Immediate steps to follow when your pet gets poisoned
Pet Insurance

Immediate steps to follow when your pet gets poisoned

If you have a pet, then you know that it can get poisoned at any time due to consuming any types of harmful substances that may be lying around the house or in their surroundings. Additionally, things become worse during the holidays as a result of pet poisons such as chocolate ingestion or eating foods infused with raisins, sultanas, and currants, or anything that your dog may be allergic too.

Whether the poisoning is caused by swallowing, contacting, or breathing any toxic substances, your pet would require an acute treatment. Ensure that you consult your vet as soon as possible. However, to avoid any confusion, you must know the symptoms of pet poisons.

Symptoms of pet poisoning

There are many kinds of pet poisoning, and each has specific symptoms including:

  • Inhaled poisons –

    It takes place when your pet inhales smokes, pesticides, etc. It can cause coughing, drooling, difficulty in breathing, unconsciousness, or coma.

  • Contact poisons –

    It takes place when your pet gets in contact with certain chemicals or plants. This in turn causes discomfort, agitation, excessive scratching, licking, swellings (hives), or pain.

  • Swallowed poisons –

    One of the common types of pet poisons, they cause irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, restlessness, staggering, loss of appetite, disorientation, convulsions, lethargy, coma, etc.

What do you need to do when your pet is poisoned?

When you suspect that your pet is poisoned, contact your vet. Additionally, in case you know the reason for this poisoning, it is beneficial to make a note of the name of the toxin, its strength, and the ingested amount. Furthermore, there are several steps which you should do, including the following:

  • If your pet is poisoned from noxious fumes or gas, take it out to breathe some fresh air.
  • Make sure to put the pet in a room with warm temperature, away from any high or low temperature.
  • Use clean paper towels to remove any poisonous liquid instead of using water or any kind of solvents, except if there are some directions which imply that.
  • If your pet is poisoned by contacting specific substance, wear protective gloves and remove this poisoning substance from its skin.
  • Irrespective of whether the pet poisons were swallowed or not, never induce vomiting as some toxins cause extra damage when vomited.
  • Don’t force your pet to eat or drink anything without consulting the vet.

What should I expect from the vets and what could the treatment be?

The diagnosis will be easy, if you know what your pet ate or ingested, but if you don’t know, then the vet will make some tests to estimate the function of the internal organs of your pet’s body. However, keep in mind that it’s impossible to test for all possible toxins.

In case you know the toxin, the vet will give your pet the suitable antidote. In other cases, he will just try to treat the visible symptoms to maintain a healthy function of the organs till the poison goes out of the body.

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