Poisoning is one of the most common diseases in dogs during outdoor activities. The common poisoning includes three major types of poisoning: rodenticide poisoning, food poisoning, and clinical misuse of drugs. These three types of poisoning have the characteristics of rapid onset and high mortality.
Cause analysis
1. Rat poisoning is caused by dogs eating rats poisoned by rodenticide or by taking poisonous bait. There are five kinds of rodenticides commonly used at home, such as sodium diethylamide, fluoroacetamide, Antoine and zinc phosphide.
(1) Sodium diquat
It is a kind of anti-coagulant rodenticide with high efficiency and low toxicity, which mainly destroys the coagulation system of animals, and the poisoning occurs when dogs ingest the poisoned rodents.
Symptoms: bleeding from conjunctiva and oral mucosa, vomiting, pupil constriction, and neurological symptoms. Autopsy is characterized by congestion and even hemorrhage in the thoracic cavity, diffuse hemorrhage in the parenchymal organs, and diffuse hemorrhage in the mucosa in all segments of the intestine.
(2) Fluoroacetamide
It is a highly toxic pesticide of organofluorine and highly effective insecticide and rodenticide, which is white needle crystal, tasteless, odorless, easily soluble in water, chemically stable, and toxic only when deaminated in animal tissues to form fluoroacetamide. Dogs are poisoned with 0.05~0.2mg/kg of acetamide-treated or contaminated feed, drinking water, bait or rats poisoned by fluoroacetamide.
Symptoms: excitement, running wild, howling, redness of visible mucosa, darkening of blood, hemorrhage of pericardium and endocardium, congestion and swelling of liver and kidneys during autopsy.
(3) Antoine
The chemical name is methyl-naphthiourea, which is a gray powder. The lethal dose is 85-100mg/kg for 5-month-old dogs and 10-40mg/kg for adult dogs.
Symptoms: mainly vomiting, hypothermia, neurological symptoms, high difficulty in breathing, and death by asphyxiation within a short period of time. On autopsy, the lungs are highly edematous, the trachea, bronchi, gastric mucosa, liver and kidney are congested, and the liver is dark red and slightly enlarged.
(4) Zinc phosphide
It is a highly toxic drug, the pure product is a dark gray crystalline with luster, often used as poisonous bait with food. Under the action of stomach acid immediately release highly toxic phosphine gas, not only can kill rodents, but also to humans, dogs have toxic effects. The lethal dose for dogs is 20mg/kg.
Symptoms: irritating symptoms of the gastrointestinal tract, vomiting, diarrhea, feces with blood, oral and throat mucous membrane erosion, vomit is garlic smell, visible in the dark phosphorescence, severe systemic symptoms. On autopsy, the lungs were significantly congested, with intermittent edema, subpleural hemorrhage, mucosal congestion, hemorrhage and mucosal detachment in the digestive tract.
2. Food poisoning
Most of them are caused by feeding suspicious food or poisonous food to dogs, such as potato poisoning, nitrite poisoning, black spot poisoning and clostridium botulinum poisoning.
(1) Potato poisoning
Because the sprouted potato or green potato contains lobotropin, it can attack the nervous system and digestive system and poisoning occurs.
Symptoms: At the initial stage, the dog mainly shows neurological symptoms, and at a later stage, the dog is lying on the ground, the limbs are swimming, rigid, dilated pupils, red conjunctiva, the dog vomits and passes yellow stools. On autopsy, the heart muscle was blue, blood coagulation in the heart was incomplete, and the lungs were highly edematous.
(2) Nitrite poisoning
Most dogs are poisoned by eating the organs of livestock that have died due to nitrite poisoning.
Symptoms: excitement and restlessness of the poisoned dog, foaming at the mouth, cyanosis of the conjunctiva, congestion of the gastrointestinal mucosa during autopsy, soy sauce color of the blood, poor coagulation.
(3) Black spot sweet potato poisoning
Black spot disease sweet potato contains black spot disease toxin, strong toxicity, heat-resistant, poisoning of dogs ingesting such sweet potato.
Symptoms: Initial vomiting, diarrhea, feces with blood, and later obvious inspiratory respiratory distress, nasal fluid in the form of foam. On autopsy, the lungs are highly emphysematous, the gastric mucosa is congested, and in severe cases, the mucosa is detached.
(4) Clostridium botulinum poisoning
It is mainly caused by dogs eating rotten meat, and mostly occurs in the hot summer.
Symptoms: The sick dog cannot stand, movement disorder, diarrhea, and blood in the feces. On autopsy, the gastrointestinal mucosa is congested and bleeding, the contents are thin and foul-smelling, and the lungs are edematous and even have bleeding spots.
3. Clinical poisoning with improper medication
It is mainly seen in the poisoning of dogs due to overdose or inappropriate treatment medication when deworming dogs. The common ones are ivermectin poisoning, atropine poisoning and trichlorfon poisoning.
(1) Ivermectin poisoning
Mostly due to the allergic effect of ivermectin on some breeds of dogs without understanding the allergic effect of ivermectin and caused allergy or poisoning of the affected dogs.
Symptoms: Dry nasal mirror and difficulty in breathing. Cyanosis, paralysis of the tongue, protruding from the mouth, salivation, vomiting. The dog may turn in circles, walk blindly, change direction after encountering an obstacle or hold still, and finally become unstable, lie down, and become unconscious, with slowed respiration and heart rate.
(2) Atropine poisoning
Most of the cases occur due to improper use of clinical doses.
Symptoms: Atropine poisoning starts with restlessness, muscle tremors, weakness of limbs, shaking, uncoordinated movements, followed by mental depression, dry mouth, flushing of oral mucosa, dilated pupils, lying down, delayed response to stimuli, and coma.
(3) Trichlorfon poisoning
Mostly caused by the overdose of trichlorfon to expel intestinal parasites.
Symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea, salivation, narrow pupils, pale visual mucosa, linear pupils, high respiratory distress, gastrointestinal mucosa congestion and bleeding on autopsy, enlarged liver and spleen.
First aid
Toxic diseases have rapid onset and death, and it is difficult to make accurate diagnosis in clinical practice. General animal hospitals are not equipped for laboratory analysis, and the diagnosis must be sent to specialized testing departments, but due to the long time required, the sick dog may die before the results are available. Therefore, most of the first-aid measures in clinical practice are conventional.
1. General detoxification method
When the type of poison is not clear, you can use the universal antidote. By activated carbon 2 parts, magnesium oxide 1 part, tannic acid 1 part evenly mixed, dogs 5 ~ 10g with water appropriate amount of internal consumption, and food poisoning, can be injected into the strong detoxification min 2mL / only.
2. Symptomatic treatment
Take symptomatic treatment according to the clinical symptoms of poisoning. In case of nervous excitement and convulsive spasms, use sedative, inject 5-10mg/each with 654-2 hydrochloride injection; in case of heart failure, inject 0.5-1mg/each with epinephrine injection subcutaneously; in case of respiratory distress, inject 1mL/each with Nixamide injection; in order to dilute the poison and enhance the detoxification function of liver, inject 250mL of 5% sugar and 10mL of Vc at one time.
3. Special detoxification method
When the poison has been identified, special antidote should be used as soon as possible. For fluoroacetamide poisoning, use 50% of fluorine solution according to 0.1-1.3g/kg intravenously or intramuscularly, or use glyceryl acetate as an antagonist of fluoroacetamide, 0.5mL/kg intramuscularly. For nitrite poisoning, use 1% methylene chloride at 0.1~0.2mL/kg intravenously. For trichlorfon tablet poisoning, inject 2.5% iodophosphine solution at 15-30mg/kg, and subcutaneously inject 1% atropine sulfate solution at 1mg.
Prevention
To prevent poisoning, dead rats should be buried deeply, rodenticides should be properly stored, and livestock and offal that can die of poisoning should not be eaten. It is forbidden to eat moldy feed and food.
2. Early diagnosis should be made as soon as possible for the poisoned dog, and special antidotes should be used in time. In case of severe systemic symptoms, rehydration and cardioplegia can be used.
Attention
The most important thing is to buy time when rescuing a dog from poisoning. However, you should not use the so-called folk remedies for poisoning at home. If you do not know what kind of poison you have been poisoned by, you should send the dog to the doctor in time for treatment.
