No matter how thorough we are with the prevention, a situation might come up when a dog or a cat will get to a poisonous thing, whether it’s by our inattention or it's somebody else’s fault. That’s why it’s not off-topic to prepare yourself for the possibility of poisoning and not only to know what to do in such situation, but also, how to detect it as well.
My dog used to be a little dustbin. He was capable of swallowing almost anything, even though it might not have been edible. From time to time, despite all caution, something “mysteriously” disappeared. For example, a whole loaf of bread from a high bar counter. Thank God, no poisoning ever happened, but preparing for it was appropriate.
You might be saying to yourself that this will never happen to you, that your dog is trained... Whether its human attention or dog will, it can falter, even for one second, and you have a problem. That’s why it’s good to prepare for everything and to find out at least a minimum of information, while there’s still time.
Many of us surely know someone who has a dog that ate a chocolate and nothing happened to it. My friend’s dog ate two whole bars of chocolate and survived unharmed.
But this doesn’t mean, that it’s not poisonous for them. More specifically, it’s the theobromine that it contains. It’s precisely theobromine (bitter alkaloid of the cocoa-tree) that is responsible for its toxicity for cats and dogs. You can find it even in tea or coke products. It’s concentration differs depending on the quality of a given product. The most dangerous ones for animals are cocoa beans and cocoa powder. The greatest content is in chocolates for cooking and bitter chocolates.
But dogs can poison themselves even by regular chocolate. It always depends on the quality or the content of theobromine, the size of the dog and the consumed amount. In a greater amount, theobromine may cause muscle tremor in the dog, seizures, irregular heart beat, inner bleeding or a heart attack. Just to give you an idea:
In a regular milk chocolate, symptoms of poisoning with theobromine will appear in a dog or cat already from 10 g to 1 kg of their weight, especially in smaller dog breeds, this dosis may be even lethal. Death from poisoning of a dog or cat with chocolate can occur in rare cases even from the dose of 115 mg/kg of theobromine.
First aid
Try to induce vomiting in the animal. To this effect, it is recommended to use a 3% hydrogen peroxide diluted with water to half the concentration. At best, it is applied with a syringe into the mouth. Upon swallowing, the peroxide will start fizzing and it will cause bloating in the stomach of the animal which will induce vomiting.
Give the animal some black or rather active coal - it is able to bind toxins.
In case you have a suspicion of cat or dog poisoning, always seek out veterinary help as soon as possible or consult further steps with a veterinarian. In more urgent cases, you can call a pet ambulance.
If the animal has spasms and muscle contractions, a veterinarian will suppress them with medication or they will slightly sedate it. Supporting hydration of the organism with infusion is appropriate. Remember, that a timely veterinary intervention might save the animal’s life and even tens of minutes might be crucial.
Although it might appear that the cat doesn’t give a tail about you and it is indifferent towards you, maybe you will still find some displays of affection in its behaviour. Do you know how cats show such affection towards a person?
Cats love grass. They nibble at it if it's to clean their belly from hairs or just for fun. In addition, if you get a cat its own flowerpot, you can hope that it will leave your other plants alone :).
Whether you remove a tick from a dog’s or cat’s fur the right way might affect whether the animal will become infected with Lyme disease or another malign disease transmitted by ticks. Have you got the right technique and tools?
Just like with people, also in dogs, Lyme disease is a very grave illness. There are an estimated 20% of ticks infected in the Czech Republic. And because despite the use of antiparasitic agents, your dog might get a tick from time to time, it’s good...
I’ve already written about cat mint, today, we’ll take a look at another, lesser known drugs. Since not all the cats respond to all of them and they don’t respond to everything the same way. Therefore, if you didn’t succeed with cat mint, maybe you’ll...
Every cat owner has certainly already heard of cat mint, catnip or catswort. Under all these names hides a herb that makes most of the cats “high”.
When your family grows by a new (human) member, it isn’t necessarily a happy event for everyone. For many dogs, it’s very difficult to come to terms with such situation, therefore, it’s better to start preparing them already before the baby is born....
I’ve already written about the fact that you’re not supposed to leave your dog closed in a car on summer days or on how to prevent hyperthermia in cats and dogs. So you have mastered the prevention already. But it is also necessary to know how to...
Without a question, chinchillas are beautiful and cute furry animals with large ears, a long tail and distinctive eyes. Do you know where they actually come from, what their name means and that we almost succeeded in nearly exterminating them before...
You have probably noticed that cat tongues are quite unique. They are rough and somehow scratchy. It seemed weird to American biologists and therefore they decided to look deeper into it.
What should I say, the cats are simply different. Since the time immemorial, they have been surrounded by mysteries and secrets. Most of them behave as if they were the master of the world and as if they don’t need the human at all. A couple of...
It can be quite a task to choose the right pet food precisely for your cat. To even understand the contents... That’s why we’re going to take a look today what to focus on, what to look for in the contents and what you should rather avoid.
