Doc remains okay!

[rms10]

Doc is fine, but taking him for a walk is frustrating, because I spend the entire time yanking his schnozz out of bushes and tall grass. I retraced my steps from yesterday morning twice, and I didn't really see anything. It doesn't help that I don't know what I'm looking for -- I spent about forty minutes googling, hoping to find pictures of snail bait, and all I learned is that it's a blue or green pellet. Or sometimes a powder. I have no clue what size the pellets could be, or the color of the powder, or what the pellets might look like if they've been smashed -- nothing.

Eli's suggestion (did I mention that he's in Germany this week? missing out on all this life-threatening action?) was:

We should make a sign thing and post it on the telephone poles with "Somebody in this neighborhood poisoned our dog" with a cute picture of Doc.

And a statement "stop toxic snail bait". Or something.

I was going to take a less insane approach -- put together a packet explaining what happened, and what non-toxic (to non-snails) alternatives there are to snail bait, and take it to any houses along the route that looked like they may have had snail bait out. (And maybe imply that while I'm not a litigious individual, other dog owners might be . . . ) But I can't identify the fucking snail bait, so I don't know where it could have possibly happened, and I don't know what to avoid, and aaaaaah.

Anyway. I'm going to go hug Doc again. And I'll stop rambling about this, I promise.

Comments

[pescana.livejournal.com]

The slug bait I've seen out here (which has a similar toxic result in dogs) is a pale creamy colored stuff that's somewhere between powder and wood chips. It looks like wood chips in color, but if they've been ground up a little finer. Similar to the non-colored stuff I've seen in rodent cages, but less like shavings. Does that make any sense at all? I've never seen anything that looks like green or blue pellets, but then I am talking slugs rather than snails and I don't know if you have a problem with the shell-less wonders down there.

Little trails of fresh wood shaving looking stuff is slug bait. Or bait for creatures similar to slugs.

[rms10.livejournal.com]

Oh, that does make sense, thank you! I haven't seen anything like that, but I will keep an eye out.

I know slugs are a problem further north of here, but I think here's it's mostly snails.

[somepeople.livejournal.com]

Distribute those flyers, man. And hug Doc for me, too. *wants to hug a puppy*

[rms10.livejournal.com]

Awww cute icon!

Will do! Doc is getting lots of hugs this week.

[aakepley.livejournal.com]

This stuff can't be good for small children either. Depending on the make-up of the neighborhood, it might be worth adding something about that.

[rms10.livejournal.com]

It's not good for small children, either, but it's especially toxic to dogs. (1 tsp of snail bait per 5 kg of dog mass is enough to be fatal -- that's only 2 Tbsp for Doc! I think humans can ingest a bit more than that before it's fatal.)

[trygve.livejournal.com]

I totally support the sign idea, that would be completely reasonable.