Dog ingesting gunpowder??

[Mark McAtee]

My next door neighbor had his dog put down after it "went mad" and bit his
infant son and wife. He found several balls of bread in his yard that had
gunpowder (not black powder) imbedded in the center. He said the animal
control people told him that was the probable cause of his dogs maddness.
I am concerned because my dog is kenneled ten feet away from his yard and
may have ingested some also. Does anyone know of gunpowder being used to
poison dogs?

mark mcatee
ma...@trib.com

[Erik H. Hofmeister]

Wow, this is exceedingly weird. What's IN gunpowder? As far as my
notes say, it's not specifically toxic, but many of its components may be.
I'd check for rabies in this case, too.

Erik "Rouleaux" Hofmeister
WSU Class '00

PLEASE NOTE: In the absence of a traditional veterinarian-client-patient
relationship, this information should be taken as a friendly opinion, not
as an official clinical recommendation. Also realize that I am a veterinary
student, and anything stated should be taken with that in mind.

[michael garner]

Erik H. Hofmeister schrieb in Nachricht ...

>On 23 Apr 1998, Mark McAtee wrote:
>
>> My next door neighbor had his dog put down after it "went mad" and bit
his
>> infant son and wife. He found several balls of bread in his yard that
had
>> gunpowder (not black powder) imbedded in the center. He said the animal
>> control people told him that was the probable cause of his dogs maddness.
>> I am concerned because my dog is kenneled ten feet away from his yard and
>> may have ingested some also. Does anyone know of gunpowder being used to
>> poison dogs?
>
> Wow, this is exceedingly weird. What's IN gunpowder?

Sulphur, Saltpeter(KNO3) and charchol. Not sure if this is black or silver
powder though.

As far as my
>notes say, it's not specifically toxic, but many of its components may be.
>I'd check for rabies in this case, too.
>
>

Call posion control and tell them what happened. See what they have to say.

Michael Garner
Vet-Student FU-Berlin

[erik s fredricks]

Take your dog to the vet and have him checked for toxicology. I don't know
what's in gunpowder, but I always get the speil from people that meet my
dogs, "feed him some gunpowder, and he'll get mean then." GRRRR...

ef

[Erik H. Hofmeister]

On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Erik H. Hofmeister wrote:

> On 23 Apr 1998, Mark McAtee wrote:
>
> > My next door neighbor had his dog put down after it "went mad" and bit his
> > infant son and wife. He found several balls of bread in his yard that had
> > gunpowder (not black powder) imbedded in the center. He said the animal
> > control people told him that was the probable cause of his dogs maddness.
> > I am concerned because my dog is kenneled ten feet away from his yard and
> > may have ingested some also. Does anyone know of gunpowder being used to
> > poison dogs?
>

> Wow, this is exceedingly weird. What's IN gunpowder? As far as my

> notes say, it's not specifically toxic, but many of its components may be.
> I'd check for rabies in this case, too.

I checked with our toxicologist about this issue and she said she's
never heard of any toxicities due to ingesting gunpowder.

[Stacey]

Ive heard there are these componants in gunpowder :

Potassium Nitrate
Sulphar
Charcoal

Does anyone know the effects of these?

Mark McAtee <ma...@trib.com> wrote in article
<01bd6e8b$e4b94ae0$a86c8acd@pmatee>...

> My next door neighbor had his dog put down after it "went mad" and bit
his
> infant son and wife. He found several balls of bread in his yard that
had
> gunpowder (not black powder) imbedded in the center. He said the animal
> control people told him that was the probable cause of his dogs maddness.

> I am concerned because my dog is kenneled ten feet away from his yard and
> may have ingested some also. Does anyone know of gunpowder being used to
> poison dogs?
>
>

> mark mcatee
> ma...@trib.com
>

[franknfurter]

stacey wrote:

> Ive heard there are these componants in gunpowder :

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Potassium Nitrate
> Sulphar
^^^^^^^^^^^ sulphur

> Charcoal
>
> Does anyone know the effects of these?
>
>

Carefull when you use the term "gunpowder", it is ambiguous. The formula
you have given is for black-powder, what the chinese invented, and the
pilgrims fired from their muskets. Modern firearms use smokeless powder
which is primarily nitro-celulose. Some manufactures add nitro-glycerin and
other nitrated compounds (double base and triple base powders). The
nitro-celulose "grains" are coated with graphite and other burn rate
inhibitors. I dont know the toxicity for either black or smokless but they
are not very toxic. Nitrated compounds like nitro-glycerin are
vaso-dilators (expand the capilaries) and are used to treat human cases of
angina. I can dimly recall some american news show like 60 -minutes about
inner-city gang-bangers getting pit-bulls in leu of handguns as weapons.
They would underfeed the dogs to keep them hungry and add some smokeless
powder to the diet to "iritate the stomach". I dont know if there is some
good science justifying this effect or it is just some ignorant urban myth
on how to develop a nasty dog.

Frank Herzog
reply to: fherzog { at } escape {dot} ca

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