Symptoms and treatments of specific poisonings
Continued Arsenic Several weed killers, rat baits and insecticides contain arsenic and a chemical called metaldehyde, both of which are highly toxic substances. I am not sure about the quantity of such substances (if any) being imported into Guyana, but I have been informed that they are deemed ‘hazardous,’ and I understand special fees are [...]
Symptoms and treatments of specific poisonings
Strychnine In the past, many of the rat poisons contained strychnine. I don’t know if it is still legal to bring strychnine into Guyana to be used in rat bait. It was effective in the past, so I do believe that, in spite of the success of newer rat poisons, strychnine might be available for [...]
Emergencies
Continued Heat stroke After having dealt so copiously with emergencies associated with poisonings, we may now return to other life-threatening circumstances. Let’s face it, we live close the equator, and it seems that the daily temperatures are rising. In addition, humidity levels are usually very high. Also, for whatever reason, many people are neglectful of [...]
Treatment of poisoning
Continued During the final two weeks of last year, we took a break from science and indulged in more light-hearted discussion. Now that we have entered the New Year, we may now revert to a more focused conversation on dealing with poisons. Pet owners use all sorts of chemicals to get rid of skin parasites [...]
What not to do to pets during the festive season
We consider this message so important that we will repeat the advice we gave in the Pet Corner during the season last year. We dealt a bit with this last week. We had mentioned that humans seem to have this fixation with over stuffing themselves during festive seasons. Actually, there are many who see the [...]
Pet appetite at Christmas
Today, on the threshold of Christmas, we’ll deal with food intake, and next week we will continue with ‘What not to do to pets during the festive seasons.’ Well, Christmas is around the corner and the imbibing and engorging has already begun. Of course, I am referring to us humans. It seems that as we [...]
Treatment of poisoning
Continued from last week Last week, we made some general comments on the treatment of poisonings. We had indicated that there were four immediate steps that could be taken in order to counteract cases of poisoning, irrespective of whether one has identified the specific poison involved. Elimination of the poison from the stomach by inducing [...]
Poisonings
Continued from last week Treatment In those instances when you have actually witnessed the dog ingesting a poisonous substance (rat bait, say), you can at least try to institute immediate supportive remedial action, according to what the poison was, even before you begin your trip to your vet. On other occasions, you may notice only [...]
Poisoning
Continued from last week Last week, we dealt with poisonings that occurred because of stings and bites by poisonous insects and other life forms. But there are other ways through which a dog can become poisoned. Toxic substances (poisons) are produced in some plants, eg, stinging nettle, certain mushrooms, etc. Also, some small animals (snakes, [...]
Emergencies
Continued from last week Stings The ‘stings’ of insects introduce a toxic substance (a poison) into the bitten (stung) animal. This is bad enough, but some of
Emergencies
Continued Poisons I suppose that if I were to carry out a statistical analysis of all the reasons why animals are most often presented at the clinic, and what the greatest cause of death is, the result would be poisoning. I know that many an ‘embarrassment diagnosis’ is made blaming poisoning as the cause of [...]
Emergencies
General considerations Mostly, these columns serve to advise on what owners/ caregivers of companion animals should/could do before carrying the pet to the veterinarian. The initial intervention at home is most crucial in the case of an emergency where immediate action is needed to save the pet’s life. The emergent patient presents a special challenge [...]
Medication misuse
Continued from last week Antibiotics In the practice of human medicine, the misuse, abuse and incorrect use of drugs and all forms of medication must be high on doctors’ lists of frustrating activities carried out by their patients. Only the other day I saw a column written by a dentist lamenting this very widespread problem. [...]
The use and misuse of pet medication
Continued from last week Tranquillizers Tranquillizers are drugs used to relieve anxiety, treat motion sickness, and sedate a dog for ease of handling and treatment. The exact mode of action of tranquilizers is variable. Some act on the brain to modify behaviour and to increase the threshold of nausea and vomiting (ie, reduce the possibility [...]
The use and misuse of pet medication General
It is quite amazing how we humans like to ‘cure’ ourselves and our loved ones. Talking about ailments, genuine or perceived, is a social activity. We do it over the fence with our neighbour, we exchange therapeutic experiences and cure-all recipes with people we hardly know, and we spend hours at parties and at our [...]