Help!   I'm still shaking but earlier this morning there was a rat on the back lawn.   I sent Teazel out to 'see it off' but ..... she caught and ragged it.  She dropped it when I told her to, didn't eat it but when she came back in, she had some blood round her mouth which I wiped off.   There's no sign of her being bitten.   We have had rats around just now and started putting a household poison (rentokil sachets) in our rat box.   Well out of where Teazel goes.  They are still taking the bait.

Whether this one was slow because it was basically dying I don't know.    I phoned my vet and was told to keep an eye on her (!!) but given she didn't eat the rat, or attempt to, she'll probably be fine.

I know of another Basset who got into rat poison and died.     Am I panicking - should I take her to my vet to be sure she's ok?  In all my years with my Bassets, none of them actually caught and killed one.

Totally get Where u are coming from  from the description it sounds like should be fine  especiallyas she didn't actually eat the rat and probably only had  small amount of blood from grabbing it
. It was something  I was very concerned about recently when we had to get rid of rats. 
If u are worried even though u have spoken to the vet I would take her down for a check up .
Not quite sure how they deal with this but from experience with a cat who potentially had licked lilly pollen he was put in fluids for 24 hours and kept in overnight. It turned out cat was fine and it was likely to have been a false alarm as there were no symptoms. I would guess they may do similar as the cat wasn't showing symptoms either it was our panic

MamaBas I think you will be fine. I researched this a lot because we also have dealt with rats. And basically a dog would have to eat something like an entire tub and a half of most rat poisons the public have access to, before it affected them and they died. They kinda make it so it isn't strong enough to kill larger animals in the quantities put out for rats.

Of course it's probably not good for the dog and a small or young dog might be more affected.

Google the name and strength of the poison on the rat tin you have, and google how much of it would kill a dog - it is usually a lot.

The stronger pesticides which professional pest controllers have access to (not the ones the public can buy) are much more serious and one nibble of that could well kill a dog. Those are in a different category....

That was my concern 1234 as the guys who sorted our rats are professionals so using the licenced posions. They used traps and my neighbour where we think the source was cleared his area . Currently rat no more

I hope your information will reassure mambas

Thanks both for your replies.  1-4, it was the rat she killed, but didn't eat, not the bait.   Because it was so slow, it may have been one who had been at the bait and was dying.  Again she didn't eat the rat, but there was a small amount of blood round one side of her mouth which I wiped away.  The bait is Rentokil Pasta bait and comes in small sachets, in a tub of 24/25.   We have two rat boxes (one of which my husband locked with the key and which now won't open!!).  I'm playing a wait and see game - she went out for her walk and was totally normal.

You won't have an issue.  she is a decent sized dog and would have to eat more then one rat for it to cause a problem.   secondary poisoning tends to happen in smaller lighter creatures like owls- a whippet is considerably bigger so I'd not give it any more thought regarding poisoning. 

I'd still keep an eye on her as rats do carry disease but don't stress- its unlikely she'll have picked up anything.  I can't see any point taking her to the vet unless she shows illness as the poison will not have affected her.

ps I keep hens so have bait boxes down all the time- key ones usually go rubbish- prise it open with a screwdriver then in future bung half a paving slab on it to stop dog ferreting at it

I'm pretty sure Teazel will be ok, it's not like she ate the rat. Next time though just clap your hands to scare it off instead of sending her, rats are nasty things and their bites almost always need antibiotic treatment.

Ps had a whippet crisis here last night.. ours decided to run flat out misjudged distance and went straight through a glass panel of greenhouse.  you have never heard such a crash- glass everywhere.  thankfully special glass that breaks into little pebbles not sharp shards.   dog completely uninjured thankfully- greenhouse not so great. spent today replacing panel and sticking a huge barricade round greenhouse to stop a repeat performance.   It wasn't a case of not seeing glass- she has co existed with greenhouse for 18 months and the glass is shamefully filthy at the moment so perfectly visible.

I expected her to be shocked and injured- instead she was just livid at being dragged back into house instead of having longer outside. not a mark on the little fool .  I think I aged 10 years though.

Oh yikes Weimed, I can imagine the panic till you established she was ok, lucky girl, thank goodness for safety glass!

its things like this that remind me why I cough up for her vet insurance every month..  For a dog that is asleep majority of time the amount of trouble she can get into while awake is shocking

Ye Gods Weimed.  Good job the glass didn't go into shards given the thin skin of the Whippet!  Memories of when Teazel charged across the garden and under a bench which had a nail sticking out underneath which I didn't know was there.   Yes, her skin was opened up but not bad enough for stitches.  My brand new puppy - marked for life except for some strange reason, it totally healed and you can't see a thin now.

5.20 pm and so far T seems to be fine.......   I let her loose on the rats in the hope they will be put off hanging around here.   Perhaps I will have to clear the area before letting her fly after this!!

> The bait is Rentokil Pasta bait

That's the only bait our rats would eat(!!) so hopefully it will be doing the trick for you!!

A few years ago, probably 45 years ago, I had a little Cocker spaniel, I worked on a Quail farm and there were always rats around. My dog always came to work with me.
Unknown to me, my boss had been putting down some rat poison around one of the rearing sheds, and also unknown to either of us my little dog had been eating the daily rations of rat poison. It was not until one day that I went out for a ride on my pony with my little dog too, that my dog got bitten by someone else's dog also running loose.
I discovered later that the puncture wound my dog had, would not stop bleeding.
A vet visit diagnosed rat poisoning. My little dog had vitamin K injections and a couple of blood transfusions, (I don't remember what else)
She was never poorly and in a way we were lucky that another dog had bitten her. The treatments that she had solved the bleeding problems. And she recovered without any further problems.
Obviously my boss was a lot more careful where he put the rat poison after this.

.

When I had Fleur spayed a few years ago she started haemorrhaging badly during the operation. The vet did blood tests to find out what had caused this and came to the conclusion that she had ingested a small amount of rat poison or found a poisoned rat. Under normal circumstances it would probably not had caused a problem but being operated on caused bleeding which didn't stop due to the poison.

Thankfully Teazel was spayed just before her 1st birthday.   So unless she needs another dental (or other unespected surgery!) we may not have to risk bleeding out.  I'll have to be careful when I clip her nails next - I have been known to catch a quick!    This is a bit like finding out if a puppy has von Willibrands - often not known until teething/nail cutting.