Wallace and Winston are absolute bundles of joy! They’re 10-week-old golden retriever puppies, so the world is just super-exciting for them, and they’re so lovable that they tend to raise smiles wherever they go. Unfortunately for them however, where they were going at 7.30 one morning last week was to see me, at South Moor Vets.

The owner had spotted Winston carrying a dead mouse in from his morning ablutions, and had very quick-wittedly remembered that rodenticide (rat poison) had been put down in the area recently. Leaping in, his owner managed to grab the mouse - no mean feat – and prise it from Winston’s jaws, because he knew how dangerous rat poison can be. But then, not wanting to miss out on this exciting new game, Wallace darted in from nowhere and snatched up the mouse. And, having learnt from Winston’s attempt how keen his owner was to get his hands on it, Wallace gulped it down in one.

Rat poison, as the name suggests, is pretty horrible for rats. But because people have been poisoning rats for a century, they have become more and more resistant to its toxic effects. Dogs, on the other hand, haven’t. Which means that the dose of poison in most modern rat baits is enough to kill a good-sized dog. The same goes for cats of course, and whilst they are usually far too discerning to eat the toxic things dogs love to gobble up, they do famously love to catch rodents.

There are several different types of rat poison. Some contain warfarin (or newer generations of the same drug). We use warfarin as a blood thinning medication now, but it was first developed as a rodenticide and is still used as such, causing uncontrolled bleeding. Other rat baits contain cholecalciferol (which causes a fatal deregulation of calcium metabolism).

If we think that a pet has eaten rat poison (or a possibly-poisoned rodent), it is therefore really useful to know what the poison is and then we can try to target our treatment accordingly. If you ever find yourself in this situation, try to find the bag or the box the rodenticide came in; the active ingredients will be stated there.

But the most important initial treatment, if we can, is to make the pet sick as soon as possible. This removes the toxins before they can pass from the stomach down into the intestines, and before too much of them can be absorbed. Wallace and Winston’s owners had already managed to find out what the poison was which might’ve been in the dead mouse, so we knew we had to act as fast as possible. Fortunately, we have medications which are extremely effective at quickly causing vomiting, with minimal other side effects. A few minutes after a dose of this, Wallace’s mouse reappeared (and this time, we intercepted it!). Half an hour later, Wallace was wagging his tail, none the worse for wear, probably having learnt nothing, but toxin-free and on the way home!