My dog died suddenly of possible rat poisoning

My dog was 5 years old and in perfect health. She died last week after getting sick really fast. The emergency vet said it was rat or mouse poison ingested 3-5 days prior. I do everything organic, there is no poison in my house or yard and I am shocked and so saddened and angry about this. I've read a lot about rat poison since then and a dog can die from eating a poisoned mouse or bird or from eating a dropped pellet. I don't want to believe that someone did this on purpose, and I don't really believe that because I've lived in my house for 8 years and never had trouble with the neighbors. But someone did this to her, even if they meant to kill a mouse in their garage, this terrible poison ended up in my yard and my beautiful girl is dead and it is inconceivable because she was young and strong and in good health and now her life has been taken from her too soon and our future together has been taken away. I can't accept this. I wanted it to be something else, something natural that went wrong in her body, but from all I have read it seems to be the only possibility. I love her so much and never imagined we would be parted until many years from now and it was so sudden, I just am not able to cope with losing her in such a way when she was young and should have had years still ahead of her.

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

I am so sorry gor your loss of your sweet baby girl, did not know they could die from a mouse that had ate posion. my baby came in house other day with a mouse in her mouth i saw her pick it up out of yard. we have stray cats we feed so guess thats where it came from. but i took it out as soon as she put in her mouth.

my heart breaks for you i know i would be the same way you are . my baby is my angel and i would be so up-set if her life was cut short because of something like that.  prayers are with you

[ginger899]

This is an awful tragedy for you. I am so very sorry.
I doubt it was deliberate poisoning...though such things can happen. There really are some wicked people in the world. Even something as benign as a dog who loves to run in the yard and bark sometimes, can cause an evil reaction like this from a heartless low-life person.

Most likely your poor dog caught a poisoned mouse or rat, and ate it. The rodent could have come from a short distance away, not necessarily your closest neighbour. Many people who use rat poison do not think of the possible ramifications should another animal eat that rat or mouse as prey. As far as they are concerned -the rats have gone....end of story.

It has always been one of my fears with my dog. If she catches something, it gets swallowed -so quickly, I am not always in time to pull it out of her mouth. On a walk in the fields she might stop to sniff at something, and it's very hard to spot her eating something which could be dangerous. I have to keep a constant watch on her, and keep her occupied with the frisbee. It's so hard to do!
This can happen with any dog. They are all predators and scavengers. And a tragic accident like this can easily happen.

I am totally against the use of rat poison. Not only is it inhumane for the rats and mice, but for any predatory wildlife, and sometimes, sadly, domestic animals, like your poor girl. It is irresponsible.

I feel for you so much. I know how sad you must be. I am so deeply sorry.

[sue541]

Thank you for your sympathy. I never even thought of poison because I'm not the sort of person who would ever use it. And I knew nothing about it until after she died and I looked it up. I didn't see her eat a mouse, but it seems like the most likely scenario that she ate a mouse or a bird. And she would get into things and pick things up in her mouth, so I guess it is possible. It is such a shock and it was totally unnecessary - her health was good and we should have had many years together still. She was fine the day before, even though the poison was in her then. It happened so fast there was not time to process it. I am still numb. Now I know that a dog can die from eating a poisoned rodent or bird, or an animal could pick up the pellets without eating them and carry them into your yard or drop them. We don't know what happened, are just having to guess. I have read online on other posts and have read of a couple people who had this happen, one a lady like me with a fenced yard, so no idea how it could have happened. But no one I know personally has ever heard of this happening. I feel so sorry for her, those years taken away from her, and it feels so helpless because I fed her only the best food and took the best care of her I could so she would not get sick, but would live a long life. Something like this happens then and it is all taken away. It helps to hear from other people who love their dogs as I do.

[ginger899]

I know how you must hurt. You did your best for your girl, then something so tragic happens which was not your fault. I think it hurts even more because we know we are there to protect them, and we feel we have let them down when something like this happens.
But although our beloved dogs are our friends and family members, and closer to us sometimes than humans are...they do kind of bridge the divide between the wild world, and the domestic world. As creatures who still have the wild in them somewhere, they will hunt and scavenge if they get the chance. Even a really well fed dog will do this, and it's worse I think, with cats.

A fenced yard won't make much difference to a rat or mouse. There are always crevices they could get through. And rats will happily dig tunnels in the earth, and can pop up under a shrub somewhere.

The only thing I can say is I wish rat poison would be banned. I'm sure it's the cheapest way to deal with pests like rats and mice, but there are other ways. I used to shoot them. I only had to kill a half dozen or so, and the rest moved out fast and never came back. Rats are very intelligent. But of couse dealing with them that way is very time-consuming.