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Danger - Dog owners who compost

Robisburning

Robisburning

I just wanted to warn everyone about my recent experience with dogs getting into compost. Yesterday I noticed one of my compost bins was a bit dry so decided to empty both bins and restack them mixing in a few new choice kitchen scraps. While wheelbarrowing the compost between both sites both my dogs came out and had a rumage around.  Not ideal so I called them off and put them inside.  They might have had 5 mins with it.  That evening a friend popped over with his dog for a beer.  As we sat outside I noticed one of my dogs stagger slightly and take a slightly odd posture.  My girlfriends Dad is a vet and coincidently was visiting so I literally just had to pop inside my house for expert advice.  His first pass was that she had eaten some tranquilizers or poison but knowing there was nothing like that on the property I mentioned the compost.  He said it was the most likely cause and said the situation was serious so we went to his clinic (it was after hours so we were lucky to have such a great vet open up for us) where he gave her Apomorphine to induce vomiting.  Long story short she is fine, much relief, more beer, dogs locked inside.
 
This morning we were sitting around having a coffee and my friends dog fell sideways slightly.  I asked him to call her and sure enough she was unstable on her feet.  Repeat exercise above with rush to clinic etc.  She also looks like she will be fine.  Until yesterday I had never heard of this and today it has affected 2 of the 3 dogs here so I really wanted to warn everyone.  My friends dog in particular would have only been in the backyard where the compost was for a couple of mins and by that stage the compost was all in bins with less than a shovelful here and there.
 
It is called tremorgenic mycotoxin intoxication and it can happen very quickly and doesn't need great piles of compost and it can be fatal.  Here are a couple of links below with a little more info:
 
http://dogingtonpost.com/dangers-of-composting-to-your-dog/#.U7nzi7HrsX4
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/scary-lesson-eating-compost-can-be-fatal-to-pets/article_e27f8a67-779e-59d0-9052-80fbf44cd40c.html
 
I hope this will save someone elses dog from having to go through this.
 
Thanks for the info! Glad your dogs are fine mate!
My dogs seem to like the fish emulsion I have just started using lol
 
Hows the growing going? have you started your plants for summer yet?
cheers 
 
OMG first and fgoremost I'm glad to hear the poochs survived!!
 
I compost and my dogs are always sniffing around it but I've never seen them get into the barrel to munch down anything. They do graze my yard like cows and eat any and everything so I'm sure they'd be happy to chew through some mold compost as it'd be a treat for them in their eyes. But honestly I don't think my mutss would be affected as I've seen them eat 15lb chocolate bars, a dozen glass/metal Xmas ornaments, bags of fertilizer, bottle of pain meds, cell phones, gps devices, shoes, fnurniture etc etc and they acted like it was nothing :)
 
Thanks for the heads up!
 
Sounds like you got lucky and were able to get it treated in time. Thanks for passing on the message. It's a good example of how organic does not always mean safe.

Neil
 
Damn. Who would have ever thought?

I don't have a dog but this is a very good message to get out.

Glad your dogs are well.
 
It'll hurt wildlife too.  You can only do so much but yeah, a compost pile should be fenced off or otherwise inaccessible to animals.
 
The toxin is a by product of certain fungi, but doesn't always have to occur (i.e. you had some very bad luck). But indeed, caution sure beats bringing your buddy to the vet. It's also known that green/blue mold cheeses (excuse my english, but you guys know what I mean) can create these toxins under the right (wrong) conditions. Due to the low body mass of a dog they will get poisoned far more easily than a full grown man. Where we might suffer a small headache, a dog can get poisoned. Therefore never give green/blue cheeses to the dog, especially when they expired or reek like ammonia. Yes, a dog's digestive track is a lot more idiot proof than a human's, but mycotoxins (molds in compost, certain cheeses, etc), botulism (especially in dead carcasses in the water) and cyanobacteria (blue algae in non-moving warm open water, i.e. ponds in the summer etc) can and will kill dogs if ingested in sufficient amounts.
 
Other threats that some people still don't know are raisins, grapes (they still don't know what's causing the damage, but mycotoxins are suspected aswell).
 
Yep, some of these look like algae and can actually produce quite potent neurotoxins. Dogs that ingest it might have seizures and drown or might die from the seizure it self.
 
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