My dog got into rat poison and is bleeding again – what should I do?

Our question this week was:

Dr. Debra,

My yokie/pekanease mix (yorkinease) 7-months-old, most likely got a hold of rat poison and had a blood transfusion. The clot came back 2.5 weeks later and the vet ran blood tests and thinks he has a blood clotting disorder. We missed a few Vitamin K1 dosages and think this is why the clot returned.What do you think? Here are his levels. hemoglobin 10.9 hematocrit 36.5 WBC 12.3 RBC 4.31 MCV 85 MCH 25.3 MCHC 29.9 Platelet count 281 Prothrombin time 6.5 PTT 29.4 Fibrinogen 251 D-dimer <250 Thank you for any feedback. I am so lost right now.

Lisa M.

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email Lisa. You wrote that your 7-month-old dog got into rat poison and has been treated with Vitamin K. I’m not sure what you mean by “clot came back” but I’m guessing you mean that the bleeding restarted. It could have occurred from missing some Vitamin K1 dosages. Some of the new anticoagulant rodenticides (rat poisons that make dogs bleed) require Vitamin K1 for at least a month – that is how long the poison stays in the system. If the poison is still in their system and if they stop being administered the Vitamin K1 therapy, they can begin bleeding again very soon.

It sounds like your veterinarian is doing a good job – I’d recommend following his recommendations, which will probably include continuing the Vitamin K1 (until the coagulation levels are completely normal 2 days after stopping the Vitamin K1).

An article that might be helpful to you is Rodenticide Poisoning in Dogs.

Best of luck!

Dr. Debra