Smoking is harmful to health, although we have mentioned this sentence for a long time. But in fact, not many people choose to quit smoking because of this problem.

And pets at home do not have as strong a resistance as humans. The harmful substances produced by smoking are more dangerous to them. Generally, we recommend that pet owners should quit smoking for the sake of their pets. Of course, nicotine inhaled from the environment will not harm dogs in a short period of time. However, there is another situation where dogs will consume a large amount of nicotine in a short period of time, and that is eating cigarette butts.

Are cigarette butts more dangerous than second-hand smoke?

For pets, second-hand smoke exhaled by their owners is the main cause of cancer. However, in fact, cigarette butts are more dangerous than second-hand smoke. Long-term inhalation of second-hand smoke will affect the body of dogs, and small dogs may suffer from nicotine poisoning if they eat just one cigarette butt. During the Spring Festival, a festival with the custom of giving out cigarettes, dangerous cigarette butts may appear even in households that do not usually smoke.

What is nicotine poisoning?

Nicotine is a substance that affects the nerves of living things. If taken in large amounts, it will cause dogs to be over-stimulated and poisoned. Items containing nicotine, in addition to common cigarettes and cigars, also include e-cigarette cartridges, nicotine pesticides, etc. An average dog will develop symptoms of poisoning after ingesting 1 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram of body weight) of nicotine, and the lethal dose is 9.2 mg/kg.

Generally speaking, an ordinary cigarette has a nicotine content of 9-30mg. Most of this nicotine is concentrated in the cigarette butts that have been smoked. If it is a small dog, it is very likely that after eating a cigarette butt, it will show signs of poisoning.

Each new type of electronic cigarette cartridge contains 6-24mg of nicotine. It's equally dangerous for dogs, and what's even scarier is that there's no way to ensure that your dog only eats one. Within 30-60 minutes of ingesting nicotine, dogs will begin to show corresponding symptoms of poisoning.

Signs of nicotine poisoning in dogs

Nicotine stimulates the nervous system of dogs. In the early stages of intoxication, dogs will begin to become extremely excited. Subsequently, the dog will drool, vomit or have diarrhea. In severe cases, the dog's respiratory system will begin to become disordered and breathing difficulties will begin.

If the dog ingests a larger dose and is poisoned for a longer period of time, it will begin to twitch unconsciously, have muscle tremors, epilepsy, accelerated heart rate, abnormal breathing, and shock. After experiencing a series of pain, the dog may die.

If first aid and treatment

The owner should induce vomiting in a timely manner to prevent the dog from digesting the cigarette butts. If the owner does not discover that the dog is poisoned in time and does not send the dog to the hospital for rescue timely enough, the dog may suffer from neurological sequelae, or may die.

Ingested in small doses, with good treatment and first aid, there are basically no obvious sequelae. However, after ingestion of large doses, as long as you receive treatment and first aid within four hours of poisoning, you can recover.

How to prevent nicotine poisoning?

First of all, smoking owners must store all their nicotine-containing items and keep them out of the reach of dogs. After smoking, dispose of cigarette butts promptly. Do not put cigarette butts in the trash can as your dog may accidentally eat it while digging through the trash can.

During the Chinese New Year, guests coming to your home are also a hidden danger, because smokers who don’t have dogs may not notice this problem. Therefore, during the Chinese New Year, you must be careful to avoid putting your dog in danger due to cigarette butts left by guests.

I hope all owners will be more careful. Otherwise, if a dog takes a puff of cigarette, he might become a god.