Locals are urged to be on high alert after a spate of malicious dog poisonings has hit the White River area over the past two weeks.
Casterbridge Animal Hospital has attended to five cases, while three were reported to White River Animal Hospital.
The areas that have been targeted are Curlews, Yaverland, White River Rugby Club and certain parts of town.
“We only managed to pull one dog through. The other two already presented very severe symptoms and didn’t make it,” said Dr Graeme Harman of Casterbridge.
Dr Bennie Pienaar of White River Animal Hospital said they managed to save two of the three dogs that were poisoned.
“We are finding this year that some poisonings are presented a bit atypically to the previous years, where we have seen mostly carbamate poisonings,” he added. This is also known as Temic or “two-step” which comes in the from of a black granule that looks like poppy seeds.
“What we are finding now is that dogs are poisoned with a white powder, which we are currently having analysed. One of the new clinical signs we see are fluid build-ups in the lungs and dogs dying of acute respiratory distress. The fluid in the lungs is dark yellow and could possibly be methaemoglobin, which would be typical for cyanide poisonings,” he said.
This, however, still needs to be confirmed. Other clinical signs are violent muscle tremors and seizures, vomiting and excessive salivation and also profuse diarrhoea and disorientation.
“The sooner we see the animals, the more we can do. If the poison is only recently ingested, making the dog vomit immediately will bring out most of the harmful substance before it gets absorbed into the bloodstream. Once absorbed into the bloodstream, a large dosage can be lethal.
“We try antagonise the effect of the poison with medication as much as possible while we drip and rehydrate to safeguard the liver,” Harman added.
The hospital has instructed guards and duty officers of Hi-Tech and Full Circle Security to induce vomiting in any dog they find which presents with symptoms.
“They have been given large feeding syringes in which to put a bolus of washing powder and give by mouth immediately. This makes the animal vomit straight away. We’ve instructed them on the procedure, the clinical signs to watch out for and what protocols to follow in such emergency cases,” concluded Harman.
A spate of dog poisonings has invaded the area
Casterbridge Animal Hospital has recently attended to five cases, while three were reported to White River Animal Hospital.
