I Almost Killed My Dog

Seven years ago I realized I made a horrible mistake as I was rushing my girlfriend’s (now wife) dog to the vet. Her pomeranian had consumed an unknown amount of second generation rodent bait with difethialone as the active ingredient. Difethialone is an anticoagulant that works by not allowing the rodent’s blood to clot. 

So how did this tiny little pomeranian consume this aggressive poison? 

We had been having problems in our detached garage with mice and in order to provide control, I installed some exterior bait stations around the perimeter of the garage. The stations were installed in accordance with the label, which is the law, and there was no way a child or dog could have accessed the bait inside the station. I checked the stations weekly and refilled bait as necessary. I was going through a good amount of bait, but I was no longer having rodent issues in the garage so I just chalked it up to the baits doing their job.

What I did not realize was a grey squirrel had been stealing the bait from the station and create a stockpile inside a nest in a maple tree in our backyard.

The night before Bugsy (the pomeranian) ate the bait, a severe storm had come through our town and broke off some branches on the maple tree, dislodging the squirrel nest and showering the ground with the hoarded bait. When I let Bugsy out that next morning, he came back with a mouth colored the same as the bait and I knew there was a problem. 

I rushed out into the yard to see how he got into a bait station and that when I saw it, the spilled hoard of a long deceased squirrel.

Bugsy ended up fine after a vitamin k regiment and some stomach pumping. But it was after that scary moment that I vowed to find better methods and techniques to control rodents that would pose little to no risk to our pets.

Huntsman Wildlife is committed to “Protecting Health and Property” with humane wildlife management solutions. We achieve the results our clients require by targeted trapping and exclusion techniques, not with the use of rodenticides and poisons.

I can achieve the same level of control and make your home or business rodent free without them, without the risk to your children or your pets. 

It is not the easy way, but I do believe to my core that it is the RIGHT way.

Till next time… see ya folks.