Rat/mouse poison and dogs

CookieMonster.x

We might be putting down rat poison soon and I was wondering about my dog. I presume they have to be separated from the area, but for how long? Would boarding kennels be the only option? He is a large dog so keeping him in for days isn't an option.
Thanks.

flutered

could you not make it dog proof.

CookieMonster.x

flutered wrote: »

could you not make it dog proof.

I don't want to take any risks though. Some people say he would be fine but I'm not sure.

DBB

CookieMonster.x wrote: »

I don't want to take any risks though. Some people say he would be fine but I'm not sure.

He would be fine, as in, he won't eat the poison, or would be ok if he did?
Rat poison is meant to be attractive, that's why rats eat it or bring it home with them to eat later. Dogs can and do find it attractive too, and it is, of course, poisonous to them too.
The general wisdom is to put the poison in a pipe, or otherwise cover it up so that only the rats can access it. However, you need to monitor the area really well in case they drag it out of its hiding place. You need to know exactly how many cubes you hide so that you can account for them.
Is there a specific area the rats are in that you could barricade off?

CookieMonster.x

DBB wrote: »

He would be fine, as in, he won't eat the poison, or would be ok if he did?
Rat poison is meant to be attractive, that's why rats eat it or bring it home with them to eat later. Dogs can and do find it attractive too, and it is, of course, poisonous to them too.
The general wisdom is to put the poison in a pipe, or otherwise cover it up so that only the rats can access it. However, you need to monitor the area really well in case they drag it out of its hiding place. You need to know exactly how many cubes you hide so that you can account for them.
Is there a specific area the rats are in that you could barricade off?

Well both really, my parents say he probably wouldn't eat it and if he did it would only be a small amount so it wouldn't harm him. If there's any risk though we obviously won't have him near.
Well yesterday we saw a mouse so I don't know where they will put the poison. How long would it remain toxic for/how long would we need to keep him away from the area for? I don't want to take any risks so if needs be he can go to a boarding kennel for the time.
Say if we put it down at night and kept him in all night would it be fine in the morning?
Sorry for all the questions!

Pretzill

I would advise against poison for many reasons you can use a bait box but unfortunately that doesn't stop the threat of poisoning for your dog if he decides to eat a dead rat who has been poisoned. A series of traps, in problem areas will kill the pests more humanely and if you have the corpses it will give you an idea of the scale of the infestation.

p.s if the mice/rats get into the home and cop it behind the walls after being poisoned that's a nasty problem.

DBB

I'd have to agree with pretzill. Poison will not work overnight, it could take days or even weeks to work, depending on the size of the rodent problem you have.
You would have to be certain you lifted every cube once your problem is sorted.
A couple of cubes of poison is enough to do harm to a dog, and the problem is, if you don't see him eating it, by the time he becomes symptomatic, he's in a whole lot of trouble. Take no chances with it. The trapping option is much safer, and probably more ethical.

Knine

Please don't put down poison. It will not be just your dog you have to worry about.

3 days ago my mothers cat suddenly collapsed and had a seizure and died. The vet reckoned he ate a poisoned bird/rat. He was only 1 year old. :mad:

By the time we realised he was not well, it was too late.

RubyGirl

Also with rat poison this time of the year the rat's might not be hungry. They will take the cube of poison and bring it back to their nest, so break up the cube so they cant.

A dog would have to eat his own weight in the poison to do him any danger, learnt the hard way when my lab got at a small box I had in the garage last year, did him no harm he was just pooing poison for a while.

boomerang

"A dog would have to eat his own weight in the poison to do him any danger"



Ruby that is not true at all, please don't post inaccurate information on something so vitally important.

RubyGirl

boomerang wrote: »

"A dog would have to eat his own weight in the poison to do him any danger"



Ruby that is not true at all, please don't post inaccurate information on something so vitally important.

Well, it's what my vet told me when I took the dog in, so excuse me.

DBB

RubyGirl wrote: »

Also with rat poison this time of the year the rat's might not be hungry. They will take the cube of poison and bring it back to their nest, so break up the cube so they cant.

A dog would have to eat his own weight in the poison to do him any danger, learnt the hard way when my lab got at a small box I had in the garage last year, did him no harm he was just pooing poison for a while.

One of my dogs ate less than a cube of it years ago, and was considered at risk by the vet, who she saw within a couple of hours of ingesting the poison. I even rang Storm, and they said that whilst they wouldn't expect the dog to die, they urged immediate veterinary attention because they could not be sure that what she had eaten wouldn't do her any harm.
It comes down to body size vs how much is ingested. If a small dog eats a small amount, they're potentially in trouble... but to say they'd have to eat their own body weight is misleading and potentially dangerous to anyone reading this in future.

boomerang

Sorry Rubytilly, didn't mean to offend you, but you have to be so careful about the information you post here and make sure it's accurate. Too many people will just take information off the forum as verbatim. It was a very general statement. It's worth re-iterating that we are talking about only one kind of poison here - warfarin.

Other poisons are fatal to dogs and cats in the smallest amounts - e.g. ethylene glycol.

meoklmrk91

I would be very careful about doing it, in fact I wouldn't do it, I would just be too worried. Firstly you have ensure that the poison is laid out in such a way that the dog cannot get at it, secondly the rat may not just eat it there and then, they can carry it off to them wherever the nest is to eat later, possibly dropping it on the way, thirdly the dog might eat one of the dead rats.

Warfarin poisoning can be fatal, but as other have mentioned it all depends on the dosage and the dogs weight, in many cases people don't know what dosage the dog has had unless they witness it which can make treatment tricky. In others they may not even know that the dog has eaten the poison.

There are many other ways to get rid of rats and mice, run of the mill traps, humane traps, home made traps, they are often very effective. I would pick trapping over poisoning every time simply because you don't know where that rat is going to be when it dies, it could be somewhere in dogs reach or even on a more practical level, under floorboards or in a wall cavity which will not make for a nice smell. Heck even a couple of ferals which cat rescues are always trying to home will do a much better job at keeping them at bay if this is an ongoing problem.

Maybe have a look at other methods of getting rid of vermin and take them to your parents, if they don't agree then just be very, very careful and look up the symptoms of warfarin poison just to be on the safe side.

boomerang

The bait must be covered, either in a bait box or piping. That's the law.

On a side note - I have personally had to rescue feral cats that were maliciously poisoned. One had already died of kidney failure and two were euthanised for humane reasons as soon as we got them to a vet. Post-mortems done on all and sent off to the UK for laboratory analysis.

The horror of seeing those poisoned cats in so much distress will stay with me all my life. However you feel about wild rats, I could never kill them with poison. It causes terrible suffering. I'd rather they have their neck broken by a terrier or a cat - painless and instantaneous. Even a spring-loaded trap is kinder, if it kills them outright.

ETA: The cats involved were neutered, healthy, fed-daily and pretty much limited themselves to one lady's back garden. There were only four of them. Sometimes people's intolerance beggars belief.

falabo

RubyGirl wrote: »

Well, it's what my vet told me when I took the dog in, so excuse me.

WOW that's some vet you can trust ! ! !

Cutie18Ireland

Please don't risk it. We moved into a new house and didn't know there was poison down and our 3 year old Pomeranian died from it

She ate a tiny amount

loveisdivine

Please don't put poison down. Its a horrible death for the rats and mice and you also have no idea if some unsuspecting animal (wild or pet) is going to then eat the dead rat/mouse and become very ill itself.

By putting down poison you are at risk of poisoning a lot of the eco system around you. In my personal opinion, it would be a very irresponsible thing to do.

nala2012

Don't put down poison. My neighbour did and the rat died in our yard and our dog who's over 60kg ate the rat and nearly died. He spent night at the vet and was lucky to live. It was only because we'd seen him eat the rat and got him straight to the vets that he lived.