With the arrival of this year’s mushroom season, dog owners should be particularly vigilant on walks and to check their gardens for wild fungi growth regularly. If your garden has mushrooms of unknown origin i is best to get rid of them as they can be potentially hazardous to you and potentially lethal to your dog. All of the dogs treated last year for mushroom poisoning had either been seen eating wild mushrooms before they became ill or showed identical clinical signs after being in a garden or walking in a park or woodland area. These included excessive salivation and a sudden onset of vomiting and diarrhea.
Dog are curious when they smell something new and want to investigate with their noses and mouth we also know that by nature dogs are scavengers and will eat anything they can find. Mushrooms are hard to identify. They can’t be differentiated by studying pictures in a text or on the Internet. Many species, both poisonous and nonpoisonous, look very much alike, and they frequently grow side by side.
Whenever a dog is seen eating a wild mushroom a vet will always err on the side of caution and have you bring your dog in for treatment. The first thing they will do is induce vomiting. If the mushroom is not seen when the dog vomits they will usually use activated charcoal to adsorb remaining toxins. Once decontaminated, each dog is treated individually, based on clinical signs that develop.
If your dog does ingest wild mushrooms it is best to bring a sample of the mushroom with you to the vet for identification this will help your vet determine the best course of treatment for your sick dog. Do not place mushrooms for identification in a plastic bag; instead, wrap them in a moist paper towel or wax paper or place them in a paper bag. Identifying mushroom species is often complex, so you might need to consult a human poison information center with experience in mushroom identification. One center known for its mushroom identification is Oregon Poison Center (800) 222-1222.
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