Your dog could get pure poison from an ashtray full of cigarette butts, a pack of cigarettes left on a table, or even a cigarette butt on the grass. Nicotine is a poison with a quick onset that can, in severe situations, result in cardiac arrest.
The average cigarette contains 9 to 30 mg of nicotine, most of which is concentrated in the cigarette butt. The amount of nicotine in cigarettes varies. Therefore, it can still be deadly even if your dog has just discovered a cigarette butt in the crevices of the sidewalk. The effects will vary depending on how much was consumed and how big your dog is.
Your dog will most likely display symptoms of being impacted within an hour due to nicotine’s quick-acting nature. If you think your dog may have consumed a cigarette, call your vet and bring them in as soon as you can.
What occurs when a dog consumes cigarettes?
Everyone is aware of the Surgeon General’s advice against smoking cigarettes, but what about eating cigarettes? Anywhere a pet might find cigarettes, cigarette butts, chewing tobacco, or even nicotine gum, patches, or e-cigarettes, nicotine poisoning is a very serious risk. Puppies in particular have a tendency to chew things up first before asking questions. A cigarette butt might make a good pouncing toy for cats that they can munch on.
Luckily, tobacco tastes awful to both animals and young children. Even chewing tobacco requires flavorings to make it something that can be enjoyed orally. However, cigarettes contain a lot of nicotine, and even a small cigarette butt can cause a small pet to become seriously unwell or even pass away.
The deadly dose of nicotine for pets is 4 mg per pound of body weight, while the hazardous dose ranges from 0.5 to 1 mg per pound of pet weight. So how does this apply to items that contain nicotine? Depending on the type, a cigarette has between 9 and 30 mg of nicotine. A little nub of a cigarette butt will have 25% of the nicotine that was in the original cigarette because nicotine concentrates in the mouth end of the cigarette when it is smoked. While chewing a cigarette (or other nicotine product) makes ALL of the nicotine available for absorption into the body, smoking a cigarette results in the smoker receiving between 0.5 and 2.0 mg of nicotine. A 40 lb dog would only require 1 cc (less than a quarter teaspoon) of e-juice, while a 20 lb dog would only require 10 mg of nicotine to get poisoned.
plants that produce cigarettes from tobacco (Photo by Traumrune, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
9 to 30 mg of nicotine per cigarette Smoking butts: 2 to 8 milligrams of nicotine Up to 40 milligrams of nicotine per cigar. 6 to 8 milligrams of nicotine per gram of chewing tobacco. A piece of nicotine gum contains 2-4 mg of nicotine. Nicotine patch dosage: 8.3–114 mg Nicotine content in e-cigarette cartridges: 6-36 mg E-juice/E-fluid: up to 36 mg of nicotine per ml (to refuel e-cigarettes).
The good news is that nicotine cannot be absorbed directly in the stomach’s acidic environment. Instead, nicotine must pass through the stomach and enter the small intestine before it can be absorbed. One of the first things nicotine does in the body is trigger the brain’s vomit center, causing vomiting that, if there is more cigarette material in the stomach, might save the patient’s life.
Signs can appear as soon as an hour after intake. These signs include:
- Tremors
- narrowed pupils
- Drooling
- Visual and Auditory Hallucinations
- Excitement
- diarrhea and gagging
- Possible progression of twitching to seizures
- Despite using small amounts, your heart rate may be erratic.
- rising blood pressure but a circulatory collapse occurs at greater doses
It is simple to mix up nicotine poisoning with other poisonings including strychnine, chocolate, insecticides made of organophosphates, and several molds. The presence of cigarette residue in the vomit should reveal the diagnosis. It’s also important to note that xylitol is sometimes used as a sweetener in nicotine gums. This substance can give nicotine poisoning a whole new facet and is hazardous to dogs.
Vomiting can be induced if the nicotine product hasn’t been consumed for too long (around an hour). It is beneficial to wash out the stomach to remove any lingering cigarette materials, but this procedure is likely to need anesthesia and activated charcoal to bind the nicotine and stop it from entering the body. Of course, the vet’s office would be the place to do this.
After that, the treatment largely consists of support. While the body rids itself of the nicotine, intravenous fluids promote circulation. It will be necessary to take medication to stop any seizures or tremors if they start. The prognosis is considered good if the pet survives the first four hours. A healthy liver inactivates nicotine, and its metabolites are eliminated in the urine. The nicotine you swallowed should be gone after 16 hours.
At National Animal Poison Control, consultations cost about $65.00 and are accessible around-the-clock at 888-426-4435. Following the assignment of a case number, follow-up is free. As a result, you can obtain preliminary first aid instructions before visiting your veterinarian, and your veterinarian can seek advice from a toxicology specialist before starting treatment.
The full service registration includes a free poison control consultation if your pet has a HomeAgain microchip. Call 1-888-HomeAgain, choose “emergency,” and National Animal Poison Control will be your connection. They will want the microchip number from your pet.
Calling 1-888-HomeAgain will obtain you a full service membership for about $20 if your pet has a basic HomeAgain registration or another brand of microchip, and the full service membership includes a poison control consultation at no additional cost.
cigarettes digestible for dogs?
You won’t be shocked to learn that dogs are toxic to nicotine, I’m sure. You might be surprised to learn that even the butt left behind could be fatal to your dog. Numerous tobacco products have a food-like aroma and can be quite appetizing to dogs.
- There are flavors in cigarettes like mint.
- There are flavors of chewing tobacco available in wintergreen, peach, apple, and butternut.
- Most nicotine gums have an orange or mint flavor.
The filter that is left behind will still contain a significant amount of nicotine even if the tobacco may have been removed from the cigarette butt. Actually, nicotine is poisonous to people as well. Nicotine poisoning is the real source of the ill and queasy sensation you experience after your first cigarette draw.
Dogs are unable to develop a tolerance to nicotine’s addictive properties, although our human systems can do so over time. A dog can die from eating even only one or two cigarette butts.
I’ve heard some people say that smoking cigarettes is not bad for dogs, but I’ve personally witnessed nicotine toxicity in a dog, and it’s not pretty!
The dangerous level of nicotine in pets is only 5 mg/lb, while the death level is 10 mg/kg.
You can see how if a little dog eats even a few cigarette butts, it might be lethal because a small dog can weigh under 10 pounds and a cigarette butt can contain up to 4 to 8 mg of nicotine.
Signs Of Nicotine Poisoning In Dogs
If you suspect your dog has consumed a cigarette butt, look out for the following signs of nicotine toxicity in animals. (Remember that some of these symptoms can also apply to other kinds of poisoning.)
- Weakness
- Poor balance, inability to stand or move around
- breathing difficulties or rapid breathing
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Heart issues such a rapid or sluggish heartbeat or even cardiac arrhythmia
These are only a few of the typical signs that any nicotine-containing product, not simply cigarettes butts, has been consumed by a dog.
While it’s possible that your dog won’t be hurt if he hasn’t consumed enough of a cigarette butt (or if you caught him and took it away), it’s best to call your veterinarian or take your dog to an emergency animal hospital if you suspect your dog has consumed a cigarette butt. It’s always better to err on the side of caution than to gamble with your canine companion.
What occurs if animals consume cigarettes?
Given that the two trials indicating more severe observed toxicity were European, there was some worry expressed22 regarding potential nicotine content disparities between European and American cigarettes (in Greece and Italy). Malizia et aldescription .’s of four youngsters who consumed two smokes each in 30 minutes tachycardia, hypotension, tachypnea, vomiting, diarrhoea, decreased respiration, and cardiac arrhythmias in 40 minutes is in Malizia et alarticle. .’s Within 60 minutes of intake, there were convulsions. After intermittent positive pressure breathing, gastrointestinal lavage with activated charcoal, and intravenous diazepam for convulsions, everyone recovered. In addition, an older prospective study17 found that four out of five kids (aged 20 months to nine years) who consumed half to four pieces of nicotine gum showed harmful effects.
Activated charcoal and emetics were used to treat 13 of the 20 cases of “cigarette tobacco” consumption by toddlers in Wisconsin, and only one kid had symptoms severe enough to necessitate hospitalization. The Poison Control Center received 700 reports from children under the age of 6 in Philadelphia who had consumed cigarettes or cigarette butts between the years of 1988 and 1991, according to the Albert Einstein Hospital Emergency Department. 18 Of these, 143 (20.4%) were symptomatic, and in 138 (98.6%), vomiting was the only symptom, and in 104 (74.3%), it occurred within 20 minutes. The Rhode Island Department of Health documented 146 instances of cigarette butt consumption in kids under the age of six in 1997; around one-third of these cases showed temporary nicotine toxicity. 21 276 kids who had ingested cigarettes showed up at the Japan Red Cross Hospital between 2001 and 2006. 23 Most of them were under a year old, and 83% of them had no symptoms and were thus treated with little more than observation.
According to Quirk24, there were about 12 000 total injuries from cigarettes in 20027, which is based on data from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s population-representative National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. About 4400 of these (or one-third) were classified as “ingestion” or “poisoning”. Burns (43%) and bruising or abrasions (12%) were the next most frequent diagnoses. The American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) recorded approximately 14 000 injuries among kids from 2006 to 2008 that were brought on by tobacco products, with 70% of the victims being under 6 years old. 90% of these exposures were brought on by consuming cigarettes or cigarettes’ butts. 25 Most of these occurrences weren’t harmful, and the kids weren’t taken to the hospital.
More details about unintentional intake were revealed by a recent study of flavor-infused, dissolve-able, candy-like smokeless tobacco products26. The majority (70%) of the 13 705 tobacco product ingestion cases reported to the National Poison Data System for 20068 included infants under the age of one year. After cigarettes and used filter tips, smokeless tobacco was the second most popular tobacco product consumed by kids, and its prevalence rose with age. It was advised that these new products undergo additional regulatory scrutiny.
Cigarette butt consumption by pets and wildlife
It is uncommon to hear of domestic animals consuming nicotine, yet doing so can lead to symptoms including excessive salivation, agitation, trembling, vomiting, lack of coordination, weakness, convulsions, and even death. 2728 Only anecdotal evidence suggests that wild creatures (such as sea turtles) have consumed cigarette butts. 29 A study of the San Diego Zoo Necropsy Database revealed no cases of cigarette butt ingestion (C Witte, personal communication 1 December 2010).
The PPH and the APCC received complaints about 801 incidents of cigarette or butt ingestion among dogs, 41 cases among cats, and 6 cases involving other animal species between 2005 and 2010. (table 2). The PPH database research did not include animals living in multi-animal families or animals eating several objects other than cigarettes or butts. On some of the PPH-related ingestions, follow-up information was not available, although the majority of symptomatic cases involved gastrointestinal symptoms (mostly retching and vomiting) and neurological symptoms like agitation, lethargy, or ataxia. One cigarette or butt to an ashtray full of butts and a pack of smokes could be consumed.
To what extent may nicotine harm dogs?
However, cigarettes contain a lot of nicotine, and even a small cigarette butt can cause a small pet to become seriously unwell or even pass away. The deadly dose of nicotine for pets is four mg per pound of body weight, while the hazardous dose ranges from 0.5 to 1 mg per pound of pet weight.
What should you do if your dog ingests chewing tobacco?
Calling a veterinarian should be your first step if your dog has unintentionally consumed tobacco. If just digestive symptoms are present, the veterinarian can use activated charcoal to do a stomach cleansing to get rid of the nicotine.
In serious cases, hospitalization is required, and the dog is under close observation. It is possible to administer an infusion to get rid of the poisonous chemical and combat nicotine-induced hypertension. Treatment for vomiting, diarrhea, or convulsions are symptomatic treatments for intoxication that may also be provided.
The amount of nicotine ingested affects the prognosis. In fact, if the quantity is little and treatment is delayed, the prognosis is good; if the quantity is big, it is quite serious.
Do dogs detest the smell of smoke?
Many pets enjoy cuddling with their owners or staying close, which causes them to breathe in more smoke. They typically spend more time indoors than their owners do, relaxing on furniture and carpets that have cancer-causing particles all over them. Pets, especially cats, may consume such particles when they brush themselves because they can settle on their fur. In addition to the hazards, since pets have far stronger senses of smell than people do, the smell of tobacco smoke can be unpleasant. Asthma and bronchitis may both be made worse by secondhand smoke.
Do dogs find nicotine attractive?
The tobacco plant contains nicotine, a toxic chemical that is also employed as a pesticide and in medicine. Cigarettes, cigars, snuff, chewing tobacco, nicotine gum, nicotine inhalers, nicotine patches, nicotine nasal spray, and nicotine insecticides are the main sources of nicotine. However, it is frequently overlooked that nicotine is a highly dangerous chemical on its own. Few individuals are aware that nicotine is marketed as a pesticide and sold commercially.
When enough nicotine is consumed at once, it can be dangerous to humans, and each year, many youngsters who have eaten cigarettes or cigarette butts end themselves in emergency rooms. Ironically, a very mild instance of nicotine poisoning is what causes people to feel queasy and lightheaded after smoking their first cigarette.
Our pets are also hazardous to nicotine. Tobacco items including cigarettes, cigarette butts, and even nicotine gum and patches are the most popular sources of nicotine. Some animals are drawn to chewing tobacco and other goods that contain flavors like honey, molasses, syrups, and other sweets.
5 milligrams of nicotine per pound of body weight is the hazardous dose of nicotine for dogs. 10 mg/kg has the potential to be fatal in dogs.
Here are some examples of nicotine products and nicotine dosages:
- Depending on the brand, a cigarette has 15 to 25 mg of nicotine.
- Other examples of nicotine-containing products include nicotine patches, which range in nicotine content from 8 to 114 milligrams.
- Each piece of nicotine gum has between 2 and 4 milligrams of nicotine.
- Nicotine levels in each E-cigarette cartridge range from 6 mg to 24 mg.
- Each puff from the nicotine inhalers has roughly 4 mg, and each cartridge contains 10 mg.
- The nasal sprays come in bottles that have between 80 and 100 mg, or 0.5 milligram each spray.
- Nicotine content in a cigar ranges from 15 to 40 milligrams.
- Depending on the length of the butt and the composition of the original cigarette, the butt of a cigarette might have a content of 4 to 8 milligrams. Because smoking concentrates some of the nicotine in the cigarette butt, there appears to be a misleadingly huge amount of tobacco compared to the size of the butt.
- The nicotine content of chewing tobacco ranges from 6 to 8 milligrams per gram.
- Each gram of snuff contains between 12 and 17 milligrams of nicotine.
Just two to four smokes would be enough for a 10-pound dog to start exhibiting hazardous symptoms. You should be aware that tobacco still contains a sizable amount of nicotine residue even after smoking.
