Comments on: What to do when your dog bites a toad

By: Shakira

Shakira — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:41:33 +0000

I lost my 3 year old minature dixon last weekend to a frog…she had gotten the poision several times in the last couple of months and we were able to wash her mouth out and she was fine. This weekend we tryed to wash it out but she would not recover. I was on the phone with the vet but within 10 minutes she was gone…My heart is broken I can’t stop crying. I hate those frogs.

By: Raccoon42

Raccoon42 — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:46:09 +0000

Two days ago, we were up at the lake in Northwestern Wisconsin when I pointed out a little brown toad to my 1-year-old German Shepherd/Plott Hound. I knew about the huge, poisonous Cane Toad (Bufo Marinus), native to the area of South Texas down to the Amazon, and its devastating introduction in Australia and Florida. I knew about the large, poisonous and hallucinogenic Sonoran Desert Toad (Bufo Alvarius) that crawls out of the Arizona mud during the rainy season. Both of these suckers are big and slimy like frogs. What I didn’t know is that ALL true toads secrete toxins from their skin, even the very common Bufo Americanus, that can kill or sicken your dog. The American Toad is found from North Dakota in the northwest down to Oklahoma in the southwest, east from there to North Carolina, and north throughout all of northeastern Canada.

My Sookie got the little toad (about 2 1/2 inches) in her mouth and chomped on it a few times, which I thought was cute as hell. She then started shaking her head back and forth, and drooled a bunch, no foam, no shaking. She licked up some of the drool, and I thought nothing of it at the time. She seemed fine for the rest of the night, ate food, drank water, and romped about.

But, the following day, she didn’t want to eat anything. She was a little active early, but as the afternoon rolled on, she began vomiting water and mucous. All day we tried to convince her to eat something. At the end of the night, we got her to drink some water, but then she threw it back up again two minutes later. We resolved to take her to the vet first thing in the morning. She told us Sookie was very dehydrated, and she wanted to put an IV in, but they couldn’t do it there. All they could do was inject 500ml of saline under her skin and give her an anti-nausea drug. She’s not allowed to try and eat until 8pm tonight, and then a special bland food mix. She wasn’t allowed to drink for 4 hours after the vet visit, and now only 1/2 a cup every 30 minutes. Vet said if she couldn’t keep water down, we’d have to take her to the puppy ER for the IV or risk serious effects of dehydration! Luckily, she’s been drinking a little water for the past few hours with no more vomiting.

What I would stress here is 1) Rinse/clean the mouth if it’s not too late. 2) DO NOT FEED FOR 24 HOURS. Try the milk + egg yolk thing right away to line the stomach, but if your dog has already ingested the toxin, use whatever method you can to get your dog to vomit right away. 3) Make sure all the toxin is washed off your dog’s fur and paws, and rinse away all the drool, foam and vomit your dog puts out so s/he won’t lick it up. 4) Monitor your dog for signs of dehydration, and seek treatment if your dog can’t keep water down for 12 hours or more.

I’m lucky Sookie is 65lbs and tough as nails, because she didn’t experience any seizures or other severe neurological effects. Now I know, ANY TOAD ANYWHERE IS DANGEROUS TO DOGS!

By: DarkBayDonut

DarkBayDonut — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:21:30 +0000

Thanks for posting this website. My dog was taking her last
breaths and i found this website and i rinsed her mouth out and shes doing better.(: thanks!

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:15:46 +0000

our dog of course tangled with a toad around 10:00 at night, got to this site and was told to wash her mouth out with fresh water( hose),she did not mind the water to find out it felt good to get the toad juice out. we live in idaho so its not harmful,she just foamed at the mouth like she took a alka-setzer.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:16:52 +0000

My dog was foam rapidly after she bite a 8 inch toad she seems to be walking better but is still sick but thank you so much my parents rapidly started following ur instruction.

By: johnathannysus

johnathannysus — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:57:16 +0000

Hi my 5yr old dog name terror was eating his food in the galary .He normally comes back in side but he did’t so we went to check on him and I saw him spiting and chocking. Then we saw the TOAD idont know what toad it is but my mother and i threw salt on the frog and he hopped away.we didnt have a holse at the time so we gave him water to drinkbut he did’t drink it a few hours later he came back to normal.i hope he’ll be ok in the morning. This website is very good thank’s very much please text me back.i’m from Trinidad & Tobago. ps.we have no vet

By: RJ

RJ — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:42:29 +0000

I have a pet daschund… you know daschunds are hyperactive.. and so is mine… so when she sees something moving, she quickly catches it and bites it. one time she bit a toad. i saw it and i quickly let her drink some water. her mouth was foaming and i was scared so i dipped her mouth into a water to let her drink some.. unfortunately it became much worse… after i let her drink i went inside the house.. after 30 minutes i came back and i saw her having a seizure… she is biting her tongue and her eyes go from bottom to top.. i was so scared that time that i thought she was about to die… luckily my mother went home and we brought her to the vet… the first thing that the vet did was to put a dextrose… at 1st try, her body rejected the dextrose… then the vet said he’ll try again but if it still doesnt work, we need to prepare for a 90% chance of death… luckily after the 2nd try, my pet’s body responded with the dextrose.. after that the dog made a mixture of water and sugar… lots of sugar and used a syringe without a needle to put the liquid inside her mouth… the vet did it a lot of times.. then after a couple of minutes she’s stopped having seizure and looked like shes just lying and looking at us… after 3 days of being confined at the vet, she finally recovered and was brought home.. she was medicated with some vitamins to regain her appetite and immune system… whew what a relief…

By: Jennie

Jennie — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:17:59 +0000

My 7 year old Doberman discover the toad this morning. After reading this I rinsed out her mouth and she seems to be doing fine. Which is good as it was 6:00 am on a Saturday Morning and my vet doesn’t open until 9:00… Thank you!

By: lynn

lynn — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:48:15 +0000

my boxer came in contact with a frog she was pawing at her mouth and rubbing on the grass i came in and rinsed her mouth she is drinking and eating should i be worried????

By: freddu

freddu — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:46:37 +0000

thanks for the tips but what if it was a dead dryed frog is it still harmful?