We’ve all seen them, those little white ‘shrooms that pop up overnight in one’s yard. However, if you have dogs, you may want to watch those little ones a little more closely …
Mushrooms found in yard kill family dog |
 One day she was playing with her dog in the yard and the next, the dog was dying and doctors say it’s because little Shiloh ate something that could be in your own backyard. It was wild mushrooms and unfortunately, Shiloh died a few days later. Now the pet’s owner wants to make sure others are aware of what can happen.“It was hard, she was mostly my buddy.” Tami Mungenast has pictures all over her house of Shiloh – a one-year-old, 90-pound Great Pyrenees. It only took one wild mushroom to kill her.“I never thought there’d be a deadly mushroom in my front yard.” Shiloh ate one of the mushrooms last month and four days later, she died.“She slipped into a coma and liver shut down.” Tami was desperate to find out what killed Shiloh so it doesn’t happen to her brother. “I’m neurotic about it right now.” Everyday she combs her yard looking for mushrooms.Shiloh’s vet says there’s no way to tell for sure exactly what mushrooms the dog ate but after having the dog’s liver tested, they found these mushrooms had a toxin called Galerina in them. It can kill anyone who eats it, like Shiloh did. “In about 24 hours her liver started to shut down and within three days, there was nothing you could do.”Dr. Carolyn Orr says they see four to five dogs a year that have eaten wild mushrooms but Shiloh’s case was the most severe. That’s why her owner is making sure it doesn’t happen again. “Every day I scope the property and then in afternoon and just remove them. There’s nothing I can do to get rid of them.”Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and foaming at the mouth and usually these happen eight hours or so after the dog has eaten the mushroom.Shiloh’s vet says the best thing to do once you see your dog have these symptoms is get them to the vet. |
And again from headlines …
Dog dies after eating toxic mushrooms in yard
08:49 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 30, 2008
ApsoRescueColorado 
Vickie;
There was an article in a recent Dogs in Canada magazine about mushroom toxicity. A breeder on Vancouver Island lost two setter puppies to the “death cap” mushroom.
Article linked – http://www.dogsincanada.com/Default.aspx?tabid=64&iID=265
I thnk the worst part of this is the fact that the spores can lay dormant for a long time and you may not see signs of it for years only to have them pop up again.