Has my dog been poisoned? The signs, and what do I do right now?

Early morning, on the path between the flats or along the edge of the park. Your dog pushes his head under a bush and comes out chewing, and you never see what it was. Half an hour later he is drooling and trembling, and he sways on his feet. Or it starts the other way round: the neighbours tell you two dogs on your street died in the same week, and then you find chunks of sausage in the grass with coloured granules pressed into them. Poisoned baits put down on purpose for dogs and cats are a real and recurring problem in Romania, where we train, in towns and villages alike, and they kill much-loved family dogs as easily as strays. Plenty of other countries have the same problem under the name "dog baiting". This page is about the minutes that follow. If your dog got hold of something toxic at home (chocolate, grapes, medicines, a sock), we have a separate page for that.

The next 10 minutes: what to do now

1. Stop him and move him away. If he still has something in his mouth and will let you, hook it out with your fingers wrapped in a bag or a tissue. Never touch the bait with bare hands: some poisons go through skin. If he struggles or bites, let it go.
2. Take a sample. Bag whatever is left of the bait, with a bit of the soil beside it if it looks stained. If he has been sick, the vomit goes in a second bag. Take two photos of the spot, one close up and one from further back. A minute's work, and nothing you could hand the vet is more useful.
3. Ring your own vet or an out-of-hours clinic while you are on the move. Open with "suspected poisoning from a bait". With some poisons the minutes count for more than anything else.
4. Do not make him sick yourself. No salt, no soapy water, no fingers down his throat. In a dog who is already trembling or fitting, vomit can end up in the lungs, and some substances burn a second time on the way back up. If his stomach needs emptying, the vet will say so on the phone.
5. No milk, oil, eggs, yoghurt or charcoal. Milk does not "neutralise" poison, whatever the local wisdom says, and fats help some poisons into the bloodstream faster.
6. Go. If he is trembling or seizing, wrap him in a blanket, carry him and lay him on the floor of the car, clear of hard edges. Do not hold his tongue or put anything in his mouth. Bright light and noise make the seizures worse with some poisons, so keep your voice low and the windows shut.
7. Split the jobs. One person drives, the other talks to the vet. On your own, start the call on speaker before you pull away.

What the signs may point to

You will almost never find out what was in the bait. The signs give the vet a direction, so watch them and report them accurately, along with when each one started.

Use the table to describe what you are seeing; the diagnosis belongs to the vet. Some baits carry more than one poison, and some substances do not fit any row. Our rule of thumb: a dog who eats something off the ground and then changes suddenly has been poisoned until the vet tells you otherwise.

At the vet: what to say and what happens

What to say on the phone

• What happened. For example: "he ate something off the ground in the park, I think it was a bait, and now he is drooling and shaking".
• When. The time, as exactly as you can. Fifteen minutes and an hour lead to different decisions.
• What you can see now. Drool, vomiting, diarrhoea, tremor, seizures, the pupils, gum colour, whether he is conscious.
• What is in the bag. The bait, the vomit. Describe the colour of the granules or powder; some rodent poisons are dyed blue, green or pink.
• His weight, any other conditions, any medicines he is on.
• Where you are and how long you will take to get there.

What the vet does at the clinic

1. Stabilises him. If he is seizing or struggling to breathe, the vet stops the seizure and secures his breathing before anything else. You will be asked to wait outside. That is routine.
2. Empties the stomach, if the poison went down recently and he is awake. In a dog who is fitting it is done differently, under anaesthetic, with a tube.
3. Binds the poison in the gut so less of it is absorbed. This works for many substances.
4. Gives the antidote where there is one. A few of the poisons common in baits have one; for the rest it is supportive care until the effect wears off.
5. Fluids, oxygen, warming or cooling, depending on how he is.
6. Runs tests. Bloods; clotting tests if rat poison is suspected, repeated two or three days later even when the first result is normal; kidney values with antifreeze.
7. Sends the sample to a lab, if you brought the bait, or if, sadly, the dog dies. The toxicology report doubles as the evidence you will need later.
8. Keeps him in, from one night to several days. With anticoagulant poison the treatment runs for weeks and only stops after a follow-up test.

The legal side

Poisoning animals on purpose is a criminal offence in Romania under the animal protection law, and in most European countries too. Report it even if you caught it in time. The next dog on your street may not be as lucky.

• Ask the vet for a written record of the diagnosis, date, time and treatment. If a sample goes to a lab, keep the report.
• Make a complaint to the police, with the photos of the spot, the time, the sample and the vet's paperwork. Some cities have police units that deal with animal cases; where there is none, go to the station that covers the street.
• Tell the council or local police if the baits are in public places so they can be cleared. If you collect them yourself, wear gloves and double-bag them; when you hand them over, say where you found them.
• Warn the neighbours and put a short post in the local group: where, when, what the bait looked like. No names and no accusations you cannot back up. Accusing someone in public without evidence can land you in trouble and does nothing for the investigation.

Keeping him away from baits

A dog who eats off the ground will try again. That bit of sausage under the bench is the best thing that has happened to him all morning. You have two tools and you need both: teach him to leave things on the ground, and cut off his access wherever you cannot watch every step.

"Leave it", from the kitchen to the pavement

1. Closed fist. Hold a dull treat in your fist. He sniffs, licks, shoves with his nose, and you wait. The moment he pulls his head back, say "yes" and give him something far better from the other hand. After ten or so goes, say "leave it" just before you offer the fist.
2. Open hand. Same rule with your palm open. If he dives in, close it.
3. On the floor. Put the treat down, first under your foot, then uncovered with you standing beside it. When he leaves it and looks up at you, make a fuss of him: happy voice, lots of praise and something from your hand that beats what was on the floor.
4. A set-up walk. Someone in the family scatters bits of bread or biscuit along the route beforehand. You walk past with the dog on lead and practise "leave it", with something really good in your pocket.
5. The real pavement. Chicken bones, wrappers, scraps. Here you are after one thing: a dog who looks up at you by himself when he spots something on the ground. That takes weeks to build.

However good his "leave it" gets, you still have to watch him. A dog who finds a bait two metres away with his nose deep in the grass has swallowed it before you can get a word out.

The basket muzzle

For dogs who will swallow anything, and in areas where baits have turned up, a basket muzzle is the safest protection you have. A good one lets him pant, drink and take treats through the bars. Fabric muzzles that hold the mouth shut are for a few minutes at the vet and have no place on a walk.

He learns it as a game, over a few days. Hold the muzzle with a tasty treat at the bottom and let him push his nose in to get it. Then he keeps his nose in for a second, then three. Then you do the strap up for a moment and undo it. He only wears it on the street once he sees it as something that brings good things, and a dog who is used to it soon forgets it is there.

On your route

• Short lead near bushes, along the edges of parks, around blocks of flats, by the bins and anywhere people put food out for cats. That is where most baits turn up.
• Eyes on the ground in front of the dog. The walks spent looking at your phone are exactly the ones on which dogs find baits.
• Keep an eye on local groups and council notices about pest control. After rat baiting, give the area a wide berth for a few days.
• Where dogs have died recently: muzzle and a short lead, or a different route.

The phone numbers

Save your own vet's number now, plus an out-of-hours clinic in your town with its address. Put your dog's weight in your phone as well. On the morning he comes out of a bush chewing, you will not have time to look any of it up.