Spring toxins have sprung

As we wrap up the winter months and begin to inch closer and closer to Spring, waiting for veterinary professionals and pet owners, along with the nicer weather, are some common spring toxins. During this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, welcomes back Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT, senior veterinary toxicologist and director, veterinary medicine for Pet Poison Helpline to educate listeners on the toxins out there their patients could be up against, and how to help.

Below is a partial transcript

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: We love to take our dogs out with us too. We like to go to the oceans and swim with them, or sometimes we have salt water pools. So talk to us about salt water toxicity

Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT, senior veterinary toxicologist and director, veterinary medicine for Pet Poison Helpline

Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT: So definitely salt is a big issue in dogs and cats. Probably dogs are being more exposed for those same reasons that you just said, going out to the ocean a little bit more and enjoying those things. And if they're ingesting a large amount of that salt water, then they can definitely have an elevation to salt and that is something that we can see. Then a lot of neurologic signs developing. These guys can have difficulty walking. They can have body tremors. They can have seizures developing. It's something that is very needs, very aggressive care, and is very life-threatening for these guys.

Christman: Very life-threatening. I live at the Jersey Shore. And at our practice, we saw at least one a weekend of a dog that had salt toxicity, because we're right by the ocean. And it's just so sad, because it happened so quickly, you know?

Schmid: It does.

Christman: And, of course, you think they are. And so there was a couple of dogs actually bloated from that, just from ingesting so much, but others, it's just, it's really bad. They look like they are down and out is really what it is. It's just, it's scary.

Schmid: Yeah, it is and you know, where they're getting exposed, there's not a clinic on the shore and so it takes a while to get there, and it's going to take a while for that pet parent to understand, to notice, gosh, there's something going on. There's something wrong with them. And by the time those signs develop, and they will worsen very rapidly by the time they get into the clinic. And so the best thing to do is, if you know, who doesn't want to take their dog with them to the beach. And so if that happens, you know, certainly try to keep them on the shore if you can. If you do allow them to be in the water, you know, try to make sure that they're not a dog that just is favorably wanting to drink, ingest a lot of water, but really limit the amount of time that they're in that water itself.