What Happens When Your Pet Eats A Poisoned Mouse?

The other day we had a new fear unlocked that we never had considered. Mice and other rodents are making their way into homes and garages this time of year. Each year I set up traps in the garage and also have used rat poison bait stations.

As soon as that weather starts to dip below 50 degrees in the fall, those mice start coming in and they eat the rat poison as fast as I can put it out. Each day I'd go through a packet in the pet-safe bait station. The way the product is designed is that it has a hole just big enough for a mouse to get into, so you don't have to worry about your pet ingesting it.

We witnessed our dog eat a dead mouse.

Our dog was nosing in the leaves by the fence when all of a sudden I saw her toss a dead mouth up in the air and then caught it in her mouth and GULP.

Ugh. This dog.

So now we were worried about if our dog was going to get sick from the poisoned, dead mouse.

Rat Poisoning In Your Pet

Of course, this happened after hours so we couldn't reach the clinic. So we started our online research.  The active ingredient in this particular poison is cholecalciferol - which is vitamin d3. The dosage can be fatal if a cat or dog eats an entire brick. Symptoms of acute toxicity include:

• lethargy
• weakness
• vomiting
• anorexia
• dehydration
• bloody diarrhea

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What about when your pet eats a poisoned mouse?

It's called "relay toxicity." It's the term for when your pet gets sick after eating a poisoned mouse. It's extremely rare, and in most cases, it would need to be going on for a while. If you are feeding your pet regularity, they won't eat enough dead mice generally to make them sick. Still, a call to your vet would be advised so you know what to watch for. The earlier you start treatment, the better outcome for your pet.

With our dog being 80 pounds and only ate one mouse, we were fairly confident that she'll be ok. She's more likely to get worms from the mouse than get sick from the rodenticide. We'll just have to make sure she's up on her worm medication next time we go to the vet.