4470 El Camino Real

Los Altos, California 94022

Veterinarian Always on Duty

Fertilizer Poisoning

A Toxic Saturday

Saturday, a five year old spayed female Boxer, presented collapsed at Adobe Animal Hospital. She had been fine that morning but when her owner came home he found her in the garden, unable to walk well, with bloody diarrhea and vomit with possible pieces of fish in it, shaking, and foaming at the mouth. He had no idea what had happened or in what she could have gotten.

On physical exam she was lying on her side, trembling violently, and drooling. Her pulses were weak, her heart difficult to hear over the shaking, and her abdomen was tense. She had muscle twitches in her hindquarters and bloody mucoid diarrhea from her rear. The vomitus did have a fishy odor to it and contained what could have been bits of fish bone, particularly a fish head. X-rays showed bony fragments in her stomach and a small heart, which is consistent with shock. Saturday acted like she had gotten into something toxic, but the owner maintained he had not put anything out in the yard. We started treating her for shock with intravenous fluids and also gave her main medication and muscle relaxant, which calmed the tremors, although the twitches continued. Saturday continued to drool large amounts of saliva and then started tearing. This is called SLUD syndrome (salivation/acclimation/urination/defecation) and is a hallmark of organophosphate poisoning. She responded well to treatment with atropine.

We contacted the National Animal Poison Control Center (1-888-4ani-help) for a consult. This center and the people who staff it are an excellent resource and always very helpful. The veterinarian here agreed that it sounded like organic phosphate toxicity but that carbamate poisoning could not be ruled out. Both of these compounds are used as insecticides and can have similar clinical signs. Some types of rose food contain the insecticide disulfoton, which is a potent op and dogs can get poisoned digging it out of the ground, specially if fish or bone meal is also applied. Fly bait granules can contain carbamate. He also mentioned that gopher bait toxicity can look like op toxicity, but is not. When questioned again, Saturday's owner reiterated there was nothing in his yard she could have gotten into, nor could she have gotten into the neighbor's garbage. He did not know where the fish could be from. We continued symptomatic treatment.

The next day, Saturday was better, able to walk, and had ceased to twitch but continued to vomit up bits of fish. Occasionally she would still have tremors. We sent blood out for a cholinesterase test and it came back low, confirming op toxicity. Saturday slowly improved.

Saturday's owner reported later that day that he had found a hole in his fence. He questioned his neighbor and found that she often buries fish in the garden as fertilizer. The neighbor also had a box of disulfoton-containing rose food and had mixed some of this in with the fish. Of course, we could now assume that Saturday had gotten into the neighbor's yard, and attracted by the fish, ingested the fish along with the disulfoton.

Saturday went home and made a full recovery as far as we know. This case illustrates how detective work sometimes helps to solve a case, even in veterinary medicine. It also shows how animals can find ways to get into things even though we are convinced it is impossible. Lastly, it emphasizes that we all need to be careful about the substances that we set out in our gardens. Odors from fish emulsion, or blood or bone meal, can attract animals who may then ingest it.

Date: October 2005

Species: Dog

Diagnosis: Organophosphate toxicity

Doctor: Nancy Clifton

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