Cleaning up Salmon Blood--Dogs ?s

[Fish_N_Russ]

Hey guys, how picky do I need to be to clean up my cutting board and knives so my dog wont get sick?? I plan on using paper towels to wipe everthing down and toss in garbage and then wipe down with bleach and hose off.........im doing this in my driveway so im sure my dog will be around, but all that would be left would be bleachy-fishy-heavily diluted water.......any ideas? Does it take quite a bit of flesh/blood to make them sick or just a little bit?

thanks

[5-Cents]

It only takes a little bit of blood/bones to give a dog salmon poisoning! Its fatal for most dogs so be very careful. This is one of the reasons I dont let my dog go salmon fishing with me!

[Jennie@ifish]

Just tell your vet your concerns, and he will most likely arm you with some antibiotics to have on hand.
The first meal your dog misses during salmon season, start the medicine.

In my opinion, salmon poisoning is not that big of a deal IF you catch it right away. I've treated many dogs in this manner, and have never had more than one vomit or mess to clean up.

12 hours later, they are salmon poison protected for life.

But-- this is just my opinion and my experience.

I also lived through seeing my best dog die of it, as a child. There is nothing worse, if you don't catch it right away. My heart is still broken. :depressed:

Jen

[Reel Head]

My dog and the neighbors dog got a couple of mouth fulls of salmon carcases one year due to use being carelasess. We had burried the fish in the garden and they dug them up and chowed. The 24 hour vet told us to give our dogs hydrogen peroxide. We poured it down their throats and about 5 minutes later they chucked it all up and even dry heaved for a while so we new they were on empty. They both are fine and they probabely ate 2 pounds or so. Oh yeah, If you ever have to do tis be carefull. As soon as the smell of rotten salmon puke hit me, I lost my dinner as well.

[fisheromen]

My understanding is that a little bit won't kill your dog and will actually create a resistance in them to it. But how much is a little bit and is this an old wives tale? I just don't know.

I too lost a great dog to it when I was a kid.

[PapaHog]

My dog does not go salmon fishing with me and I do not come home to take care of my fish.

I have a friend with a plastic table, running water to take care of my fish. She does not have a dog and I clean up real good in case her neighbor's dog gets nosey.

My friend gets a nice salmon steak and I don't have to worry about my dog.

papa

[Fish_N_Russ]

I ended up having hardly anything to clean up........used the 'new' way of cutting up fish into loins and cut up the carcasses for crab bait. Threw the heads into the garbage and anything scrap I had. Wiped up the blood and slime from the cutting board and threw that away..........hit everything with bleach and hosed down. I found a few TINY peices of flesh about 1/2 the size of a pea on the ground and picked them up, I think that was all.........so my dog should be OK
Thanks to all who replied
Russ

[Hare's Ear]

The dog owned by the guide I went fishing with last weekend was just getting over being sick with salmon poisoning. The dog got it from licking up a little water mixed with blood that the guide had hosed from his boat. I'd say it doesn't take very much

[sliverslinger]

its not only salmon that your dogs can get it from. My son brought home a trout and cut it up and our dog got out and ate some of it and then became really sick. She got soo thin and listless I thought I was going to have to put her to down, after about 2 weeks she started moving around again and started eating good. Boy I am glad I didnt have to put her down. That is the hardest thing to do I told my kids that " no fish come home anymore" until they learn how to properly take care of them. Now she is fat and sassy again. Hopefully I wont have to go thru that again. Just be careful out there!!

[crabbait]

Couple things:

-There are several different flukes that causes the poisoning. Exposure to one will generally cause the dog to be immune to that strain of fluke. One of the others could still poison the dog.

-The fluke lives in the blood of the fish so the carcass must be fresh in order to infect the dog, hence the buried fish did not get 'em. Even diluted blood can carry the fluke and poison the dog.

-Tetracycline is the preferred antibiotic treatment. My vet prescribed a bottle that I keep with us whenever we may be around fresh fish carcasses. Nick has fished with me for 9 years and I have given him the antibiotics once when I suspected he might have been exposed (he missed a meal). Never showed any other symptom.

-Salmon pick up the flukes in fresh water. this leads some pople to believe that ocean caught fish will not poison the dog. NOT TRUE. They all start as smolt in fresh water where they pick up the flukes before they hit the salt.

Prevention is better than cure.

[BentMetal]

Crabbaits response is spot on (my Dad's a vet, I don't know too much myself, but what Crabbait said is pretty much what my understanding).

One other interesting thing just as an FYI . . . I was in Alaska fishing with a College buddy who lived up there. His roommate had a dog, and I asked him if he ever had salmon poisoning (I mean Alaska, every dog must get Salmon poisoning up there). They looked at me like I was crazy, they had never heard of anything like it, had no idea what I was talking about. Asked my dad when I got home, and he said that the flukes that cause Salmon are in freshwater only below a certain latitude (not sure where), and their not found up in the far northern country.

[baumer]

One of my dogs got the poisoning from just walking on the lawn and then licking her paws. I used to fillet my fish on the lawn until that happened. She had no interest in the fish but just getting it on her paws and then licking them to clean them off like all dogs do got her sick. The vet bill for this is not cheap if they get real sick either.

I have talked with several people (not vets) that have said to feed salmon to your dog then immediately start them on the antibiodic. This will keep them immune to the fluke worm that is in the salmon blood. Again, this might be a wives tale. anybody else heard this?

[BIGALSURF]

Thank you so much for mentioning this, I had no idea about this, have dogs, cleaned salmon in the driveway and hosed down not all that carefully. Was lucky with two dogs, won't do this again! Thanks!

[husker]

I am no vet!!!however

i try to be real careful with my dog. you know clean up the area real good, wipe down the area with bleach. then my wife comes along and feeds the dogs raw salmon.

my wife is insistant upon getting chelsey sick. she has talked with the vet and believes this is like giving the chicken pox to a kid. get them sick and never worry again.

the instructions she was given watch the dog for non eating and drinking behaviors. if this happens we are supposed to take the dog to the vet and get antibiotics. main problem with salmon disease is people arent paying attention to there pet and they get real dehyrated. which is the main cause of death among dogs which get salmon poisoning. incubation period is 10 days so if you believe the dog could have been infected (sp) check your calender and count them off.

i still disagree with my wifes methods but so far we have given the dog plenty of salmon and she hasnt gotten sick yet.

[brushpuppy]

Don't take my word for it, but the biggest culprit of salmon poisoning is, if I remember correctly, is a parasite of a parasite that lives in the fishes digestive tract. This is why the guts of the fish are likely to cause a problem more so than the flesh itself. But once you start cleaning a fish and get the blood and slime all over the place and mixed in with the meat, anypart is suspect.
Luckily our pooch has learned that dead fish on the bank are a no-no.

[brdkdg]

After reading this post, I did a Yahoo web search for "salmon poisioning". The first 2 web sites listed were "Washington State University" and "Merck Veteninary Manual". Those two sites are loaded with need to know information about salmon poisioning.

I hope that this helps.

Bill

[Spoonplugger]

husker--I just about fell on the floor laughing at the words you spoke! That is a funny thing and the vet is probably just trying to see if your dog can build up an immunity to the parasite. Since your name is husker, is your dog a husky? Most Huskys are immune to those flukes being talked about. COOL!

[husker]

Spoonplugger---no husky here.....we have a white lab 9 months old