Gunpowder And Dogs - Firecrackers And Dogs

We’ve been discussing gunpowder, which is not a supplement for dogs. Gunpowder doesn’t make milquetoast dogs become good guard dogs, but it does make them sick. Here’s why: Nitrates in gunpowder cause vomiting and diarrhea, shortness of breath, trembling, and red blood cell damage. Fortunately, dogs aren’t as sensitive to nitrate poisoning as cows, goats, and other ruminants are, but they are affected by it.

Treating a pet that’s eaten gunpowder
If you can get to the clinic, your veterinarian will flush your pet’s stomach to remove as much gunpowder as possible. Gunpowder acts a gut irritant throughout the gastrointestinal (gastro=stomach, intestinal=intestines) system. If you can’t reach the clinic, call your vet and follow the advice you’re given. If the gunpowder was swallowed within the last couple hours, your vet may recommend giving hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting. If your pet ate gunpowder several hours ago, your vet may recommend a large meal of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin. These are easily digested and their bulk may help push the gunpowder through the system. If your pet ate a festival’s worth of fireworks, your veterinarian will tell you that homecare is inadequate, and that your pet must be hospitalized and treated with IV fluids and medications.

Firecrackers contain cadmium, barium, and arsenic
Firecrackers are similar to gunpowder, but are more dangerous. While gunpowder contains potassium nitrate (saltpeter), carbon, and sulfur, firecrackers contains these ingredients and additional coloring and explosive agents that are highly toxic. For example most firecrackers contain the heavy metals cadmium, barium, and arsenic. more. When your pet eats firecrackers, cadmium damages the kidneys, barium damages the brain and nerves, and arsenic causes bloody vomiting and diarrhea.

Firecrackers contain chlorates
Firecrackers can also contain chlorates. Chlorates oxidize the red blood cells and the blood turns brown as the iron in the blood’s hemoglobin becomes rust. At this stage, your pet is running rust through its vessels rather than blood. The rusty blood causes the gums and mucous membranes to be slightly brown. The urine is also brown.

Effect of chlorates
Pets poisoned with chlorates are very ill because rusty blood (methemoglobinemia) doesn’t carry oxygen and the heart and brain can’t work without oxygen. In an effort to put things right, your pet’s spleen begins destroying the damaged RBCs. The scrapped RBCs are carried from the spleen to the kidneys where they plug the kidney’s filtering mechanism. The plugged kidney filters (glomerulonephritis) cause acute kidney failure and death.

Will your pet die?
How sick your pet becomes depends upon how much gunpowder or fireworks it has eaten. This is the case with most poisons: severity is related to quantity. If your pet ate only the residue of firecrackers lying about after festivities, it is exposed to heavy metals that lace the packaging materials, wicks, and ash residue. This amount is may be toxic but may not be fatal. If your pet ate enough fireworks to light up Disneyland, the picture, although bright, will not be pretty.

What poison is more common than firecrackers and kills pets just as firecrackers do?
Fireworks are not a common pet poison, but there is a very common cause of poisoning that harms your pet’s body in the same way—the brown blood of methemoglobinemia. In a later blog, we’ll look at this common poison.