If your dog ate rat poison, get it to the vet immediately.
According to Jon Geller, DVM, dogs love the taste of rat poison and go to any length to seek out and find it to consume. A dog can also encounter rat poison by eating a dead mouse that was poisoned. Rat poison causes internal bleeding. Dogs can bleed externally through the gums, nose, stools and urine. Sometimes dogs do not show these symptoms until up to two days after exposure to rat poison. When you first begin to see signs and symptoms that your dog has eaten rat poison, it is crucial to take it to the vet immediately.
Induced Vomiting
Vomiting should occur ideally within two hours of the consumption of the rat poison. You may induce vomiting yourself by feeding your dog several tsp. of hydrogen peroxide. The dog may vomit all or partially all of the poison, depending on how much hydrogen peroxide you feed it. Even if your dog has vomited all of the poison, it still must see the veterinarian as soon as possible. When you arrive at the veterinarian's office, explain the situation to him, and he may induce vomiting again to see if your dog has vomited all of the poison out. The veterinarian will then administer vitamin K to your dog.
Vitamin K
When dogs eat rat poison, it causes them to bleed out internally and die. Vitamin K reverses this effect of the rat poison. Veterinarians administer vitamin K at 5 mg per kg of the dog's weight. He will administer it two times daily to your dog. After the dog is well enough to return home, it will be up to you to keep your dog on this regimen of medication to keep it well. Administration usually continues for three weeks or longer. Your veterinarian will administer Vitamin K through injection, but it is available to owners in an oral capsule from most pharmacies.
If your dog reaches the veterinarian later than 2 hours after eating the rat poison, but less than 12 hours, it receives activated charcoal as treatment. Activated charcoal helps block absorption of rat poison. The activated charcoal, given orally to your dog, is then followed by water. The charcoal bonds with the rat poison, preventing the body from absorbing any more of it. A laxative may also follow the activated charcoal to help your dog remove the poison from its system so there is more of the poison leaving the body than there is absorbed by it.
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