common poison caution

[smokinjoe]

I have had French Brittany gun dogs for several years. Our dogs are treated as family members -- they sleep in the house and have the run of a very large fenced yard. I dedicate a lot of time to training and development of my dogs into personal foot hunting companions.

Right now we have a one-year-old female puppy named Gracie.

My wife loves to garden and is very careful to make sure that her plantings are non-toxic. A few weeks ago she used "slug bait" to rid her garden of slugs. We did not know that slug bait is both attractive to dogs because of the attractants in it to attract slugs, and it is also a powerful neurotoxin for dogs.

Our puppy started to have twitching and loss of coordination one night after I let her out. At first, I thought she had the hiccoughs, but the twitching and loss of coordination got worse quickly. I called a 24-hour emergency vet clinic. They said that the symptoms indicated a severe emergency and referred us to a clinic that is closer to us. By the time we could get to the car, Gracie was in a full grand mal seizure. She then lost consciousness and became ridged, thought she was still breathing.

80 to 90 miles an hour at 2:00 AM on back roads was the only to try to get her to the vet in time, so that is what we did. The vet put her into an induced coma, and started to work to counter the toxicity levels.

It took a few thousand dollars and about two weeks for her to make a complete recovery. The vet assured us that we got her there just in the nick of time.

She is a great, started pointing dog with tons of long-term potential. She is solid on 12 commands, making her easy to live with, and has the nose and run to become a great hunter.

I did some research on slug bait, and even the ones that advertise as being "pet safe" are toxic to dogs. We will never use slug or snail poison again anywhere on our property.

Many of us make our gun dogs members of the family, and life in a home and yard is far more dangerous than like in a kennel. All of you that keep your gun dogs as family dogs, heed my experience. Reading the labels of garden chemicals is not good enough. Get on line and look up what vets say about the chemicals you intend to use. The vets will tell you the real truth.

Gracie is as good as new, and a great pup. During the course of this next season she will be taking over the position of primary hunter from my 9-year-old French Brittany, Emma. I look forward to many years of hunting fun and family companionship from Gracie.
Joe

[ezzy333]

Glad you saved her. But I do want to make sure that everyone knows what the labels say are accurate. The critical info is printed off of the MSDS (Maqterial Safety Data Sheet0 which every chemical and hazardous material has. That is where all of us get the correct data and remedies including our doctors, vets, and the first responders to any situation they run into. You can look them up on line if you want to see the complete data on any material. Labels are accurate but not as complete as the MSDS. Some of them are interesting reading if you take the time to do it.

[mcbosco]

The MSDS says that Iron Sulphate can be somewhat toxic, so the label on the baits is clearly misleading.

This could be one of those cases where there are several ingredients that alone are not that bad but together are dangerous. I have seen that before, classic labeling loophole.

[smokinjoe]

I think you are correct about MSDS sheets, and this bad experience will make me much more suspicious of garden products in the future. We certainly didn't know that slug bait was poisonous to dogs until the vet said that Gracie's condition looked like classic slug-bait poisoning. We had never heard of that. We had already wracked our brains to try to think of any plant in the yard that could have made her so sick, but came up with nothing until the vet mentioned slug bait. The vet was not very kind in his analysis of the labeling standards for garden products and the effects of those products on dogs. He said he sees a lot of this kind of inadvertent dog poisoning. I told my wife that I would get her a BB gun and some night-vision goggles to fight the slugs. No more slug bait at our house.
Joe

[mydoghasfleas]

REALLY AWESOME to hear that you saved your pup! Good job getting her to the vet in time! Very happy for you on that!
I've had family dogs since I was a kid and my mother is an avid gardener. Her yard is full of plants (pet friendly ones) and she doesn't like to use chemicals on anything since the labels are often misleading, and even if they are "safe" they are still chemicals and not really necessary. SO just as a side note, if your wife wants to kill slugs safely, my mom uses a shallow dish (like the small cream cheese containers) with a bit of lite beer! I thought she was crazy, but she puts a few out at night and in the morning, dead slugs in the beer!
But again glad to hear Gracie is safe!

[Cajun Casey]

The MSDS says that Iron Sulphate can be somewhat toxic, so the label on the baits is clearly misleading.

This could be one of those cases where there are several ingredients that alone are not that bad but together are dangerous. I have seen that before, classic labeling loophole.

What the OP describes would be more likely metaldehyde, not iron sulfate. Gotta go with the beer on this one. That or chickens.

[mcbosco]

The MSDS says that Iron Sulphate can be somewhat toxic, so the label on the baits is clearly misleading.

This could be one of those cases where there are several ingredients that alone are not that bad but together are dangerous. I have seen that before, classic labeling loophole.

What the OP describes would be more likely metaldehyde, not iron sulfate. Gotta go with the beer on this one. That or chickens.

I misread his post but even the iron sulphate baits are toxic. Aren't baits like this supposed to have a bittering agent?

[Cajun Casey]

I believe only antifreeze is required by law to have an added bittering agent and that is on a state by state basis.

[ezzy333]

The MSDS says that Iron Sulphate can be somewhat toxic, so the label on the baits is clearly misleading.

This could be one of those cases where there are several ingredients that alone are not that bad but together are dangerous. I have seen that before, classic labeling loophole.

What the OP describes would be more likely metaldehyde, not iron sulfate. Gotta go with the beer on this one. That or chickens.

I misread his post but even the iron sulphate baits are toxic. Aren't baits like this supposed to have a bittering agent?

Remember toxic doesn't mean it is poisonous. Alchol or even water can be toxic. Many many things are toxic to some animal or plant and a lot of times it depends on the size of the dose. Besides just reading the MSDS you need to have a basic understanding.

In this case it shouldn't be surprising that a poison to one animal would be toxic to another. We all need to be careful what we put on our yards if our dogs are going to have access especially while the yards are still wet or we leave bait out in the open. It is a recipe for disaster.

Ezzy