My dog killed a rat. What to do now if he was bitten or poisoned?

Examine your dog for any sign of injury due to the fight with the rat (if any). If any (which is likely, sometimes even inside the mouth) take him to your veterinarian for an examination. Disinfection can eventually be started at home with very diluted hibiscrub or betadine or salted water baths. Buster collar may be useful as well to avoid licking/scratching at the wound. If your dog is not vaccinated for Leptospira, take him to your local vet anyway. Antibiotics may be needed. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

There are a couple things you should be concerned about, if your dog is not vaccinated then leptospirosis is a concern as Rats carry it and it is a serious disease in dogs (affecting the kidneys and liver). the main second concern is rat poison, if the rate ingested rat poison in the past couple weeks, then your dog could be poisoned too, these poisons are usually blood thinner which cause an animal to bleed to death, often it has a delayed action and the treatment for that is vitamin K, which must be given by your vet by injection first.

The main worrying fact is rat poison, if the rat ingested poison before he was killed by your dog, Gracy could be affected by it (it could be fatal). i would recommend taking her to your vet in order to get vitamin K coverage just in case.

There are two things you can do: 1) nothing, just watch your dog for diarrhea and/or vomiting or paleness. If yoru dog vomits/gets diarrhea do the following: I would fast Bandit for 12 hours and then put her on bland food for two days, such as boiled white rice and boiled white boneless chicken meat, fed in small quantities over several feeds and then transition back to her regular food slowly over a few days. Should he get lethargic, and/or pale (check his gums), he needs to be seen by a vet as the rat may have died of rodenticide. OR 2) if your dog ate the rat within the past 90 minutes, take him to a vet to have him regurgitate the rat with a medication called apomorphine.

It can take up to four days for signs of rat bait poisoning to appear, and by then the dog is extremely sick. If you think this rat had gotten into rat bait, the best thing to do for your dogs is to take them into a vet immediately for treatment.

A check up, appropriate disinfection and possibly antibiotics (oral, topical or in a shampoo formulation) are usually needed. Disinfection may be started at home with very diluted hibiscrub or betadine or salted water baths. Buster collar may be useful as well to avoid any licking/scratching. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Rat bites do have the potential to cause illness and fever. If you notice fresh blood from the mouth, even after rinsing the mouth with water, then chances are the rat bit Lilly somewhere inside the mouth that isn't readily visible. An ER visit is needed if the bleeding doesn't stop and is profuse, requiring cauterization. However, a regular vet visit on tomorrow is needed, even if the bleeding stops for tonight, because if the rat did bite Lilly then a prophylactic treatment with antibiotics should be considered to prevent an infection from festering.