I had a friend lose her Scottish Deerhound to a poisonous mushroom once, and I lived for years in mushroom country, up in our own Dr. Nancy Kay’s neck of the woods — the fringes of the redwood forests in Sonoma County. So when she wrote about dogs and and mushrooms this week, I took notice.
Sadly, a friend of hers lost a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy to a poisonous mushroom recently as well, so Dr. Kay wanted to help educate people on how to protect their dogs from the same fate:
Every region of the country is different in terms of mushroom flora. Where I live in northern California, Amanita phalloides (aka Death Cap) is the most common poisonous species and grows year round particularly in soil surrounding oak trees. Ingestion of a Death Cap mushroom causes liver failure (in people and in dogs)- makes sense given the liver’s function as the “garbage disposal” of the body. Symptoms typically include vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, loss of appetite, delayed blood clotting, and neurological abnormalities. Every year at my busy hospital, we see at least a handful of dogs with liver failure clearly caused by mushroom ingestion. In spite our very best efforts, the individuals who survive mushroom poisoning are few and far between. Affected people can receive a liver transplant; no such technology available (yet) for dogs.
To learn more about poisonous mushrooms visit the North American Mycological Association and Bay Area Mycological Society websites. If you suspect your dog has ingested a mushroom get to your veterinary clinic or the closest emergency care facility immediately (choose whichever is most quickly accessible). If possible, take along a sample of the mushroom so it can be professionally identified if need be.
Read the rest here, and protect your pups!
Photo: Donato, a six-month-old Bernese Mountain dog owned by Diana Gerba, who lost his life to a poisonous mushroom.
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