What IS this?

[Twisterdog]

...Put out your poison and set your traps (there are a variety of mouse traps which do not snap and kill them - one is the famous mouse house) and don't be afraid too much.

CocoBean .... Do NOT take this advice! I'm am telling you from personal experience, DO NOT put out rat or mouse poison in a house where dogs or cats live! EVER!

When I bought my first house, the previous owners had left some blocks of mouse poison (D-Con) in the crawl space under the basement. I had no idea it was there. When we were moving in, my dad was putting some seldom-used items down there for me, and my dog was, of course, following him around and exploring the new place. He found a block of poison and ate it. My dad fortunatly saw him, and we rushed him to the emergency vet so they could induce vomiting and pump his stomach full of charcoal. The vet proceeded to tell me about all the dogs and cats he had treated that were not so fortunate.

Mouse and rat poison is a chemical called warfarin. It is a blood thinner. It is exactly the same ingredient as the human prescription blood-thinner Cumidin, used by heart patients to keep their blood thin after heart sugery. My mom is on it. But the human dosage is VERY small compared to the amount in poison. The mouse or rat eats it, and it does nothing at all for a bit. Then it causes massive internal bleeding, and the animal literally bleeds to death from the inside out. If your dogs were to eat the poison or the dead mice that have eaten it, it could potentially be very harmful or fatal to them. My vet said by the time you see the bleeding, most times too much damage has been done to save the animal.

INCREDIBLY irresponsible advice, BobsDad. Potentially deadly advice. Do some research before telling someone to do something that could potentially kill their pets.

[Miss Z]

I'm pretty surprised how this thread has turned out. Four whole pages! And all for the sake of one little mealworm .

I hope that you're OK, Beth, after all this.

[Twisterdog]

INCREDIBLE THAT YOU WOULD ACT SO INDIGNANT AND ALL KNOWING.

It is COMMON SENSE to not put poison around anywhere where your dog or cat can access it!!! That part would seem to be obvious. I guess I should also tell you not to eat any of it yourself.

If you had read the entire posts you would have seen that this suggestion was already made and that I was merely reiterating the comment. If you use poison you have to place it in your floorboards or crawlspaces under the foundation - where the mice are actually entering your structure. If you believe this to be an unsafe and unwise choice for you then by all means, do NOT. But do not be so presumptious to suggest that everyone is naive and irresponsible in their efforts to eradicate a few troublesome mice by very conventional methods.

And yes, Warfarin is actually a blood thinner that causes clots from forming or platelets to build up causing blockage in the arteries. I am also on it. Thanks for the education and post clarification. I think yours was a very worthwhile addition to the thread, although I believe you could have left your personal jabs out!

Are you serious?? YES, I AM indignant when I read assinine, incorrect and dangerous pet advice given on a pet related site. As for being all-knowing, again I ask, are you serious? I spoke on one very specific topic that I have personal experience with ... and suddenly I am "all-knowing"? Give me a break.

Of COURSE it's common sense to put poison where dogs can't get it. I hardly think that you needed to mention that. No one is stupid. However, has there NEVER been a case of a dog getting into something that an owner was SURE was out of his reach? Gee, dogs are never sneaky, clever, or just plain unlucky, huh?

And we will all make sure to tell those mice to be sure and drag their bleeding little bodies to a safe and secure place to die. Dying is ONLY allowed in crawlspaces and floorboards, mice, listen up! How rude, 'naive and irresponsible' of them to die where our dogs might find them and eat them! So everyone, make sure your mice know precisely where they can and cannot die before you poison them, says the all-knowing one.