Your Dog Ate Rat Poison: What to Do Right Now

Rat poison is the poisoning South African vets see most, partly because the blocks are sweetened to attract rodents and dogs find them just as attractive. The cruel part is the delay: most rat poisons stop the blood clotting, and a dog that ate a block on Monday can look completely normal until Thursday, then bleed internally.

Do this now

Phone your vet immediately, even if the dog seems fine. Especially if the dog seems fine.
Take the packaging. The active ingredient changes the treatment entirely, and colour tells the vet nothing reliable. If the box is gone, take a photo of the bait block or note the brand.
Note the time and rough amount. Even a guess helps.
Do not induce vomiting unless a vet tells you to and tells you how. Salt water is dangerous and can cause its own poisoning.

Why the timing tricks people

Anticoagulant baits block vitamin K, which the body needs to make clotting factors. Existing clotting factors last a few days, so bleeding starts around three to five days later — pale gums, weakness, coughing, blood in urine or stool, sudden collapse, bruising. By then the dog needs plasma and hospitalisation. Treated in the first hours, it is often just decontamination and a course of vitamin K tablets at home, which costs a fraction.

The other kinds

Not all rodenticides are anticoagulants. Some cause brain swelling and seizures, others cause a fatal rise in blood calcium that damages the kidneys, and neither responds to vitamin K. This is exactly why the packet matters more than the phone call describing "blue pellets".

Second-hand poisoning

Dogs and cats are also poisoned by eating rats that have eaten bait. If you use rodenticide at all, use lockable tamper-proof bait stations, and pick up dead rodents promptly. Cats are more often poisoned this way than directly.

Safer rodent control

Snap traps inside closed bait stations are as effective and cannot poison anything that eats the rat. Remove the food first — sealed bins, no pet food left out overnight, fallen fruit picked up, compost closed. Rats are almost always a food problem before they are a rat problem.