Diagnosis of Pesticide Poisoning in Dogs
If you suspect your dog has come into contact with a pesticide, immediately take him to the veterinarian. It is important to communicate with your veterinarian about your dog’s history of contact with any pesticide, even if you are not positive that he ingested or inhaled any of the compound. Even if you suspect any contact, the veterinarian will have more of an idea on what to do in terms of diagnosing and treating your dog.
The veterinarian may recommend a complete examination including any blood work, urinalysis, and a biochemistry profile. The biochemistry profile will be used to evaluate the functions of your dog’s kidneys, pancreas, and liver. Another very important part of evaluating your dog will be the careful monitoring of his clinical signs. The veterinarian may also test your dog’s electrolyte levels to be sure the poisoning is not dehydrating him or causing an electrolyte balance abnormality.
If you are completely sure that your dog ingested a type of pesticide, your veterinarian may choose to begin treatment immediately as he is waiting on the results of testing. Each situation is different, and your veterinarian is trained to look at the signs and make a diagnosis of toxicity.
Causes of Pesticide Poisoning in Dogs
The cause of pesticide poisoning in dogs is from the ingestion or inhalation of a specific type of pesticide. Pesticide poisoning negatively affects the dog by:
What Should I Do if My Dog Eats Insecticide?
If your dog has eaten insecticide, it is important to try to find out how much and what type of product was consumed. Toxicity in dogs varies greatly among insecticides and can range from mild to life-threatening. It is ideal to have the packaging or find the product label online to verify which ingredients are present in the product ingested.
Get as much information as possible by calling one of the poison hotlines and call your veterinarian to discuss whether your pet needs to be seen.
Fertilizers and Pesticides Poisoning in Dogs – Symptoms & Causes
We all know that pesticides are not healthy to consume and that certainly goes for our dogs too!
I learned this the hard way last year when my Boston Terrier, Nickel, accidentally ate pesticide.
We were having problems with ants indoors and had a pest control technician over to assess our home for treatment options. We let the technician know that we had a dog, who is particularly prone to getting into things, and needed some safer alternatives to get rid of the ants. He left that day after going over a few options with us and said nothing about having started the pesticide treatment.
Later that night, we discovered that he had put two ant bait stations out – just sitting on the floor – and Nickel had already consumed the majority of one. He didn’t let us know that he had treated anything yet and had just left two sitting on the floor, which were easy for Nickel to find and get into. Needless to say, we never used this particular company again!
We immediately looked up numbers for pet poison control, as it was past closing time at our veterinary office. Nickel was not showing any signs of distress yet, but we were concerned since she had consumed nearly a full ant bait bar.
It’s important to seek help quickly. If your veterinary office is closed, it’s recommended by the National Pesticide Information Center to immediately call one of these help lines:
Nickel weighs 22 pounds and we were very concerned that her smaller size would make her more vulnerable to any adverse effect, which is why we also left a message on her vet’s after hours phone line.
If possible have the name of the pesticide, approximate amount consumed, concentration of the pesticide, and any other information on the packaging ready for the operator. In our case, the ant bait had some remaining packaging on it. We weren’t able to read the ant bait station that Nickel ate part of, but upon locating the other one we read off the information to the operator.
If the pesticide was sprayed or doesn’t have packaging, check your service order for the treatment. Per the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act in the United States, any treatments used must be listed with specific details on the chemicals, concentrations, etc.