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Slug Pellets - Not Animal Friendly
by Andy Fullerton BVSc(Hons), MRCVS

Robert Gregory is a 2 year old Jack Russell Terrier who was presented to us one evening in August.  He had been behaving strangely at home, was very restless and verging on hyperactive.  We advised to bring him down to the surgery to be examined by a vet, which his owner did straight away.  By the time Robert had reached the surgery, he had started to fit and the first thing we had to do was to stop him fitting. He was admitted immediately for intensive treatment. We immediately administered sedative medication directly into the bloodstream. It worked straight away and Robert stopped fitting.  He was put onto a drip and blood tests were taken to check his general health.  The blood sample showed that Robert’s liver was damaged.  We needed to see if he had taken in any toxins and on speaking to his owners further we discovered that they had spread slug pellets on their lawn recently. 

“Metaldehyde” is the active ingredient in slug bait.  It is extremely toxic to dogs especially.  It only takes a few pellets to be ingested to cause the side effects.  Medaldehyde causes the dog to fit and can also cause liver damage.  A lot of slug baits will say they are animal friendly as they contain substances to make the pellets taste and smell bad to the dog.  This does not mean that they are safe, as many dogs will eat them regardless of taste!  This was the case with Robert.  Mr and Mrs Gregory thought they were using safe slug bait as it is potentially very misleading on the packaging.  So please beware, anything containing Metaldehyde is not safe for use if you own a dog or cat.

We hospitalised Robert to keep him sedated, whilst supporting him with an intravenous fluid drip to help eliminate the Metaldehyde in his system.  If we could not control his fits then he would essentially “overheat” and this could result in him being permanently brain damaged.  By the afternoon it was clear that the diazepam was not controlling his fitting anymore and we had to put him on a drip containing a potent anaesthetic agent.  We kept him under anaesthetic for 12 hours before eventually allowing him to wake up in a very controlled way  24-48 hours after his episode he was much better, although still a little twitchy.  He was sent home with medicines to protect his internal organs and we planned to retest his bloods to check his liver.  4-5 days after the fitting episode his liver figures had improved drastically.  This indicates that his liver should make a full recovery and we will retest him in 4 weeks to ensure this is the case. 

Robert was very lucky and this case highlights the need for rapid assessment and a quick diagnosis to be made. These factors, and intensive care treatment gave him the best chance.  We wish him well on his road to a full recovery!