After your heart has sunk. And you have reached into his reluctant mouth and carefully lifted the offending little brick of poison over his teeth and out of his mouth. 
We were visiting a friend and it was one of those moments when you are chatting and not watching the dogs as closely as you should. Before I realised he had gone, Blue appeared back at my feet with a small block of blue rat poison about the size of an old fashioned matchbox. In his mouth. He wasn’t happy about giving it up either.
We drove immediately to the closest vet and though he was not in, (when are they) His assistant said “He has to puke”. She is not one to mince words. She gave me a bottle of hydrogen peroxide with instructions to feed him something he will eat straight away (not dry food), then squirt an ounce of the hydrogen peroxide into his mouth. Well, I fed him bread and an egg, which he gobbled up then I opened his mouth and squirted the nasty stuff in. After a minute of waiting under the tree, watching me watch him, he vomited, copiously, more than once but I was grateful to find no blue poison in the contents of his stomach at all. Though how that little dog could keep so much food in his belly, I have no idea.
He was feeling quite poorly after that mean vomit trick and had to have a wee lie down in his favourite sunday-on-tuesday hammock. Poor Blue the Savage. That was a close call, if he’d had a few seconds more, to actually lie down and start to chew on the stuff, this would have been a different post. TonTon’s father died after eating rat poison, it is the scourge of many a farm dog but Blue shows no signs of actually ingesting the poison.
So how about we have a bit of fun to celebrate. I have set up a piglet poll. Can you guess how many piglets our beautiful Charlotte will have. 
She heard there was going to be a photo opportunity and put on her make up! Once we get closer to her date she may have to stop playing in the mud though. Vote if you have a moment. She is due on June 17, and this is her first litter. And as Marie said, she is a big girl. Naturally I am hoping for a smallish number.
And now for someone a little more graceful.
The Duke of Kupa dressed to the nines. And look below, Tui is laying another egg.
Sssh, no loud noises, back away very slowly. Do not disturb the sitting hen.
your tip toeing friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
107 responses to “What to do when your puppy brings you rat poison”
Oh my God Celi! How scary! Puppies are always getting in trouble, and Blue is no exception 😉 I’ afraid…
Take care!
I hate pesticides and poisons with a passion for reasons like this one. When while on a smallholding a few years ago I had to declare war on rats, I employed the old-fashioned traps baited with bread and peanut butter. They couldn’t resist.
What a good pup for bringing you his discovery. If you frequently trade with him when he has something in his mouth (by giving him something he likes even more) he will soon learn to hand (mouth) an item over when you tell him “Trade”. For some reason I am thinking 12 piglets.
That is an excellent idea carol.I shall teach him Trade! For the moment when i feed him i take food in and out of his mouth and mess with his bowl so he will let me take things from his mouth.. Lucky! c
Oh so happy that little boy blue survived that close call. Kupa is a handsome chap.
I’d say there are somewhere close to 1200 people worldwide today saying various versions of ‘Thank God Blue was show-off enough to bring his find straight to Mommy!’. Methinks there would have been real tears in many farmy ‘homes’ if the worst had come to the worst . . . As far as that human poison called ‘warfarin’ is concerned I SO agree with Celi: No, no, no and yes it has been suggested more than once to me too – no way!! Drink more water, eat heaps more greens, take more supplements like fish oil, do lots more exercise, lose weight etc etc etc!!!! As far as Charlotte ? 🙂 ? Why do I also vote for nine? Let’s see how close a number of us get . . .
I’m afraid it’s not as simple as saying no to warfarin or synthetic equivalent: I have four stents in my coronary arteries which if they block up with clotty blood, it’s curtains for me.
Yes red meat and green veg, but with caution – they exaggerate the effect of the anti-coagulent, so I reduce the dose (from a quarter of a tablet a day, if I eat a steak or cabbage. – imagine the precision!)
I know darling, nothing is easy when it gets complicated like that.. hope it sorts out.. c
It is a precise dose for sure and we certainly are not in a position to comment.. just worry for you that is all.. c
I very much do agree with Celi’s last statement! I do not know how it is elsewhere, but here Down Under the pathology nurse always comes 1-3 x a week to your home to take a blood sample and you get the results by phone that very afternoon [free Govt service]. I was commenting in a general and personal sense what I have studied, believe in and do, still studying natural therapies at the moment . . . very much a general comment!
I too detest poisons, it’s a nasty way to die even if you are vermin. My dad’s Griffon ate mouse poison, didn’t realize it til he was feeling poorly (don’t think he ate a lot) so he ended up at the vet’s for the better part of a week. (EXPENSIVE!!!). My daughter didn’t realize her new dog was a counter surfer and he ate a pan of brownies. She did the peroxide trick. It didn’t stop him from surfing but when he swiped a giant gingerbread man he didn’t eat its chocolate buttons!
When I saw your heading, I was reluctant to click on it in case it was bad news, so I was relieved to hear that Blue didn’t chew on the rat bait – it doesn’t bear thinking about. Hope he feels better soon, the pink hammock will help, for sure!
Oh my goodness – never a dull moment on the farm. I am glad to hear Blue did not take the bait, poor fellow must have wondered about the nasty vomiting trick you pulled on him.
Oh that darling boy snoozing exhaustedly in his pink hammock… I ached to cuddle him, and feel those soft folds of puppy skin!
Darling Charlotte is going to have eleven piglets – just to let you know !!!!
Thank god Blue is recovering. He has a little white angel pup in heaven. He told Blue that he had to drink that nasty stuff once when he swallowed a sock. Thankfully there wasn’t anything blue in his tummy. xx Smidge ps.. I’ll be posting my back door soon, probs in a day or two. It’s written, just not published. I’m so sorry this has taken so long, there’s so much catching up to do.. sigh.. time for bed! xx
Oh shame! My naughty beagle puppie also drank a tub of blue rat poison and had to be rushed to the vet in town. Like one of your other readers they also put drops in her eyes that made her vomit profusely and everything turned out fine. Very scary though!
That was a scary opening! Glad to see Blue sleeping it off in the hammock–adorable! Charlotte looks lovely, and Kupa would never be found wallowing in the mud. Tui is so cute in the nesting box.
Whew! That was a close call with Blue. He looks so spent, lying in the pink hammock. Kupa’s tail photo is magnificent, and he clearly knows just how to pose. It must be very successful, with eggs continuing to be laid. The piglet poll was such fun. I love the way you keep coming up with new ideas.
Glad Blue’s OK. We lost a couple of cats that way. He looks so good in the hammock. Top picture:)
Poor baby Blue – hope recovery is tip top. When Zeb ate most of a leather bag earlier this year he was ill for weeks and vet said that making him vomit could be dangerous too, but you have no choice with poisons do you? Presumably the rat bait has a nice smell or taste to make it attractive to rats? I thought you had to put it down in a container so that only rats could get it, but maybe that is a naive townie’s thinking… Kupa’s tail has cheered me up, magnificent photo and I have voted for the smallest number of piglets – I do love a piglet though, so was tempted to vote for more 🙂