Salt can kill your dog?
Hard to believe, but yes, too much of this common mineral can have deadly consequences… especially this time of the year with ice melts being spread around and your dog licking them.
Fortunately this is fairly uncommon, but in today’s newsletter I’ll show you how to protect your pet.
What is Salt Poisoning?
The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) receives the most calls around this time of year for this…
Pets licking their feet after walking through an area treated with ice melt
Ice melts are often made of sodium chloride (SALT), but some other common ingredients are potassium chloride, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride. Ingestion of these minerals can cause a varying degree of symptoms and health issues.
The good news is that a couple of licks of a paw or treated ground will not cause serious problems. The primary concern will be possible self-limiting drooling, vomiting, or diarrhea.
The more concerning situation is when the ice melt bag is left in a spot where a pet has easy access and can eat a larger amount. Larger ingestions of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and/or magnesium chloride can lead to more significant vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration, and electrolyte abnormalities.
This can lead to SALT TOXICOSIS
Salt toxicosis is also known as hypernatremia. It’s the presence of high levels of sodium (salt) in the bloodstream. The levels of sodium, an electrolyte, are normally in balance in the body. But when the sodium amount in the blood becomes too high, it draws water out of the cells and into the bloodstream to restore the balance. That harms the cells and can affect the brain and nervous tissue.
Although salt toxicosis is rare, it’s dangerous and potentially deadly. However, excess sodium isn’t something that builds up over time. Rather, it happens over minutes or hours. Salt toxicity typically occurs after a single significant dose of salt is ingested over a short period of time.
How Do Dogs Consume Too Much Salt?
But how does a dog consume a significant dose of salt? The most common causes of hypernatremia in dogs taken to veterinary hospitals include:
P.S. I have seen Salt Toxicity in Veterinary Practice, and this was an extremely sick dog in need of serious emergency care. So it is serious, and NEVER give salt to get your dog to vomit.
- Drinking large amounts of salt water without access to enough fresh water
- Consuming homemade play dough or salt dough
- Ingesting paintballs
- Eating rock salt (de-icing salt)
- Inducing vomiting with SALT
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Decreased appetite
- Lethargy
- Lack of coordination or being wobbly on their feet
- Excessive thirst or urination
- Tremors or seizures
My dog eats his poop- we have to watch over him constantly when he’s outdoors. He’s also 73 lb mixed breed rescue. Tons of people suggest MSG over his food will make poop taste bad and he’ll stop eating it. Will this harm him?
We’ve tried everything on the market and other advices of cures… hot sauce, siracha, lemon, vinegar, onion, …. He loves all!
Dr. Jones has a few articles on that here: https://veterinarysecrets.com/?s=COPROPHAGIA
I am curios as we have finally got a water softener. Will the water from that harm a 10 lb. dachshund? It never occurred to me salt is toxic. Should she be drinking bottled now instead of tap?