Dangers of moldy food

purplesnack

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the length of this post but I wanted to post this story so that it may prevent the same thing from happening to any of your beloved pets.

Everyone knows how dogs in particular raid rubbish bins, and my other half and myself go out of our way to keep our dogs away from the rubbish by locking it in the garage. However, a few months ago, our two dogs were left on their own for 5 minutes with the garage door open and they started tearing into the rubbish bags. By the time we got to them, one of the dogs had licked clean a carton of moldy soft cheese. I remember saying to the other half at the time that she was going to be sick after that, but never in a million years would I ever have expected what was to come.

Within two hours of her clearing the carton, her eyes had started to roll back into her head. We knew there was something serious going on so we called the vet straight away - it was a Sunday and he was on another call so he couldn't see us for a few hours. During that time, she deteriorated quickly, couldn't chew anything and was unsteady on her feet. By the time we got to the vets, she was salivating uncontrollably. We mentioned the moldy cheese but he didn't seem to think it could be the cause - he suspected meningitis. He admitted her straight away and we left wondering if we were ever going to see her again - I didn't sleep a wink that night.

The following morning, the vet rang with an update - our baby had developed haemorrhagic gastroenteritis and was passing blood from both ends - while the vet didn't say it at the time, she later told me that she was amazed the dog was still alive after that first night with the amount of blood she lost. I couldn't believe it. That continued for days. We weren't allowed see her as she was put in isolation and a few days later, we were told that if she didn't show signs of improvement within 12-24 hours, we would be facing a very difficult decision - I was absolutely devastated.

Thankfully, she did show signs of improvement after the 5th day and was allowed home after 9 days in isolation. She was still not herself, not eating properly and still passing small amounts of blood, but she was coming back. She then developed massive abscesses from the injections she had been getting, some of which burst and developed into open wounds. I took a week or so off work to look after her, because she needed major tlc after what she'd been through.

It's a few months on now and she still hasn't made a solid poo since (sorry, TMI!) and still has regular visits to the vets (where she's now referred to as the miracle dog!). As I write this, she is asleep in her bed beside me and I can't believe we were so lucky to get her back. She had gotten mycotoxin poisoning - basically when moldy food is left long enough, the mold can produce a toxin that is dangerous to animals and humans, and while humans certainly wouldn't eat it, dogs will just go for anything. Soft cheese is one of the worst offenders as the toxin permeates right through the cheese.

The last thing I want to say is that I can not tell you how good the vets were. For the 9 days she was with them, they rang twice a day with an update - even on Easter Sunday. I'm not sure if I can mentioned the name of the clinic here but if anyone is looking for the name of a good vet in the Limerick area, PM me and I will get back to you.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the length of the post!

anniehoo

That's really interesting and very scary reading. Glad your dog made it through OP.

It still amazes me the things that are toxic to our pets. Only a week ago i found out garlic was toxic to cats...after the stray i feed had knocked over a tub of houmous on the coffee table and ate half of it when i was out of the room. He was grand though and it was only when i mentioned it to a vet in work that she told about garlic poisoning :eek:

Mountainsandh

Thanks for the information, our dog is our first dog, and these are the kind of experiences we take note of, to try and avoid these situations. Although our little Shih tzu cross is so particular, he's like a cat when it comes to food, and would more than likely turn up his nose at mouldy food (cattle and sheep's poo are a delicacy though).

maggiepip

Thank you for taking the time to warn others with your story. You know a bit of mouldy cheese wouldnt have really worried me until now (I remember my granny cutting the mould off cheese and serving it up - the piece without the mould that is!) But thats scary. So glad your dog pulled through.

Kinzig

Thanks for the warning about mouldy cheese..never would have thought it could be so dangerous...best wishes for a full recovery for the dog!

mymo

I too have a food thief, I do my best to keep rubbish out of his way, but that is scary.
Glad your dog is doing better, I hope she gets back to full health and thanks for warning us, I will be more careful in future.

tk123

OMG you must have been terrified OP. We have big problems in our park with people dumping food waste either bags in the bushes or leaving it 'for the birds'. People come in with bags of green or black mouldy bread and it's a scramble to get the dogs back on lead before they start jumping in to the river to eat the bread. I've resorted to either muzzling or keeping my dog on lead in certain areas for peace of mind.
I've complained about the rubbish by calling the dumping helpline and by logging on fixmystreet but nothing is done because it's all in the bushes - out of sight out of mind for the wardens!

purplesnack

Terrified wasn't the word tk123. Our dogs are our babies and to see one of them literally being destroyed from the inside out was just soul destroying. We felt guilty that it happened and also guilty for putting her through all that treatment, but we had read a few stories of dogs that had made it and we were hoping against hope that she would pull through.

I don't understand why people would dump moldy food like that. If you wouldn't eat it yourself, why would you expect an animal to eat it?

anniehoo

purplesnack wrote: »

I don't understand why people would dump moldy food like that. If you wouldn't eat it yourself, why would you expect an animal to eat it?

Whilst i don't want to detract from the seriousness of your post. Literally every single one of us dumps out of date food, unless you're someone who composts.

We can all be guilty of not knowing what foodstuffs are harmful. Me included as above. Your story is so awful OP, but i think even good pet owners wouldn't have heard of mycotoxin poisoning.The majority of animal species worldwide live off decomposing food whatever it may be, but desensitised domesticated pets are a whole different ballgame though.

I need to read up more on this, so i appreciate you posting your story.

purplesnack

Sorry anniehoo, my choice of wording was poor. What I meant to say was that I don't understand why people would deliberately give/leave out moldy food for birds/animals, as tk123 mentioned above.

I researched the effects of moldy food on dogs extensively while my own dog was in the vets. It's interesting that you mention compost above - it can also be dangerous for dogs and my two love it. We have compost bins, as opposed to a compost heap, so they can't really get at it but they treat anything that falls out as the only morsel of food that they've ever seen. You'd swear I didn't feed them at all.