Mushroom warning ...

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

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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.Â

And again from headlines …  

Dog dies after eating toxic mushrooms in yard

08:49 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 30, 2008

By TONY BURBECK / NewsChannel 36
E-mail Tony: TBurbeck@WCNC.com   

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Toxic mushrooms have killed at least one dog in the Charlotte area and have made several others ill, according to local veterinarians.

The recent soaking rains are to blame for mushrooms popping up around town.

Tiffany Salomon told NewsChannel 36 that her dog died of mushroom toxicity. She has three dogs — Alex, a Bichon; Riley, a Yorkshire terrier; and Gino, a Shih Tzu.

Salomon says the dogs are her family.

“I dress them up in clothes, give them baths. They’re just like children to me,” Salomon said.

All three dogs loved to play in the yard. But recent rains caused mushrooms to pop up.

“We never thought these things would be toxic,” Salomon said.

Some mushrooms are toxic. Gino ate one.

“They think it’s a toy and want to chew on it and play,” Salomon said.

Suddenly, happy healthy Gino was fighting for his life. It started with vomiting and bloody diarrhea. Mushroom toxicity attacked his liver, according to the veterinarian’s report.

“We tried everything we could. We did blood transfusions. It didn’t work. He was just bleeding too much,” Salomon said. “He was too ill and had taken too many in. His body was literally shutting down.”

Gino died.

“It’s like losing your family member,” she said.

Alex, the Bichon, was next. He, too, had bloody diarrhea. His diagnosis: suspected mushroom toxicity.

The veterinarian thinks Alex ate a kind of mushroom that doesn’t shut the liver down. Alex lived.

Gino and Alex’s vet says instead of trying to figure out which mushrooms in your yard are toxic or bringing the mushrooms to animal hospitals, your best bet is picking them and throwing them away. Eliminating the threat could be saving a life.

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