I just bought a house, and unbeknownst to me, there was rodent poison in the laundry/utility room that my dog ate. Unfortunately, the symptoms did not show up until the night she received her latest round of vaccinations, so we all thought she was having a bad reaction to a shot. After midnight blood work, the vet asked about rat poison- which we don’t (and won’t) use. Just in case, we did a frantic 2 am search of the house, and found a box of D-con poison in the basement storage room (which would have been closed). With that to guide me, I searched the utility room and found the remains of a chewed box of the same poison. This morning we got her subcutaneous injections of vitamin K and have also begun oral administration of the same. How long before I might see results?
I’m sorry to hear about your dog. My dog went through what we believe may have been poisoning with rat poison. With two transfusions, Vitamin K injections, intravenous and oral medicines, it took him about three days to feel good enough to go home from the hospital and about six or seven days to feel pretty much back to normal. He had lots of issues in the hospital including vomiting and defecating blood and an inability to keep any food down. He’s fine now.
During the hospitalization, he was getting daily (or maybe twice daily) liver function tests and they kept showing he was getting worse even as he was manifestly looking and acting better. I learned from another vet after a later less serious bout of possible poisoning that liver toxin panels often show that pattern of declining numbers with improving health. That second doctor just recommended watching the dog and taking him for a liver test two weeks after he was up an about. When we did that, it showed normal liver function. I guess the lesson is to not watch the liver function test numbers too closely if the dog seems to be improving.
Thank you for your story. I went ahead and admitted her today just for the peace of mind- I was not seeing any improvement and was mostly just freaking myself out. Vet seems to feel the prognosis is good.
At the hospital, they can keep an eye on her 24/7. They’ll also check her blood coagulation and packed cell volume to make sure she doesn’t need a transfusion. It all depends on the symptoms she already had, her size, how much she ate. With the vitamin K on board, her coags should show improvement in 2-3 days and clinically she will improve from there. At this point, if she stays overnight and they check the above showing either improvement or at least the same, they may well send her home. The oral vitamin K will be needed for at least a month. If she had bruising in places that were easy to see (like on her belly), don’t be surprised if you see sharpie marker lines on her, they do that to monitor the spread of the bruises.
We had a similar nightmare. We had just moved into our house and a plumber was working under our sink. Unbeknownst to us there was a small tray of poison down there. The plumber had gone to his truck to get something. By sheer luck I happened to be in the kitchen when I noticed our dog had gone under the sink and appeared to be eating something. I saw the tray, opened her mouth and managed to get some crystals off her tongue; put the poison in a baggie, and sped over to the vets, They took us right in and gave her stuff to make her barf. There were more crystals in her barf, but it appeared that she really hadn’t had enough time to really digest the poison, but for safety she was put on Vitamin K and we had to watch her for a few days. She recovered.
I hope your dog does likewise.
My dog just ate rat poison this week, too. It was Monday morning, and my husband took her out on her walk. At the end of our block, she snarfed something up off the grassy parkway. He brought her home, and started to worry that it might have been something bad. He went back and looked since there was more on the ground, and was pretty sure it was rat poison (I went back later and picked up the rest, and our vet agrees). He made her swallow some hydrogen peroxide to make her vomit, and she spewed out all of her breakfast and about a tablespoon of the bright green substance.
I got home a while later, and he told me about it. He figured she’d be OK, but I’m a perpetual worrier, so I called our vet. Then we filed a report with Poison Control. We had no way of knowing what kind of poison it was, apparently there are three types that have a different way of killing the rat. So, we had to check/treat her for all three. She’s going to take Vitamin K for a month. We’ve done blood tests 4 days in a row, today being the last test. If today’s test results come back normal, she should be fine. At the end of the Vitamin K dosing, they’ll do one more test next month. I anticipate it will be OK, since she did vomit most - if not all - of it up.
So, the dog is fine. I’m getting over my anxiety about it. I have three hounds, but this one is my baby. If I ever find out who put this poison out for my dog to find, they might not have such a good outcome. :mad:
krondys, I hope your puppy makes a full recovery. 
Thanks all.
I got her back from the doggy hospital today, and she is much better. Oral Vitamin K for the next 30 days, but they were able to get her back to eating/drinking without being forced, and the severe edema she was suffering along her entire right side is 90% gone. So it looks like a happy ending to the story, so far!
Glad to learn that krondyspup and pidgeonpup are both doing better! We have a rescue whom I’m convinced had to fend for herself for some time, and she’s a dedicated eater of anything she can find outdoors. Poisoning is a serious worry for us.