Dr Liesel van der Merwe is a small animal medicine specialist. Send her your questions: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Dr Liesel van der Merwe

Dietary indiscretion sounds like a fancy condition, but it generally means that your dog has once again eaten all sorts of nonsense from table scraps to garbage, the dead bird, your underwear, your car bumper and the headache pills you left on the bedside table.

Cats are much fussier eaters than dogs, so are less likely to eat stuff which disagrees with them. Many of these may just cause a bit of gastro-intestinal upset with some vomiting and diarrhoea. If the meal was very fatty and the dog small and obese, he might get inflammation of the pancreas which is painful and may be quite serious. If the meal was indigestible, such as the baby’s’ dummy, it may need to be surgically removed to prevent intestinal obstruction.

Alternatively, the substance eaten may be toxic and affect various organ systems. Parasetamol (Panado ) is extremely toxic to cats, causing their red blood cells to oxidise, which means that they can no longer carry oxygen and are destroyed. It happens within 24 hours and could be fatal.

Never give any anti-inflammatory or pain medication not recommended by your veterinarian to your cat. Cats are extremely sensitive to the side-effects as their livers cannot metabolise the drugs efficiently. Dogs are also susceptible to the side-effects of anti-inflammatories, but usually only if they have an overdose. Chewable tablets dispensed by vets are very palatable and we often see dogs who have eaten a whole month’s supply at one go. Such a serious overdose can cause renal failure and gastro-intestinal ulceration and must be treated.

Vets often see dogs that have eaten anti-depressants, contraceptive pills, muscle relaxants and antihistamines, which generally cause drowsiness and a dry mouth, rapid heart beat and dilated pupils. Anti-depressants cause similar effects and depress the nervous system which may progress to coma if large amounts are eaten. The contraceptive pill doesn’t cause any severe clinical problems. Muscle relaxants cause a variety of nervous symptoms such as disorientation, vocalisation and depression but will also depress the chest muscles, causing breathing problems.

Other obvious poisons are snail and rat pellets. Snail pellets cause nervous symptoms if enough is ingested, whereas rat poisons generally cause a clotting problem and animals develop internal bleeding about three days after ingestion. Dogs cannot be poisoned by eating dead rats, but the rats can carry the poison out to places where the dogs can reach them.

Onions and garlic cause damage to dogs’ red blood cells, just like Panado in cats. The symptoms are very similar to biliary with red urine and pale gums. The condition is less critical than in cats but requires veterinary attention.

Plants which may be toxic include Asiatic type lilies, chincherinchee, mushrooms and oleander. Cycads cause severe irreversible liver cirrhosis. Dark chocolate can also cause heart arrhythmias and diarrhoea in dogs. Raisins and grapes cause renal damage.

I want to explain how to manage a poisoning if you see your dog eating the substance or discover it soon after it happened. After eating something, unless the substance is caustic or corrosive, it will take 30 minutes to a few hours before you will see symptoms. Absorption from the stomach will usually only happen within half an hour to two hours, depending on the substance. The first step is to force your dog to vomit, unless the substance is caustic or corrosive in which case you dose water or milk to dilute the substance and minimise damage to the mouth and stomach lining.

Some people suggest strong salty water, but lots of salt also cause toxicity and nervous signs as the brain dehydrates. Soapy water is the way to go. Also do not force lots of water down the dog’s throat or you may cause aspiration into the lungs. This is not such a problem if it is just water, but it is a problem if there is soap powder or dishwashing liquid in the water.

The best method in my experience is to make a ball with damp washing powder and dose this to your dog. The dog will vomit within 10 minutes. Check the vomit for evidence and then take your dog to the vet for further evaluation and testing.