Help! My Dog Ate Rat Poison

Updated July 30, 2023

‘At A Glance (Details Below)’ Emergency Care

What To Do If A Dog Eats Rat Or Mouse Poison

  1. If less than two hours since ingestion, see a vet ASAP to cause vomiting
  2. Don’t panic: anticoagulant poisons have an effective antidote if started within 2 days
  3. Follow your vet’s advice on blood testing & when to stop treatment

Now dive deeper.

In a survey of our clinic over 15 years, the second most common poisoning in dogs in Adelaide is caused by rodenticides.

How Dogs Get Poisoned

Deliberate poisoning with rat bait is rare. The real reason most dogs get poisoned is that owners underestimate their dogs’ intelligence, and don’t realise that rat poison is something dogs want to eat.

Anything tasty to rats is tasty to dogs too. You may have forgotten that bait you laid last summer but your dog hasn’t. Most poisonings occur from:

  • Old baits safely left in a hidden area until something is moved
  • Poison knocked off a shelf in the shed
  • Baits found when visiting friends or holiday homes
  • Rats moving block-type baits into accessible areas
  • Small dogs or cats eating poisoned rats
  • Bait stations that can be broken open

Types Of Rat Poisons

different rat poisons

In Australia, most rat and mouse baits are anticoagulants. They work by blocking the production of clotting factors. A few days after a toxic dose, affected animals start bleeding internally.

Bromethalin is a neurotoxin found in rat baits in other countries that can cause much more rapid signs of tremors, seizures, hind limb weakness and collapse.

Anticoagulants come in two types. Warfarin is an older form which requires repeated and higher doses to kill an animal. Brodifacoum or difenacoum are much more potent later generations developed to overcome warfarin resistance in rodents. Poisonings with any of these require veterinary attention, but it’s useful for the vet to know which one was used.

It doesn’t matter if the poison is in block or pellet form, it’s the active ingredient that counts.

Other rat poisons such as phosphides are used in professional pest control and farming. These can kill rapidly if urgent veterinary care is not sought. Due to their rarity in domestic situations I will only discuss anticoagulants from now on.

Signs Of Rat Bait Poisoning In Dogs

Symptoms are entirely due to uncontrolled bleeding. The most common signs of rodenticide toxicity in dogs are:

  • Lethargy & reluctance to exercise
  • Pale gums
  • Panting or heavy breathing
  • Swollen abdomen

Signs are usually vague, stressing the importance of remembering the possibility of rat poisons.

Other signs may include:

  • Coughing or vomiting blood
  • Blood in the faeces
  • Swollen joints and lameness
  • Collapse
  • Blue or green dye in vomit, faeces or around the mouth

What To Do When A Dog Eats A Rat Bait

Stay calm; there is an antidote. Dogs don’t die of rat bait exposure if they see a vet before symptoms appear, preferably within 24 hours of ingestion.

Call your vet for advice. If the rat poison was eaten less than two hours ago, you will be told to come straight down. Inducing vomiting should remove most of the poison. This includes secondary poisoning when a dog eats a poisoned rat.

If the exposure was more than two hours ago, inducing vomiting may still be a good idea, especially if your dog has had a recent meal to slow down absorption. However, there will almost certainly be poison in the system.

Your vet will either:

  1. Plan a blood test to check for slow blood clotting two days after ingestion.
  2. Start a course of Vitamin K1 (the specific antidote) for a time calculated to be longer than the action of the poison.

Warning: deaths have occurred using different Vitamin K so please consult your vet

For both options, three days after the end of the course, another clotting test is recommended.

How to decide? The decision is based on risk and cost.

  1. If the amount taken was low, or we think vomiting brought enough back up, we’ll recommend the blood test before treatment
  2. In a large dog, Vitamin K1 is very expensive, so we may test first to see if we really need to use it.
  3. In a small dog, treatment is much cheaper than testing, and quite safe, so we may choose to treat first.
dog ate ratsak
Bailey

For example, Bailey’s owner noticed a small amount of the blue dye from rat bait in his faeces. We decided it wasn’t certain he’d had enough poison to harm him so we scheduled a blood test instead of treating him. The result was normal, so he never needed treatment.

How To Make Dogs Vomit

Finally, an important word on making dogs vomit. On the internet you will read methods using peroxide. It may be safe enough (I doubt it), but who has peroxide just lying around?

Even if you are successful, you will still need to go to the vet. Therefore, it’s far better to pack your dog in the car and head straight to the vet than lose valuable time.

Vets have several gentle methods which usually work. We also keep apomorphine as a back up if the milder emetics don’t work. Vets also know when it’s not safe to induce vomiting.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

60 Replies to “Help! My Dog Ate Rat Poison”

  1. My dog ate some blue rat poison. I took him to the vet about one hour and 30 minutes later. They made him throw it up, it was green. We think he got most of it out. She booked him a blood test 3 days after but she didn’t seem to worried about him. few hours later he had dinner and did a poo and it had a bit if green in it. It had been one day since. he is acting normal and seems fine. Is there still a chance of him having a reaction for the poison.

    1. Hi Laura. There is a high chance that he has taken sufficient poison to cause internal bleeding in the next 1 to 2 days. Please follow your vet’s advice, but if a blood test is not possible in the correct time frame, then preventative use of the antidote would be necessary.

  2. Hi,
    My dog has received a blood transfusion (2 days ago) and is on Vitamin K for a 1st generaion poisoning. She still has blood in her urine though. Is this normal?

    1. Hi Monique. As long as other parameters are improving them it could just reflect the metabolism of blood that was lost internally. The best thing to do is keep in close touch with your regular vets.

  3. Both of my dogs ate possibly 1 or more of the waxy blocks and wasn’t discovered until approx 6 hrs later they were taken to the vet and started 50mg twice daily vitimin k for the big dog and 25mg twice daily for the small dog we are on day 5 big dog started vomiting yesterday no signs of active bleeding or white gums gums etc but I’m concerned that she’s vomiting vitimin k back up before she’s able to absorb it any advice?

    1. Hi Christine. Vomiting is not a side-effect I’ve ever seen from vitamin K or rat poison, so it will be worth getting back in touch with your own vets for help. It certainly could prevent absorption of the vitamin K if not corrected.

      1. Hi there my 2 lab babies one 5 yrs one 11mths ate rat bait that the younger one had managed to get to out of the shed by elevating herself on machinery and knocking a bucket down and dragging a plastic bag outside I couldn’t believe what I found her eatin and dont know how long they had the bait. An hr trip to vet the younger one vomited up copious amounts but the older one not alot I am worried he didn’t get it all up but your comments are giving me hope that the vit k may work I pray it does (we didn’t get charcol). I was told to feed them plenty of eggs and milk for vit k benefits by the vet assistant is this correct I am a bit worried about the milk because I have always read its a not good for dogs I’m desperate to do the right thing. I pray for all your poor dogs and wish you all the best thankyou

      2. Hi Gill. As you already know, the vitamin K will be effective as long as it is given for long enough, and it was an anticoagulant rodenticide, which it sounds like it was. Ooty, I understand that vitamin K is best given with a fatty meal, but it might be best to avoid products containing lactose.

  4. Hello. My 2 yr old 39lb pup ate ramik pellets (from the 4lb bag) at my neighbors house on friday afternoon. She didnt inform me she seen her eating them until the next morning. She is unsure how many she ate because she puts a pile of them in a small bowl and the bowl was empty. She stated it cpuld habe been arpund 10 to 12 balls. I immediately took my sweet girl to our vet and he stated it was too late to induce vomiting and he doesnt have the machine to check pt/ptt times. He gave her 2 vitamin k injections (i wasnt told the mg) and gave me vit k to give daily for 21 days. Is there a chance she can pull through this since inducing vomiting did not occur? Do i need to find a vet that does have this machine? Thank you so much for your time.

    1. Hi Rachel. As long as the antidote is used for more than the amount of time at the poison is in the system, there should be no problems. In this case, three weeks seems like a pretty good bet, and I wouldn’t be too concerned as long as you stay in touch with your vet. In our clinic, we often send blood away two or three days after the end of treatment, just to check the PT/APTT as it can be done at external laboratories as well.

  5. Hi Andrew, we’re currently dealing with a plague of rats in and around our chook yard/veg patch and due to being unable to get on top of the rodent issues for months, I have resorted to bait stations with Ratshot Blue (with DIFenacoum) as it’s supposed to have no ‘2nd generation’ kill. We have a 5yr old Jack Russell who frequently catches the rats, but never ingests them – only catches and kills before we dispose of them. I’m hoping the risk to her (and the chooks and other wildlife) is reduced using this bait, but would love clarification from a vet!

    1. Hi Angie. I would never rely on a statement that a poison does not cause secondary poisoning (i.e. to the animal that eats the dead or sick rodent). There will always be too great a risk. Think, for example, about the stomach contents that have not been metabolised prior to death. My advice is to treat this poison the same as you would any other.

  6. I have recently got a rehomed jack russel
    & she mangered to get underneath our decking… where we have previously put poison down acouple of months ago..!
    We don’t know if it’s still under there or not or whether she has eaten any!! This was about an hour ago!! I’m still debating to take her vets or not ??

    1. Hi Sarah. Rat poison is highly palatable to dogs, so it’s safest to assume that it has been eaten and that you need to go to the vet.

      1. Hello my dog a a tiny bit of rat bait, the vet is closed and the nearest emergency is 3 hours away, I gave her peroxide and she threw up 30 minutes after eating the poison what do I do next she is 4 years old and weights 71 lbs

      2. Hi Maria. As long as it was an anticoagulant type poison (the most common) then like the article suggests, you only need to go to the vet when they are open in the next one or two days to organise longer term antidote therapy.

  7. Oh my poor Zeba girl ate 1 cube green mouse poison. Within 15 minutes vet induced vomiting an charcoal. This happened today around 3:30. They vet is keeping her till Monday with IV. She is 60# pitbull 10 years old. I really want her home ASAP I miss my baby. Do you think she will be ok with no problems.

  8. Hi, my 7 month puppy found the rat sak tub but almost straight away we found her and took her to the vets, with no sign of chewed or broken baits, they flushed her out and gave vitamin k, we are 4 days from that and she is her normal self with no coloured poop or pale gums since. l have had her desexed a week and a half ago so money has gone all her way lately.. should l be having a follow up blood test?

  9. My 5year old lab ate a few of the blue rat bait blocks. We live on a farm and I did not notice symptoms until today. It must have been the beginning of last weekend, so the symptoms took 5 days to show. She is at the hospital now, getting blood and vit k drips? She was sneezing blood and the hind legs were paralyzed. I am so worried she won’t make it through the night!! Please , is there any assurance that she wil make it?

    1. Hi Maddie. If she’s getting a blood transfusion and vitamin K then she should pull through.

  10. Hi Andrew
    My dog Passed away 5 weeks ago and I am so broken hearted and really struggling to get over it. My wife has a fear of Mice and rats and laid baits in my shed but assured me they were dog friendly. When walking my girl I noticed in Her faeces it was greenie / blue and I was immediately concerned. My dog was perfectly normal within herself and I kept an eye on her, then suddenly a week or so later she was lethargic and quite distressed and uncomfortable, only wanting to drink water It was a very cold night and I sat with her rugged her up to try and make her comfortable. It was very late evening no vets available or within close distance. She was very heavy breathing for a few hours then had a major throw up and then seemed to settle somewhat and then all of a sudden went into a major spasm and lost control of her bowels. She then settled again but I knew she was in deep trouble. I tried performing CPR to no avail. Then she had another spasm and she was gone.
    It was a terrible night and she died in my arms.
    I believed she had been poisoned but where and how I didn’t know, but after reading your website I am now convinced she has eaten what my wife put in my shed. I have since found the box and it states it should not be exposed to Dogs.
    I am so heart broken to think we have caused this to our beautiful girl and I do not have the heart to tell my wife as it will break her.

    Thankyou for reading

    1. Hi Tony. I’m very sorry to read this. Like you, I am convinced that this was a case of rat bait poisoning as the symptoms and the delay between ingestion and first signs are quite typical. Thank you for sharing this story for the benefit of others.

  11. My dog ate bromelain rat poison. We are not sure how much, maybe just a small amount, birds broke one bag, and the tablet was in small pieces over the grass. We took her to the vet right away and she gave her vit.K injection,but she didn’t induce vomiting. Today she ate her food and then started vomiting about 5-10 times. Vet gave her something for vomiting, rehidration, and also another injection of vitamin K. Her gums still look a little pale. I am so worried she is not going to pull through.

    1. Hi Ollie. I assume you are referring to bromethalin. It’s not a drug we have in Australia so my knowledge on it is limited. However, the best thing you can do is stay in touch with your vet. I doubt there is a large risk if you do so.

  12. Hi there,
    My 3kg, 8 month old got locked in the shed and ate a small amount of ratsak. We got her up to the vet within 2 hours and they made her vomit.
    She has 2 little puddles that were a blue tinge.
    They put her on vitiman K straight away.
    Im just so bloody worried.
    This dog saved my life. I’m really scared with what’s going to happen in the next 24 to 48 hours.
    Please give me any advice you can.

    1. Hi Caitlin – as long as you follow your vet’s instructions you have nothing to worry about.

  13. My dog ate rat poison,. Not much. I got it out of his throat, mouth and teeth. No symptoms, it was around 14 hours ago and there is no emergency vet and no vet open until Monday. My question is, is it too late after 3 days to save him??

    1. Hi Kassidy. If it’s just happened then Monday is less than the three days it takes for symptoms to appear. Therefore he would be in no danger as long as you see a vet once they open.

  14. Hi I think my dog (puppy 6months english staffy) ate the natural Yates rat sack (I think the rats dragged it off the high self), This product is ment to be safe for domestic animals. I’m not sure how much he ate maybe 200gm. He seems to be fine at the moment its been around 1hr.
    Please if you have any experience with this product and issue let me know.
    Cheers

    1. There is no rat poison 100% safe for dogs. Anything that kills a rat can kill a dog, it’s just a dose difference. Please seek veterinary assistance immediately.

    2. Hi Kylie, how did you go with your puppy. My big girl Skye 4 years are an entire pack of Ratsack cubes yesterday. I took her directly to the vet and she had to have a Gastric Lavage and Charcoal treatment which cost near $2600.
      Today we had a blood test and her clotting came back at 25 seconds which is double what the time should be. Another $900 paid and she’s been given a 28 day supply of VITIMIN K medication, as there has been no signs of bleeding from any orifice as of yet. They said as long as I start her on the Vitimin K before any bleeding occurs she will pull through and survive. I read that you said the rats dragged the bait out. It’s funny because we had the bait up high and in a deep bucket. The bucket was still in the exact spot and not moved. So after checking the security camera. I found 5 Big Bastard rats running up and down from the bucket so I assume they pulled it out and dropped it on the floor. And then Skye found it and thought it was a treat. I’m hoping the Vitimin K works, because I can’t lose my Girl. She means more to me than anything in the world.

      1. Hi Cameron,

        I hope skye is feeling better and gets well soon, I too had my dog at the vet today as I suspected he ate rat sak, they induced his vomit gave him charcoal and vitamin K for 30 days. Total cost was $219. So wow I wonder why the huge difference in cost.

        I will have to take him back to get. His blood checked if I notice any signs of the poison starting to affect him. I hope blood tests aren’t too expensive.

        I hope both our doggie babies get through this.

  15. We are suspicious of our dog may have ingested some bait dust (at most the equivilant at most to two Ground Pepper Shaker turns. There was som dust residue in the bai trap and he picked it up…he would not have directly eaten it but likely some dust may have had dropped into her mouth. its been a couple of hours and she seems normal but my wife believes his gums are pale… albeit we don’t have a baseline colour to specifically go off of. How soon would the gums go pale and is this level of dust intake significant?

    1. Hi David. It takes 2 to 3 days for the first symptoms to appear, and possibly even longer. When in doubt, follow the advice in the text above to get your dog tested or go on the antidote.

  16. Hello,
    I am unsure if my dog managed to get to a talon blue mouse bait block but I can’t seem to find the one that was up the back of the garage and she has vomited up a bright green vomit. She vomited on Friday (today is Sunday) and today we didn’t think much of it until we clicked that a block was missing. She seems fine, her gums are red, she isn’t lethargic but has thrown up twice and had a similar green coloured pool. If she did eat it, she would of eaten it on Friday, I don’t know what to do.

  17. We realized lot dog ate an entire bar 24 hours after she ingested it. She is now own vitamin k1 from the vet. How long does she need to not run and play? (We normally run her 3-7 miles a day.)

    1. Hi Diane. As you can probably work out from the explanation above, if a dog is on treatment then there is no abnormality unless it stops too early. You should be able to run your dog as normal and they should have normal clotting times as long as they are receiving the vitamin K1 supplement.

  18. We think my dogs ate a tiny piece of mice bait pellet, but we aren’t sure she did, we got her to the vets within 20 mins of this all happening, they made her vomit buy nothing came up and we have a blood test 48 hours after, I’m a little worries they didn’t put her on medication and by the time we get to the blood test it might be to far, I’m a little worried, I can’t see any signs but I’m just worried

      1. My dog ate half of the bar, brand just one bite ll rat poison 3 days ago. I took him to the animal hospital that day, where they gave him vitamin k 50mg and ran a blood test and told me he was fine. The next day I took him to the vet were they ran more blood samples they haven’t got back with me on the results yet. But my concerns are it’s been over 72hours (3 days) since he ingested it and he is still acting normal. I’m just worried about will their be symptoms and his health overall. Need some positive feedbacks to know that he will be ok.

      2. Hi Atavian. If your dog has been given vitamin K, then the test will give normal results. In order to detect poisoning, it usually takes 2 to 3 days after the end of treatment for the clotting problem to return. If you are sure that your dog ingested the poison, it’s probably wise to continue treatment for three weeks and then test afterwards. Of course, watch the gum colour throughout.

  19. I found my 7 month old puppy with a wax big cheese rodent block (active ingredient DIFENACOUM) in his mouth. I doesn’t look like he was able to digest much at all. I am unable to get hold of the emergency vet (it is 10pm) which is approx 4 hours away. Is there anything I can administer or use to help him until I can get him medical help.

    1. Hi Tammy. If you read the article, the information is within. Always assume they’ve had enough to poison them, and using an emetic isn’t nearly as important as the antidote. Good luck.

  20. My dog found a box of rat pellets at my mother in laws house. We think he may have eaten one pellet only but we’re not sure. He may have eaten none. Never the less, I took him to the emergency vets 3 hours later as I was worried about it and they induce vomiting and put him on a course of vitamin K tablets. This happened 2 days ago and he is still showing no signs of poisoning at all. Can I allow him to play with his doggy friend or go for a walk or is it still too early to say he is out of the woods?

    1. Hi Stacey. As long as you keep him on the Vitamin K, there’s no reason he can’t go and play!

  21. My 13 week old pug puppy ate a whole wax block yesterday morning when I was taking my kids to school, we didn’t realise until 10pm when we went to put him to bed and seen the tiny specks of wax in there. The vet induced vomiting which produced nothing but we found it in his poop from yesterday so how’s hes on vitamin k but I’m still so worried 🙁

  22. Our dogs ate a square each of ratsak with Brodifacoum yesterday. The smaller dog is 14.5kg. We had them to the vet within an hour for induced vomiting and started K1 that night. Is the prognosis good? I understand that nothing is 100% but I’m very concerned for the smaller dog. No symptoms showing as yet but it’s only been 24 hours.

    1. Hi Lisa. The prognosis is excellent if you follow your vet’s advice. The only real danger comes from not recognising the poisoning or not doing something about it!

  23. My dog ate ratsak 6 days ago, he ripped of his toe nail it won’t stop bleeding. ND now he is coughing up blood

    1. Desley all I can say is that I’m glad you found my page. He’ll be OK as long as he gets to a vet before he loses too much blood.

    2. how long after the dog has eaten the poison will you know if he will be ok? does this cause any long term health issues with the dog?

      1. If a dog survives rat poison ingestion, there are no long-term side-effects. However, as poison can be active in the body for up to 3 weeks, it takes that long to be sure that the dog will be okay after eating it.

    1. Hi Susan. On average, signs of internal bleeding appear in 3 days if no antidote is given. Death can then follow quickly.

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