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Macadamia Nut Poisoning In The Dog

A couple of years ago a friend called me in the evening concerned that his dog had become poisoned with eating macadamia nuts.

A couple of years ago a friend called me in the evening concerned that his dog had become poisoned with eating macadamia nuts. I had a disadvantage in that I had never heard of macadamia nuts and the literature I had at home did not list them as toxic, I told him not to worry, of course I was wrong. Nowadays I spend a lot of time handling client’s veterinary problems on www.justanswers.com and this problem does crop up quite frequently.

Yes, it was true! Ingestion of these nuts can be toxic to dogs. Macadamia nuts are present year round and they are becoming more popular and they are much more prevalent in the household environment during the holiday seasons, so be sure to keep these tasty little nuts out of your dog’s reach.

Clinical Signs Seen with Ingestion

Clinical signs are usually seen within 12 hours of ingestion often much sooner. The following signs have been seen in dogs: ataxia (walking wobbly), depression, vomiting, muscle tremors, hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), weakness, and an elevated heart rate. Dogs can show one or more of these clinical signs. The toxic dose to dogs ranges from 2.4-62.4 grams per kilogram of body weight. This is a very large range and can mean that some dogs will get ill with just a small amount of nuts ingested, while other dogs need to each a lot of nuts to show signs. The clinical signs can be markedly increased if chocolate is ingested along with the nuts, as seen in cases where the dog ate the box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Chocolate will also cause the similar signs, thus the combination of the two ingredients can cause exacerbated clinical signs, along with possible kidney failure.

Treatment for Ingestion

If your dog has ingested macadamia nuts within the last hour you should make your dog vomit at once then call your vet immediately. Your vet will induce vomiting if you did not manage to, of course by having your dog vomit the amount of nuts digested by the body can be reduced. Your veterinarian may also give your dog activated charcoal which coats the lining of the digestive system so that absorption of the digested nuts is reduced.

The dog will then be treated symptomatically until the toxin passes out of your dog’s system. hyperthermia is treated with intravenous fluids and cooling the body’s core temperature. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways such as placing cool, wet towels over the dog and using cool intravenous fluids. Dogs should never be placed in ice baths as this will cause worsening of problems. If the dog’s body temperature has been significantly elevated for a long period of time, the dog’s clotting mechanisms can be severely compromised. In this case, the dog would need possible plasma transfusions and heparin therapy.

Muscle tremors, if severe, can be treated with medications to help stop the trembling. Elevated heart rates can also be treated using medication to help lower the heart rate to a more normal state. These medications are discontinued once the clinical signs have lessened.

In the majority of cases, clinical signs are less or gone within 48 hours and the dog can return home and that was the case with my friends dog.

October 30th, 2008 Posted by admin | Animal Poisons | 3 comments