Pet Story -- Jasmine and Ike

Jasmine is a two year old mixed breed female and Ike is a one year old male Boxer. One day their owner found several open bags of rat poison outside their home. There was a very high possibility that Jasmine and Ike had eaten it. Thankfully, their owner rushed them into Metairie Small Animal Hospital very quickly to be checked out.

On physical exam, both pets had good mucus membrane color (pink), but while this was a good sign it could not rule out rat poison ingestion. The attending doctor decided to induce vomiting to determine if any poison was in the stomach contents of the dogs. Ike vomited only food—there was no evidence of rat poison. Jasmine’s case, however, was different—she vomited a very large amount of rat poison. After a few moments, she also began to pass rat poison through her stool. It was obvious that Jasmine had ingested quite a bit of the poison.

The doctor was very concerned about the possibility of not being able to help Jasmine recover from this crisis. Though she was brought into the hospital very quickly, the question was how much of the rat poison had already absorbed into Jasmine’s system. A blood sample was taken and returned relatively normal results. She was also given an injection of Vitamin K to help counter the effects of the poison. Activated charcoal was administered to reduce gastrointestinal absorption of the poison.

At this point, it was impossible to predict whether or not Jasmine would respond to the treatment. The ingredients found in rat poisons have an antagonistic effect on the normal supply of Vitamin K in the body. Vitamin K is very important to normal body processes, especially the four clotting factors which allow the body’s blood to clot normally. Rodenticide toxicity in dogs will cause a hemorrhagic crisis that can be fatal—sometimes even after treatment.

The following day, Ike was sent home with special instructions to monitor him closely for any signs of trouble. Jasmine looked somewhat better—her color remained good and she was very alert and responsive. She stayed in the hospital for several days being closely monitored by doctors and staff. Jasmine was eventually discharged with monitoring instructions and oral dosages of Vitamin K to prevent further problems.

Recently, Jasmine was seen in our hospital for a recheck. Everything is going well and she is back to being the same happy and loving dog. Everybody (including Ike, of course) is glad that she is happy that Jasmine is home again!