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Dogs need certain nutrients like proteins and minerals to support their growth and overall health. What’s not on this list is lead, a naturally occurring metal found in soil, water, and air. Over time, lead can build up in the body, resulting in lead poisoning and serious health problems.
Fortunately, lead poisoning in dogs is rare. But, despite its discontinued use in paint and gasoline, lead can still be found in food, drinking water, batteries, and other consumer products. Dogs can also be exposed to lead-based paint or lead-contaminated dust during household renovations or auto repairs.
Since dogs often explore their environment with their nose and mouth, it’s important to take precautions to reduce your dog’s risk of lead poisoning. Read on to learn about how lead exposure can occur, as well as the symptoms, treatment, and prognosis for lead poisoning in dogs.
How Do Dogs Get Lead Poisoning?
“Lead poisoning in dogs isn’t something we see all that often, which is a good thing, but that’s not to say it doesn’t happen,” says Bethany Hsia, DVM, veterinarian at CodaPet. If you suspect that your dog has lead poisoning, contact your veterinarian right away. Dogs can be exposed to lead in similar ways as people. Since it’s a heavy metal, lead can settle in soil where it can be ingested by dogs or tracked indoors.
Another source is lead-based paint, which can be a concern if you have an older home, or you’re unearthing lead during a renovation. Dogs can get exposed while chewing on walls or baseboards. Dust contaminated with lead can become airborne and accumulate on your dog’s food and water dishes and bedding. Lead is a cumulative item. The longer your dog chews on an affected item and assimilates the toxin, the more effect lead will have on the body.
Lead exposure can also occur if dogs eat meat from an animal that was shot with lead pellets. Contaminated drinking water is another way lead can get into a dog’s stomach and cause poisoning. In addition, products like fishing gear and lures may contain lead. Dogs may be attracted by the fishy smell and ingest lead, which can then become activated by their stomach acid, she explains.
Sadly, there’s also the possibility of hunting accidents and dogs being shot by lead pellets or buckshot containing lead. “If buckshot gets lodged in the dog’s muscle, it won’t necessarily cause problems with lead toxicity, because the muscle tissue doesn’t have an acidic component,” she says. However, if a dog ingests a lead bullet or fishing lure, it can leech into a dog’s bloodstream and cause poisoning if there’s buckshot in the stomach or intestines.
What Are the Effects of Lead Poisoning?
When lead gets into a dog’s body, “it can compete with other minerals, specifically calcium and zinc, which play a role in many cellular functions,” Dr. Hsia says. A buildup of lead can cause dysfunction, targeting different cells throughout the body. As a result, the symptoms tend to be nonspecific, meaning they’re present in a variety of conditions.
Symptoms of lead poisoning include:
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Loss of appetite
- Lethargy
- Weakness or lameness
- Abdominal pain, as evidenced by hunching
- Seizures
- Ataxia (i.e., wobbly gait)
Symptoms can appear if enough lead accumulates in the body. Neurologic symptoms like seizures and ataxia are common in dogs who have been exposed to a large dose of lead or have had a low level of exposure over a long period. “Hopefully lead poisoning is caught sooner, but a large dose can lead to blindness and eventually death,” she says. Lead toxicity is widely known to cause a combination of neurological signs, as well as gastrointestinal issues, such as seizures with diarrhea or vomit.
How Is Lead Poisoning Diagnosed?
With nonspecific symptoms, “you have to work your way to a diagnosis while ruling out other potential causes,” Dr. Hsia says. If your dog is experiencing lethargy or diarrhea, the veterinarian will conduct screening tests like taking a stool sample. On its own, this test won’t tell you if your dog has lead toxicity, so your vet may also need to take X-rays.
“If a dog has ingested something made of lead, and the stomach acids are activating the lead, and it’s getting released into the bloodstream, you can usually see that on X-rays as something that is radio-opaque,” Dr. Hsia says. “Basically, you would see a bright white spot on the X-ray.” The vet may then decide to go in and surgically remove the object, so they can test it for lead.
Another step in making a diagnosis is conducting routine blood work. Like stool samples and X-rays, this screening test won’t give you proof of lead toxicity. “To definitively test for lead, you’ll need to look at the level of lead in the pet’s blood,” she explains. “This is a specific test that is usually mailed out to a specialty lab, as opposed to a tabletop test or one that most clinics have in-house, and the turnaround time takes a bit longer.” In the meantime, the vet may begin treating your dog for “presumptive lead toxicity” while waiting for test results, she adds.
If you have children in your care, a routine check-up at the doctor might be how you discover elevated levels of lead in the home. In that case, “everybody needs to be assessed for lead toxicity,” she says. This includes testing the plumbing, dust, and paint for lead. Whether it starts with a pet or a human family member being sick, it’s worth investigating potential sources of lead.
How Do You Prevent Poisoning If Your Dog Has Ingested Lead?
If you know that your dog ingested something containing lead, “you can prevent toxicity by getting it out of their system,” Dr. Hsia says. “More often than not, it’s unlikely you would know that this happened until your dog starts showing signs of illness.” In terms of preventing lead toxicity, there are different methods such as inducing vomiting.
Depending on what the object is and how long ago it was ingested, “vomiting may or may not be indicated,” she says. If the source of lead was ingested a while ago, it may have already passed through the stomach. So, vomiting wouldn’t be helpful.
Besides vomiting, the vet can perform gastric lavage, which involves “flushing out the stomach contents,” she says. Another way to cleanse their stomachs is to feed high-fiber foods, which can aid in digestion and elimination. Essentially, you want to reduce the amount of time lead is in their stomach “because the longer it sits there, the more lead is coming off and entering the bloodstream,” she explains.
In deciding which method to use, the vet can take X-rays to see the location of a foreign body. If the lead is farther along in the dog’s gastrointestinal tract, the vet might use an enema to accelerate its exit. Also, some medications bind to lead as it’s being broken down by stomach acid and floats around in a dog’s system. These medications deactivate lead by attaching to it, so it can’t interact with the dog’s cells and cause harm, she says.
How Do You Treat Lead Poisoning?
The same methods for preventing lead poisoning can also be used to treat lead poisoning. In the latter case, it may be that lead has been accumulating in the dog’s body for a while and is causing illness. First, you would want to get the lead out of their system as quickly as possible, whether that means inducing vomiting or flushing out their stomach contents, she says. Then, you would want to bind up any free-floating lead in their body using medication.
The third line of treatment would be providing supportive care. If your dog is having neurologic symptoms, you’ll need to monitor them. The vet may recommend anti-seizure medications. Or if your dog is lethargic and not wanting to eat, you’ll want to ensure they’re staying hydrated and properly nourished.
What Is the Prognosis for Your Dog?
The prognosis for lead poisoning in dogs depends on “how chronic and how high the levels of toxicity are,” Dr. Hsia says. If it’s caught early or the level is pretty low, dogs tend to have a good prognosis. In other words, they don’t usually have long-term effects once you’ve been able to bind free-floating lead, get the source removed, and provide supportive care, she adds.
With chronic exposure to lead or a build-up in the dog’s system and bones, lead poisoning can have serious consequences, including death. “Depending on the severity of their symptoms, there could be some improvement, but maybe they’re always going to have a wobbly gait or other long-term effects,” she says. Sometimes the dog owner sees effects that are less noticeable to other people.
Since puppies are rapidly developing, lead poisoning can have “a more significant impact on their development, and they’re also more likely to be the ones eating or chewing on things they ought not to be,” she says. “Elderly dogs are less likely to succumb to lead toxicity in terms of chewing on things.” However, they may be more susceptible to ill effects if they ingest lead because their system tends to be more fragile compared to younger dogs. “Recovering from any sort of major insult or injury is going to take longer, and you might not get as complete a recovery, but that’s not specific to lead,” she adds.
Keep in mind, lead poisoning in dogs isn’t very common. “[As a veterinarian], you could go 10 to 15 years and see one case, but it’s good to take precautions,” she says. With timely treatment and supportive care, dogs can still have a long and happy life.
The post Lead Poisoning in Dogs: Signs, Symptoms, Treatments appeared first on American Kennel Club.
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