and started vomiting blood at hourly intervals. We phoned the vet again in the night and they suggested that it was irritation caused by the hydrogen peroxide that was causing the bleeding and my wife returned to pick up a sulcate solution to coat the stomach. In the meantime I had rerun the calculations and weighed out the rat poison in our garage to again test the likelyhood of poisoning having occured. The amount required would have been hundreds of pellets - a good double handful (I have since read from another source the over a kilo of the product would have been required). There was no possibility that had occurred.

Sully is recovering slowly from the ordeal. He has no appetite and we are keeping him hydrated by feeding him water occasionally. He is showing slow and steady signs of improvement.

However I thought I'd post this in case anyone else suspects that their cat or dog has injested a TINY amount of rodenticide. I am not saying to do nothing, but do proceed with caution. We unnecessarily injured our cat because of lack of information. It takes a lot of that stuff to really harm an animal of that size.

Of course if there is any doubt at all as to whether your pet has consumed more than a tiny amount then do NOT hesitate to take fast action and seek emergency help. The consequences certainly could be awful.

I hope that information helps someone.

SARAH
December 25th, 2007, 02:16 PM
Ewww, poor pussycat! I hope he gets well soon!

Rodents are a pain in the butt. They carry germs and can make our pets sick, yet the poison some people put out to kill them can also kill or at least harm the pets.

I'm wondering, do they have a purpose on this earth? How can we get rid of those creeps without harming anyone else in the process?

I know there are some field mice around in our garden, the dogs chase them, but I'm not putting out any poison and hope none of the neighbors do either. A rodent that has eaten poison will poison a cat/dog that eats it afterwards!

I'm wondering if feeding your cat cream would have coated his stomach and intestins and stopped the poison from entering his blood stream.