Lucky Pup Patrick Saved After Swallowing Rat Poison

St. Patrick’s Day may be over but the celebration continues for a homeless puppy who was named after the holiday and was lucky enough to cheat death.

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) treated Patrick, a one-year-old beagle mix, who was brought to the organization’s Jamaica Plain emergency center on March 7.

Patrick, who was given the timely name by staffers, was initially noticed by Symone Gamble of Brockton. Gamble found the dog walking outside her apartment complex.

“He just looked like a lost dog and I worried about him spending the night outside,” she said in a recent MSPCA press release. “So I put him in the car and drove him to the hospital.”

Gamble’s decision to take Patrick to the Angell Animal Medical Center saved his life. The beagle was examined by Angell’s Dr. Roxanna Khorzad who suspected he had eaten rat poison.

Dr. Khorzad said Patrick was dehydrated and had difficulty breathing by the time he got to the hospital. He endured chest bleeding to the point of fluid building up in his lungs, which Dr. Khorzad cites as “a classic sign of a dog that had gotten into rodenticide.”

According to PetMD, poisoning from rodenticide, or rat poisoning, occurs when a dog becomes exposed to the chemical bromethalin, a toxic substance that is found in a variety of rat and mice poisons.

Ingestion of bromethalin can lead to an increased pressure of cerebrospinal fluid, which is the liquid within the membrane of the skull that helps to raft the brain. Ingestion can also result in cerebral edema, which the pet health website describes as “the accumulation of excess water in the brain.”

Dr. Khorzad, who suspects Patrick ate the rat poison because it is designed to taste like food, stabilized the dog before conducting blood and plasma transfusions. She gave him high doses of Vitamin K, which as a blood clotting nutrient neutralizes the effects of the poison.

The beagle spent three nights recovering in the hospital before he was transferred to a temporary foster home. His foster parent is continuing to treat him with Vitamin K.

Patrick, who is suspected to be a stray as he doesn’t have any identification tags, is expected to be ready for adoption in about a month.

Anyone interested in adopting Patrick can email adoption@mspca.org for more information about the adoption process.

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• Watch: Homeless Kitten Gets Adopted

Photos via MSPCA.