Cyanide Poisoning in 3 of my dogs.

Almost lost 3 of my dogs this weekend. Still not out of the woods with one of them. :(

One dog went down completely on Thursday. Because only one eye dilated the ER "insisted" it was a brain tumor. Said we could try to give pred and antibiotics for 48 hours but he set up an appt for euthanasia before I left. Said he didn't think he would make it thru the nite.

He started to improve. And then the second one presented with same. and following day the third dog. Their answer? Well they 'are' all older dogs.

Sorry can't buy the coincidence of 3 brain tumors in 3 dogs at the same time.:R

I Started looking at poisoning, chemicals, etc. Because the dogs didn't salivate/convulsion which is the symptoms of poisoning vet wanted to rule out poison and head back to brain tumor.

I started thinking about those darn leaves sticks and stems that are dropping that the dogs just can't stop eating from this big huge tree by the pen at the new house I just bought. Like any small dog when they eat something they seemed to upchuck back up right away.

Took all the different parts of the tree and drove madly down to the local Ag Extension Office.

They identified the tree:
Black Cherry Tree

CYANIDE Poisoning!
ALL parts of this tree are highly deadly toxic.

This past week the leaves started to drop again due to leaf spot and I was not there to sweep them away and the dog's got an overload of cyanide poisoning.

This tree and all its parts is so toxic, had they not been upchucking them so quickly and instead swallowing them they all would have died.
The dog that is in guarded condition had been eating them.

So...Get second opinions/research if you don't feel the first one is right and always go with what you think or gut feeling. We know our dogs better than a vet can always analyze in 10 minutes.

And I am finding I have to constantly be a steward for these older dogs because everyone wants to write off all symptoms to "oh that's just cause he's old", or "he's at the end of his life that's what it is".:R

Now to find someone to cut down a 80 ft cherry tree for free. My bank account is zip from the vet bills. :W

LakeN
Explorer
May 03, 2015
So sorry you have this issue......sure was not aware of the cherry toxicity. Thanks for sharing and best of luck to you & your furbabies!!
rockhillmanor
Explorer
May 03, 2015
CA POPPY on 05/02/15 11:27pm

Amazon.com has that gazebo for $126 with one day shipping and it's coming from Florida! They are excellent to deal with in case of any problems. I am too tired to find and paste the link, eyes closing......

Thank you VERY much for the info!

FYI:
The clinic I went to said there is no treatment for acute cyanide poisoning.

Well there IS.

If you are confronted with this ask your vet to look up:
Efficacy of Hydroxocobalamin Use Documented "veterinary"
study on file.

Hydroxocobalamin, is also the active ingredient in Cyanokit. Which is given to humans after cyanide poisoning. Vet administration is different.

Dr. Doug I can forward the vet study to you if you would like to see it.
CA_POPPY
Explorer
May 03, 2015
Amazon.com has that gazebo for $126 with one day shipping and it's coming from Florida! They are excellent to deal with in case of any problems. I am too tired to find and paste the link, eyes closing......
rockhillmanor
Explorer
May 03, 2015
Deb and Ed M wrote:
I'm going to add, because all this made me realize I DO have a "cherry": my Purple Leaf Sand Cherry shrub is still a member of the Prunus family. While nobody is saying it specifically is toxic - they admit that it probably is, by default?

My dogs have more interesting things in the yard, so have never bothered the Sand Cherry
(which is fenced off anyway) - but I'll be more careful about pruning it back and cleaning up the fallen leaves....

Good thing you have smart dogs. Unlike mine! :C

This link about your tree makes mention regarding cyanide.
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Prunus+x+cistena

Everything I am finding points to the fact that the leaves are most toxic when they are wilted from falling off and/or on a downed tree and leaves wilt. And of course the pit of the fruit any time.

Black Cherry being the worst because 'all of the tree' is toxic whether it is wilted or not. Double toxic if wilted.
CA_POPPY
Explorer
May 03, 2015
If there are any Min Pin message boards, maybe someone there would have suggestions. Controlling the environment is probably all you can do at this point. The trouble with that is, the little buggers really need their exercise.

I checked and the consensus seems to be that cyanide smells (tastes?) like bitter almond. Why that would be irresistible to dogs, who knows? When our neighbors cleared out some junk in their back yard, mice ran over into our yard. Darcy had a party and was tossing them up in the air and catching them in her mouth. I think Min Pins were originally bred to be obsessive and that trait persists. :E So glad to hear your dogs are at home and okay. The new vet must be very good.
rockhillmanor
Explorer
May 03, 2015
nabi wrote:
What a nightmare for you...hope all 3 dogs are getting better with each day....

a neighbour years ago hired a local fellow who was in the " know " about taking down trees...well...after a
large branch went thru the roof of one neighbour and scratched the car of another
, he realized he should have checked to see if the fella had insurance ..hard , expensive lesson learned !

oh my!
I am taking the advice of the forum members to make sure it's a licensed bonded tree guy! And their advice to seek standing timber and woodworking companies in hopes that I might be able to get paid for cutting and taking the tree for furniture/veneer etc.

From the link they gave me it looks promising. Will know more on Monday. Till then dogs going outside is a real dangerous problem right now.
nineoaks2004
Explorer
May 03, 2015
News to me, I did not know that cherry trees were poisonous. I will file that back for future.
nabi
Explorer
May 03, 2015
What a nightmare for you...hope all 3 dogs are getting better with each day....

a neighbour years ago hired a local fellow who was in the " know " about taking down trees...well...after a large branch went thru the roof of one neighbour and scratched the car of another, he realized he should have checked to see if the fella had insurance ..hard , expensive lesson learned !
rockhillmanor
Explorer
May 03, 2015
CA POPPY wrote:
Do you have any of your dogs home now, Rock? One thing about min pins, they tend to be a bit obsessive.

That's why Darcy is not allowed outdoors off-leash anymore. She is single minded and stubborn,true, bUT she's also the most affectionate little dog we've ever had. A trainer told me that trait is common for the breed. You helped me with Darcy when we first inherited her, and I really hope your three are soon well again.

A bit obsessive is an understatement! :B

I was going out of mind last year when these leaves dropped with them constantly eating them. They even see a spec on the floor and they are going after it. It's like they are on crack cocaine 24/7's.

And the upchuck issues from eating everything in sight?
My Danes would come up to me and throw up at my feet and then look at as if to say, "hey you just gonna stand there or clean this up?" and then walk away!

With a Min Pin if they have grabbed something bad and/or have just thrown up you can't just go in and get it because they rush to eat it so you can't identify it if it was something bad.

I feel so guilty about this year not sweeping up those leaves every day.

The past week we had storms and the wind blew the leaves all down and the rain made them stick to the concrete so I couldn't sweep them up and just short of getting on my hands and knees and peeling each one up off the concrete I left them there.

AND then 2 days in a row they were outside from sun up to sun down. I was so happy I put a canopy up so they could stay out longer and in the rain. Duh.

So I observed lots of little piles of thrown up leaves and thought will they EVER stop doing this. Those 2 long days outside is what put the toxic level to the tipping point for the one dog.

He is the one that throws it up and eats it again and so on. So he was the one that got the overload those 2 days and became completely paralyzed and then comatose.

I still can't find any research on why they would be SO attracted to eating them. I think if I did it would say "It's a MinPin thing".

Everyone is home and fingers crossed ALL are fine.

And since they have now not had ANY leaves for 4 days, the other 2 older dogs increased activity compared to a month ago when they obviously were getting low levels of cyanide daily.

Since I found out they all have been hermetically sealed in pens with shade cloth around it to help prevent ANY of these dang leaves from getting inside. I'm paranoid about letting them outside and They hate it.

I'm looking at this to solve my deadly problem and keep the dogs safe.

I'm desperately trying to find a store that has this in stock.
Coleman 12x10 Hex Screened Canopy/Gazebo.
The pens would fit right inside, no leaves could get in.

I guess until the tree comes down my dogs will be getting a screened gazebo before I will. :R
CA_POPPY
Explorer
May 02, 2015
Do you have any of your dogs home now, Rock? One thing about min pins, they tend to be a bit obsessive. That's why Darcy is not allowed outdoors off-leash anymore. She is single minded and stubborn,true, bUT she's also the most affectionate little dog we've ever had. A trainer told me that trait is common for the breed. You helped me with Darcy when we first inherited her, and I really hope your three are soon well again.