Storm's Story

Meet Storm! Storm presented at the clinic as he started coughing after his evening walk. His coughing had gotten increasingly worse alarming his owners when he started to cough up fresh blood, at this point they rushed him straight in to see Vet Eva. His vitals were stable when he arrived at the clinic, but he was pale. He was admitted into our hospital for investigations. His conditioned worsened, he became a lot more subdued, vomited up dark blood and passed black faeces. Additionally, Storm was having nose bleeds and his gums had become a much paler pink (your pets mucous membranes should always be a nice salmon pink colour). Bloods were taken and these showed prolonged clotting. His symptoms were becoming more and more serious. A radiograph of Storm’s chest suggested haemothorax, meaning that he was now bleeding internally, leading Eva to suspect rat poison intoxication. Talking to his anxious owners confirmed our suspicions when they informed us that Storm had ingested a couple of dead mice prior to this.

We started administering Vitamin K intravenously to help with Storm’s blood clotting and he was receiving close monitoring in the meantime. His ‘Packed Cell Volume’ (PCV = the measure of blood that is made up of red blood cells, indicating anaemia if low) had decreased and his owner had given consent for a blood transfusion if needed. Storm also had Petechial haemorrhage on his gums, which looks like small red spots on the mucous membranes, this is a very serious condition indicative of blood clotting issues, commonly seen after ingestion of a rodenticide.

Careful monitoring throughout the night by our Vet Nurse Estelle was paramount at this time. To our delight Storm started to improve, responding to the medication and treatment being administrated and that following evening we decided we were happy to send him home with medication and strict monitoring.