Rodent Poison Left on a Superior Trail Leads to a Close Call
SUPERIOR, Wis. – On Wednesday, Cindy Strange and her dog Jax were out on a walk at Bear Creek Trail in Superior, when Jax came across something toxic.
“We were at the trail and right over there where that little mound is, I saw Jax grab a piece of something blue,” Cindy Strange says.
What Jax found was rodent poison, left near the trail entrance. Acting quickly, Strange got Jax to spit out the poison and then proceeded to call the vet. From there, she was directed to call pet poison control and headed to the emergency vet where Jax was treated appropriately.
“Even with him having it in his mouth he was able to swallow some of it, so it was better to be safe than sorry,” Strange says.
Jax vomited a speck of blue, but fortunately he was treated in time and has shown no symptoms of the toxin. He had a follow up appointment on Thursday to test his bloodwork and will have another follow up appointment on Saturday.
Duluth Veterinary Hospital Vet Technician Jodi Carlson tells us they see a handful of these instances in a year. Carlson says Strange did the right thing by immediately getting the poison out of her dog’s mouth and calling the Vet as soon as possible.
“If their vet is closed for the day, then you’d call the emergency clinic which is Blue Pearl Emergency Pet Hospital in Duluth after hours. Then they’ll probably tell you to call pet poison help line,” Veterinary Technician, Jodi Carlson says.
The Pet Poison help line has a board of certified toxicologists’, pharmacologists’, and veterinarians on board 24 hours 7 days a week.
“I always tell my clients that anytime your pet swallows something that they shouldn’t, they get into something, you always want to call the vet first though because there’s some toxins that you don’t want to induce vomiting on. One, because it’s bad for it to come up with the chemicals. Two, it can be a joking hazard. And three, pouring a lot of hydrogen peroxide down the throat is super irritating to that esophagus and you can actually do more damage than good,” Carlson says.
Early Thursday morning, the Superior Police Department caught wind of the story and sent out a humane officer to check out and remove potentially contaminated snow from the area.
Public Information Officer Bradley Jago tells us this is the first time the Superior Police Department has had to deal with a matter of this kind.
“A one-time incident is certainly concerning. We want to make sure there are no more dogs ingesting this kind of stuff if it’s left on the trail. But if starts to occur more and more then certainly there are more resources that we will dedicate to something like this,” Superior Police Department Public Information Officer, Bradley Jago says.
Jago went on to say, “If somebody were to come across this similar situation in the future, please call 911, do not hesitate to reach out to us. That’s how we establish these patterns if this type of thing continues to occur.”
