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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 33(3)

Clinical signs and duration of cyanide toxicosis delivered by the M-44 ejector in wild dogs

Amber L. Hooke A , Lee Allen B and Luke K.-P. Leung A C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Animal Studies, The University of Queensland, Gatton, Qld 4343, Australia.

B Robert Wicks Pest Animal Research Centre, PO Box 318, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: luke.leung@uq.edu.au

Wildlife Research 33(3) 181-185 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR05020
Submitted: 24 February 2005  Accepted: 12 April 2006   Published: 31 May 2006

Abstract

Sodium cyanide poison is potentially a more humane method to control wild dogs than sodium fluoroacetate (1080) poison. This study quantified the clinical signs and duration of cyanide toxicosis delivered by the M-44 ejector. The device delivered a nominal 0.88 g of sodium cyanide, which caused the animal to loose the menace reflex in a mean of 43 s, and the animal was assumed to have undergone cerebral hypoxia after the last visible breath. The mean time to cerebral hypoxia was 156 s for a vertical pull and 434 s for a side pull. The difference was possibly because some cyanide may be lost in a side pull. There were three distinct phases of cyanide toxicosis: the initial phase was characterised by head shaking, panting and salivation; the immobilisation phase by incontinence, ataxia and loss of the righting reflex; and the cerebral hypoxia phase by a tetanic seizure. Clinical signs that were exhibited in more than one phase of cyanide toxicosis included retching, agonal breathing, vocalisation, vomiting, altered levels of ocular reflex, leg paddling, tonic muscular spasms, respiratory distress and muscle fasciculations of the muzzle.


Acknowledgments

We thank David Berman, Peter Elsworth, Anthony Gonzalez, Maria Bunch, Dallas Powell and Glenn Rettke of Robert Wicks Pest Animal Research Centre for their care of the experimental animals and assistance with the experiment. We are grateful to Linda Goldstein and Brenda Dixon of the School of Veterinary Sciences, University of Queensland, for advice on all clinical terms. All experimental procedures were conducted under The University of Queensland Animal Ethics Committee Approval no. SAS/ 492/01 / DNRM/H.


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