Jimmi and rat poison

On our walks, Jimmi will take any opportunity to grab a discarded chip; bit of sandwich or dead animal etc. and today he excelled himself. We were passing the open gates of a house, and in a split second his head was round the post and he was eating something. I immediately pulled him away, but was horrified to see an open bag of rat poison

As soon as we got home, I bundled him into the car and drove to the vet where they made him sick - he brought up a good teaspoonful of poison, which was actually more than I thought he had managed to grab. We then came home and he has been fine ever since, but seems a little perplexed and keeps giving me strange looks - not surprising when you consider that he was expecting to come home, have a fish stick then a good long snooze by the radiator; instead, he was taken to the vets where he was made to be violently sick.

My worry now is where that bag came from, and why was it just lying in the open in that driveway.

Oh dear poor Jimmi, hope he will be alright.
Are you going to ask the people who live in the house about the poison? Maybe they are unaware of it being there.

Yes, I will go to see them when they get back - there is nobody around at the moment, and they may be away for Easter I suppose. The thing is, they have two JRTs so I doubt very much that they would have put the bag of poison down. A bit worrying really

Goodness how scary!

Thank goodness you saw what he was eating!

I'm so pleased he seems ok - very frightening though! Rat poison is vile stuff - someone on a forum I use sadly lost two of their rabbits due to them finding a bag of rat poison hidden away in a shed. They had recently moved to this house and even though they'd checked everything out they hadn't found this bag of poison. She has a little boy too so could have been so much worse.

I find it hard to understand why so many substances are banned but something like rat poison is so easy to get hold of! I hate the stuff but it should at the very least be in a sealed plastic container.

Definitely weird it being out like that.

Hope poor Jimmi will be ok and sending some hugs for you - bet it shook you up no end!

How awful about those poor rabbits, and yes, a small child could easily be attracted by the bright blue and be tempted to eat it. I suppose that it's possible that a rat moved the bag from it's original place, or even another dog or a cat.

Thank you for the hugs, because it was rather worrying - my heart was thumping all the way to the vets! He seems perfectly okay, so with luck nothing had a chance to be absorbed into his system.

That is scary, must be a reason for it, wonder if someone has a grudge against them and left it there for their dogs. Please do make sure you let them know.

Glad he seems OK now, how awful for you.

If he scavenges is it worth muzzle training him with a basket muzzle (I would use a standard rather than Ultra Baskerville as it's less easy to get things through them), to make it less easy for him to pick stuff up when out?

I will be letting them know the minute that they get back. You just never know what people will do these days do you, and although you wouldn't want to believe that someone could deliberately try to poison dogs, it does happen.

I did try him with a muzzle about a year ago, but he panicked so much the first time it was put on that I removed it straight away......after that, he panicked every time it was produced so I didn't pursue it. I think that it stems from when a different vet saw him once and routinely put a tight muzzle on him (she seemed to think that he was a terrier and would therefore bite her......he has never bitten a vet since we have had him, no matter what they have done to him, but she wouldn't listen). Anyway, he was so terrified that he nearly threw himself off the table and was in danger of injuring himself - she had to remove the muzzle in the end.

I will just have to be even more vigilant when out on walks.

Glad to read that jimmi is ok. He's lucky to have an owner that cares about what he's nibbling on the floor because I've known people who wouldn't have bothered checking. I just hope no other animal stumbles upon it too.

How frightening for you, good that you are so vigilant. Glad Jimmi is okay and you got him to the vets so quickly.