Where might a cat or dog encounter arsenic around the house?
Correct. You chose {selectedText}.
Incorrect. You chose {selectedText}, but the correct answer is {correctText}.
Pets can rarely be exposed to arsenic in ant baits and in pressure-treated wood (like on backyard decks) or wood preservative. These arsenic-containing products are rarely sold now in North America but clients may still have access to them.
Also see arsenic in thiacetarsemide, a heartworm adulticide, now superseded by the safer and more effective melarsomine dihydrochloride.
Expect a GI presentation – vomiting, diarrhea, hematochezia, followed by recumbency, shock, and death weakness.
Tx: IV fluids and supportive care, gastric decontamination with emesis and activate charcoal or gastric lavage. Use a chelator such as succimer (dimercaptosuccinic acid, DMSA) administered orally (or per rectum in vomiting animals) for ten days; or D-penicillamine.
