My dog has rat blood on his mouth. Did he eat a poisoned rat?

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.

In these cases close monitoring is needed both for any possible wound/injury from the fight and possible poisoning (some of these rats can be poisoned with rodenticide). Any external wound, lethargy, inappetence, signs of cough, vomiting or diarrhoea should be checked by your local vet.

Thank you for the follow-up information. This is a very serious toxicity especially in such a small dog. Brodifacom is a long-acting anticoagulant (LAAC). LAACs prevent the blood from clotting, resulting in internal bleeding. Long-acting anticoagulants work similarly to the “blood thinner” medications that people take (e.g., warfarin or Coumadin®). When dogs or cats ingest LAACs, it typically takes 3-5 days before signs of poisoning are visible. So you don't want to wait until she is clinical signs. You should have her treated now. Common signs of poisoning include signs of internal bleeding: lethargy, exercise intolerance, coughing, difficulty breathing (due to bleeding into the lungs), weakness, and pale gums. Less common signs include vomiting, diarrhea (with or without blood), nose bleeds, bruising, bloody urine, swollen joints, inappetence, and bleeding from the gums. With some types of LAACs ( like brodifacoum), it only takes a very small amount to cause poisoning. Other types of LAACs have a wider margin of safety (like bromadiolone) and it takes a larger amount to cause poisoning. In my opinion this is an emergency and you should get Minty to the vet ASAP.

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.

Mila should be seen by a veterinarian immediately. This product is an anti-coagulant poison that inhibits normal blood clotting and leads to internal bleeding. Fortunately, there is an effective antidote (Vitamin K) but it's important to make sure you minimize the amount of poison Mila absorbs, and get her started on the antidote. Depending on the timing of the ingestion, your vet may make Mila vomit, and may give her something to minimize absorption, or they may recommend testing her current blood clotting ability. Then they will likely start her on a regimen of Vitamin K. Hope this helps! https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poison/long-acting-anticoagulants-mouse-and-rat-poison/

As long as none was ingested, it will likely not cause any problems. If you would rather be on the safe side, you can bring shelbi in to see your vet and have her blood tested to make sure that there are no changes consistent with rat poison. I hope this helps! I'm sure Shelbi will be just fine if she did not ingest any poison. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you 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.