Attention all dog owners: You need to be on high alert for your pet’s safety.
A case of dog poisoning was reported at Beefwood Road in Pennington last Wednesday evening. Merilyn Swanby contacted the Mail to report the incident to make others aware of the situation after her dogs had been poisoned.
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Nothing can really be done by the police at this stage as there is no solid or photographic evidence to prove that someone was making their rounds in the area actually poisoning the dogs. According to Mrs Swanby, a similar incident had occurred towards the end of last year.
Last August, four dogs were poisoned and two died. The other two dogs belonged to her neighbour. In December last year, Mrs Swanby’s dog also died from poisoning. It is believed that ‘Aldicarb’ – a controlled substance – was the poison used on the dogs last year.
Also known as Temik or ‘two-step’, the poison (granules of almost gum-like powder) is used by farmers who purchase it from an accredited dealer in order to kill rats. Unfortunately, some farm workers steal this poison.
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This time around, insecticide was found as the poison which had killed one dog – the dog belonging to the neighbour, Alet Botha.
“It is very disturbing that someone would actually do something like this,” said Mrs Botha. “It’s just inhumane.”
Since last year, five of Mrs Botha’s dogs have been poisoned – two of which pulled through.
“Not only is this a traumatising thing to go through each time, but it’s also very costly to keep taking our pets to seek help at the vet,” Mrs Botha explained.
“Signs of poisoning start with a dog vomiting food which the owner does not recognise, but this can become tricky as a dog vomiting can also be caused by many other things,” said Dr Peter Biden of ScottVet.
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“Dogs show muscle tremors and twitches. Varying degrees of paralysis also occur, which could even lead to a complete coma. Many dogs will vomit, salivate, froth at the mouth and have diarrhoea and urinate.”
You can also look out for signs such as slow heart rate and difficulties in breathing. If you’re able to get your animal treated in its early stages, there are chances of survival. “The cause of death is usually an inability to breathe and sudden heart failure,” said Dr Biden.
Try to make mental notes of what you feed your animals. Criminals who make use of the poisonous substance place it inside meat, preferably meat with a strong odour such as russians, viennas and polony.
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Residents are warned to be alert as dog poisoning is not something you see every day, but when it does occur, it tends to affect more than one household, often in the same street as indicated by recent reports from Mrs Swandy and Mrs Botha.
If you suspect that your dog has been poisoned take it to your veterinarian as quickly as possible.
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