Abstract
Many clinicians may have encountered dogs with toad poisoning. However, the nature of the poisoning still remains unclear. Thus, we experimentally induced toad poisoning in dogs and studied this poisoning from various aspects.
Nine dogs thought to be clinically healthy were exposed to wild toads; the dogs ate and/or bit the toads. Then, the dogs were observed sequentialy. The results are as follows.(1) Regardless of the size of the toads or the dog's body weight, vomiting occurred in 2 dogs about 60 min after eating the toads and in all the other dogs within 10-12 hr. Except for one dog (No.7), all the dogs gradually returned to their normal conditions. Two dogs which bit and licked the toads immediately showed salivation, head waving, etc., which were similar to symptoms caused by digitalis poisoning. Thereafter, they gradually returned to their normal conditions.(2) Hematological changes determined before and after eating toads in some dogs were almost within the range of the physiological fluctuation.(3) At autopsy, the severity of inflammation differed according to the dog. Enteritis was observed in 88.8%(8/9) of the dogs.
