So when do you worry about the signs potentially being lethal? High doses, rapid onset of signs, signs that are progressive, or initial signs that are severe (tremors, seizures) are all poor prognostic factors. Some lower doses of bromethalin can cause symptoms like ataxia, lethargy and hind limb weakness that may eventually resolve. The first thing to remember with bromethalin is that not all cases that develop signs from bromethalin are going to die. Unfortunately, signs of hypernatremia from activated charcoal and signs of bromethalin toxicosis look very similar, but treatment and prognosis for them are very different. When giving activated charcoal to bromethalin cases, it is important to monitor sodium levels and the hydration status of your patient. If you want to be a toxicology rock star use this handy chart – we use it every day to treat bromethalin cases. Therefore, many times pets will arrive at the clinic when there is still time to prevent symptoms.Įmesis and activated charcoal are at this time the only therapies known to prevent toxicity from bromethalin (we will discuss lipid emulsion therapy shortly). Most owners realize that rat and mouse bait should not be ingested by their pets, furthermore, most baits have a delay in onset of symptoms. Most bait blocks tend to weigh one-half to one ounce, but there are blocks that weigh up to four ounces – another reason that getting original packaging is so important! Decontamination & Treatment To give you an idea of what a 0.1 mg/kg dose in a dog may look like, a 30-pound dog would have to ingest a half-ounce, or a 60-ound dog one ounce. It is not likely that CNS signs will be seen at these doses – but since there is no antidote for bromethalin, and we have seen pets ingest more bait than the owners thought, we tend to be conservative. Most of us are used to dealing with anticoagulants it generally does not take a lot of an anticoagulant to cause problems in our patients, and luckily there is an effective antidote.īromethalin is different, since there is no effective antidote and even therapeutic measures can be lacking, but compared to anticoagulants it does take more bromethalin bait to be a problem in dogs.ĪPCC recommends starting decontamination procedures for dogs exposed to 0.1 mg/kg and 0.05 mg/kg in cats. If it is a 0.01% concentration then there will be 2.84 mg of bromethalin in one ounce of bait. Most bromethalin-containing baits are 0.01%, but be sure to read that label, as some come in 0.025% concentrations. Make sure you get the right info when you take the patient’s history. Since companies do not change the appearance of the bait for identification purposes, many different types of bait can match the same description. Going by appearance of the bait itself is also risky. Have the pet's owner bring in packaging the bait came in (not one that looks similar to what they think they bought six years ago!) You cannot treat correctly if you do not know the active ingredient. Keep reading for the basics you need to know when a patient has ingested bromethalin. Some of this apprehension comes from the fact that there is no antidote or truly effective treatment for bromethalin, and many are unaware of key details about the toxin. Bromethalin is becoming one of the more common active ingredients seen in rodenticides, but the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center notes that many veterinarians are nervous about treating it.
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