My experience has been different.....I had a wonderful cat that ate a
poisoned mouse/rat. She drug herself home in her death throes, too late for
us to save her. It was not a pretty death. A while later I had a 6 month
old golden retriever pup, who ate some of the poison. This time we knew
what was happening, and got him to the vet in time, but it was still touch
and go.

The idiot neighbors who had been putting out the poison finally moved. They
kept a dog on a chain in the backyard; she would scatter her food, which
attracted rats, so they scattered poison about. The stuff my dog found had
been tossed, or dragged, into my yard.

So while I'm sincerely glad your dog was ok, it doesn't mean that rat poison
is not potentially very harmful for dogs and cats.

Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA


"JNJ" wrote in message
...
Be careful with that stuff if a dog gets ahold of a rat that has eaten
it,
you can kiss the dog by too.

FWIW, I concur with Lar -- the only time this typically becomes an issue
is
with a small dog (say 10 lbs or under) and even then the dog would have to
injest a fairly decent amount at a single sitting (depending upon the
poison). A close friend is a professional pest control guy and we've
actually used stuff not available in stores as well -- my 30 pound
lab/terrier mix got ahold of some and she was fine. This of course does
NOT
mitigate the need for caution obviously, but it does at least ease some of
the concerns.

James

My experience has been different.....I had a wonderful cat that ate a
poisoned mouse/rat. She drug herself home in her death throes, too late
for
us to save her. It was not a pretty death. A while later I had a 6 month
old golden retriever pup, who ate some of the poison. This time we knew
what was happening, and got him to the vet in time, but it was still touch
and go.

In each of these cases you're talking about an animal that is under 10
pounds -- as I noted in my post:

the only time this typically becomes an issue
is with a small dog (say 10 lbs or under) and
even then the dog would have to injest a fairly
decent amount at a single sitting (depending
upon the poison).

The smaller the animal, the higher the probability it will die. Even still
it is far from common.

The idiot neighbors who had been putting out the poison finally moved.
They
kept a dog on a chain in the backyard; she would scatter her food, which
attracted rats, so they scattered poison about. The stuff my dog found
had
been tossed, or dragged, into my yard.

Neighbors can be a problem. We live in Cincinnati, affectionately known as
the "Seven Hills" because the area is so hilly. There's also still quite a
lot of woodland around some of the neighborhoods, such as mine and that of
course is quite inducive to rat popluations. My neighbor has problems with
rats and does not treat them -- as such, when she finally DOES do something
about them, they end up burrowing into our basement. She's not terribly
smart about how she does it either (or most other things), so I am always
looking for her latest foolishness and I shudder at the thought of her using
poison baits outside the home.

So while I'm sincerely glad your dog was ok, it doesn't mean that rat
poison
is not potentially very harmful for dogs and cats.

Never said that.

James

In each of these cases you're talking about an animal that is under 10
pounds -- as I noted in my post:

So it's okay to kill pets that weigh under 10 pounds.

Joelle
If you want to make God laugh, tell him what you are doing tomorrow
Father Mike

"JNJ" wrote in message
My experience has been different.....I had a wonderful cat that ate a
poisoned mouse/rat. She drug herself home in her death throes, too late
for
us to save her. It was not a pretty death. A while later I had a 6
month
old golden retriever pup, who ate some of the poison. This time we knew
what was happening, and got him to the vet in time, but it was still
touch
and go.

In each of these cases you're talking about an animal that is under 10
pounds -- as I noted in my post:

Not trying to quibble, James, but my dog at the time was about 50 lbs. or
so. And most people don't value their companion animals on a per pound
basis.

So while I'm sincerely glad your dog was ok, it doesn't mean that rat
poison
is not potentially very harmful for dogs and cats.

Never said that.

Never said you did!! Again, not trying to quibble with you personally, just
trying to point out that choosing to use rat poison can have unexpected
consequences. I've seen recommendations for securing it inside a length of
pvc pipe, so cats and dogs can't get to it, but that is not foolproof
either.

And I'm with you on the scary/stupid neighbors. We have a set right now
that could be the poster children for white trash--continually cursing out
their kids, burning stuff in the backyard, parking various vehicles in
various states of repair all around the property....Luckily, most of the
neighbors are great people, so we try to focus on the positive.

Cheers and peace,
Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

In each of these cases you're talking about an animal that is under 10
pounds -- as I noted in my post:

So it's okay to kill pets that weigh under 10 pounds.

Joelle, don't be ridiculous. It's never "okay" to kill needlessly. Read
the rest of the thread before making such a foolish leap -- we're talking
about the likelihood of an animal dieing from the ingestion of pest control
toxins, specifically rat baits not the morality of killing pets.

James

Not trying to quibble, James, but my dog at the time was about 50 lbs. or
so. And most people don't value their companion animals on a per pound
basis.

It's not a matter of valuing your companions as much as the likelihood of an
animal dieing from a rat bait. Did your dog actually die from the poison
he/she ingested? Do you know what kind of poison it was that he/she
ingested? For a dog that size it's unusual for him/her to actually die from
ingesting a small amount of poison or even a dead carcass. If he manage to
scrounge every bait on the property sure but...? Mine is only about 30
pounds and she didn't even show signs of distress (vomiting, etc.). She's
also our prime catcher -- blasted cats don't catch a single one, but that
little pup caught and killed several rats all by herself!

Never said you did!! Again, not trying to quibble with you personally,
just
trying to point out that choosing to use rat poison can have unexpected
consequences. I've seen recommendations for securing it inside a length
of
pvc pipe, so cats and dogs can't get to it, but that is not foolproof
either.

Can't argue that point. I think the real point here is that negligence
kills regardless.

And I'm with you on the scary/stupid neighbors. We have a set right now
that could be the poster children for white trash--continually cursing out
their kids, burning stuff in the backyard, parking various vehicles in
various states of repair all around the property....Luckily, most of the
neighbors are great people, so we try to focus on the positive.

Ah yes -- that would be the ones across the street diagonally from us. Last
year they had a domestic incident -- the male barricaded himself in the
upstairs and threw a chair out the window, held police at bay for hours.
They actually sent a small army down -- shotguns, submachine guns, the works
(blew our mind to see them carrying MP5s and the like). A couple of weeks
ago the house was boarded up and today I watched with joy as a crew
demolished it. It's the little things in life.

James

"JNJ" wrote in message
...
It's not a matter of valuing your companions as much as the likelihood of
an
animal dieing from a rat bait. Did your dog actually die from the poison
he/she ingested? Do you know what kind of poison it was that he/she


JNJ:

You are obviously clueless. I supposed you think that if a human ate a few
pellets that would not be cause for concern either.

In article , "BiG
Orange" @ says...
You are obviously clueless. I supposed you think that if a human ate a few
pellets that would not be cause for concern either.


That once again would be determined by what was taken. I
know of a family that their two year old swallowed an
estimated amount of a tablespoon of D-Con. The hospital
gave no treatment other than an over night observation
and a warning of being extra gentle to avoid bruising
for the following week. The next day they also contacted
the state's Poison Control Center and they agreed that
was all the treatment that should be needed. Now if they
would of gotten their hands on the arsenic based baits
an earlier poster had used ( do they still sell that
stuff?) , it could of been a different story.
--
Good judgment comes from experience,
and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.


Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!

Fireants are termites only natural enemy and they don't come in the
house.

Thats what I always assumed, but recently I have torn down some rotten
stumps and found the two in several of these stumps together. The
fire ants didnt appear to be bothering the termites. I thought this
would be fire ants only redeeming quality, though I have also heard
they feed on chiggers and ticks.

Bryan

Me too. wrote:

Hi, correct me if I am wrong. I use dyed hardwood mulch around the house.
I'm not concerned about termites because 2-4 times a summer, I spray an
ant/termite insecticide by Ortho around the perimeter of the home. I see no
ants etc. Am I taking a chance or is the insecticide application enough to
keep the home invaders away?

BTW, the rat has made an appearance again. I'm off to buy some rat poison!

Thanks...



mulch ado about nothing