My Dog Ate A Battery – What to Do?

Batteries are very dangerous to dogs and can be poisonous to your dog, if your dog by mistake ate a battery than you should contact your vet as soon as possible.

You are correct if you are concern when your dog ate a battery. Batteries are very dangerous and contain very lethal substances that hurt your dog or some time it costs the life of a dog.

Sometimes in these types of cases, this accident can be lead to disaster. Because there is a risk involved. As soon as you are aware of the accident, do not waste time and reach to your vet. The internal damage can be caused by batteries like damage to the dog’s mouth, stomach, and intestines.

This can be life intimidating. An X-ray will show you whether your dog has the batteries inside his tummy or not. The battery must be removed out as soon as possible. And sometimes batteries need to be removed by operation. 

Only your vet can decide whether how much the battery is dangerous and how much it can produce danger. Any battery is metal and that will produce trouble if not taken out as soon as possible.

Threats causing from the battery

The battery can choke your dog’s mouth or any internal part of your dog’s body due to its shape and its hard material. Batteries are designed with many dangerous substances that can hurt inside the body of the dog. Many toxic substances damage the dog’s tissues; they can burn the skin and tissues.  Many batteries contain Alkaline and if the battery chewed then the Alkaline will mix with your dog’s tissues. Disclosure of this substance can lead to lifelong injuries that surely no pet owner wants. This can affect the immune system of the dog and destroy cells.

Panic is more dangerous

If you are aware of the accident then don’t start a panic. Panic will make you more depressed and you will not be able to do anything. Try to make yourself positive and strong. If you will be strong then only your pet will be treated. When you figure out the problem, contact your vet or an emergency vet nearby you. They will take care of your dog.

You suspect- Your dog ate battery

What will you if you only have a suspicion that your dog ate battery? Most of the time dogs do not show any symptoms of battery chewing early. Alkaline can take a few hours to develop few symptoms like a sore mouth or any inflammation around your dog’s mouth. These are the main symptoms that can show up if there is the contact of Alkaline. But they will only show up after a few hours. Some time the time can belong to develop any symptom; it can take more than 12 hours.

Investigation

  • When your home after work and you find any suspect.
  • First any damage in your home around electronic devices.
  • Check is there any loss of battery from the remote.
  • Check whether if your dog’s behavior is normal or abnormal.

Symptoms

  • Your dog’s behavior can be abnormal.
  • Heavy breathing is a serious symptom of battery choking.
  • Loss in appetite is also a symptom of chewing battery.
  • Vomiting and diarrhea are the reason for contacting Alkaline with the tissue of the dog’s intestine.

Can the battery be dangerous?

In a very short word- yes.

When you come home after your work and you find your dog ate the batteries and now he/she is breathless and chocking. This is the time you have to show all of your energy to hurry up. Firstly, contact your vet as soon as possible till then; try to calm your dog. Do not commit your dog to vomit it can be more dangerous.

A few batteries are worse than others

The most disastrous battery is a button battery that contains lithium. Due to the presence of lithium, these batteries have greater electrical energy that can make a wide voltage through the dog’s body issues.

There is a study that says the presence of lithium in a dog’s stomach can lead to damage to the inner muscular layer in just 15 minutes.

After 30 minutes, the problem can be serious.

Reason- Why would your dog eat batteries

Dogs have a custom that tries to eat everything or chew it. They don’t think when they are chewing. First, they eat later they think. Batteries do not have good taste but it looks eatable and dogs are always curious about interesting things.

Some dogs or we can say some breed of dogs like Labradors have a habit to eat or chew everything they found. Pet owners have to be very careful.

Your dog can eat everything and the chances of eating batteries are very high because in the house we have many appliances that work on batteries like remote control TV, kid toys, and wall clocks.

If this situation occurs – what are the signs?

If your dog ate battery this can cause, you a lot of problems. All kind of batteries causes a problem. There can be mouth burn, digestion upset, or obstruction. The below signs are the indication that your dog has swallow batteries. Remember these are the concern that will not only for battery ingestion. If this sign appears, you should immediately bring your dog to the vet, or contact them as soon as possible.

  • Reject to eat, problem while breathing:  Battery has an electrical current inside it, and with the contact of battery with a dog’s stomach that current can generate from the terminals of batteries and cause burning and ulcerations inside the dog’s mouth. The burning sensation is painful and can become more disastrous and later on can result in the infection or even leakage of acid or digestive juices in the inner walls of a dog’s stomach.
  • Pain in abdominal, diarrhea, and vomiting: The battery can block the area form that the dog’s food passes through. In can irritate the digestive system, immune system. It can barricade the normal way of food through the digestive territory. If there is any blockage with the battery then surgery will be necessary to pull out the battery and keep safe from batteries hazardous chemicals. If there is burn and inflammation surgery will be hard to operate. 

What can you do – Treatment

Whatever the problem is facing by your dog, you must see your vet as soon as possible.

This is very important that if you have any suspect or any doubt about your dog has swallowed a battery or anything dangerous then do not try to commit your dog to vomit because that can lead to any other dangerous problem. The first thing you should do is contact your vet.

Exposure to Alkaline in a dog’s stomach can cause the injury of the esophagus or oropharynx.

The vet will diagnose and perform the treatment accordingly. He will take X-rays and endoscopy to diagnose what has happened.

Battery should be removed immediately as it can cause some serious trouble. If the trouble is big then endoscopy and some surgery will be necessary.

Even though pet owners can find stories over the net of pets who somehow approved batteries without event, in the enormous bulk of cases pets do far improved when such foreign bodies are surgically detached. In case nothing helps, and then your vet will get your pet in progress on a suitable command that can lighten the ache and illness.

Prevention

You should be careful your dog should be far away from these kinds of pieces of equipment. You should keep all the battery and remote controls, all the household appliances away from the reach of dogs.

Do not allow your dog to play with battery equipment. And if you do, you must confirm that condone under supervision. Don’t let your dog alone. Give your dog good quality toys and a variety of toys so that they cannot eat batteries.

Sources of battery

Kid’s toys and the TV remote is not only a battery source for your dog. These other sources are also equally dangerous. Always try to keep your dog away from these tools. That can help you to run in the emergency room.

  • Calculators are equally dangerous
  • Flashlights and torch
  • All the wireless devices like mouse and keyboard.
  • Bluetooth earphones
  • Tools for garage
  • Gaming consoles and car alarms

Why batteries are so dangerous

The eating battery can be so much danger to your pet. If the battery is punctured or chewed it releases Alkaline and that can cause your dog to burn sensation in the mouth and stomach. The Alkaline substance is very dangerous and it can lead your dog any kind of serious trouble.

In any case, your dog has already swallowed a battery or the part of it; it also can cause a barrier or blockage in your dog’s intestine. 

Dangerous elements that can cause:

A battery contains a different type of element that can cause trouble.

Alkaline: In our houses, several batteries contain alkaline and that can cause deep penetrating ulcers. It can take some time to form this. Alkaline has some liquefaction necrosis which helps to form an ulcer. 

Acidic:

  • There are car batteries that lead to acid batteries.
  • The irritation will not be as much as compared to alkaline.
  • Care battery if chew or punctured then this can lead to different burns in the mouth and eyes.

Heavy metal:

  • The battery contains many several heavy materials that are very dangerous to a dog or any for any pet.
  • Dangerous material that will be found in the battery includes lead, mercury, zinc, cadmium, and cobalt.

Electric current:

There are many types of battery in the market. The disc and button batteries contain electric current.
The manufacturing of this type of battery permits an electric current to source necrosis to close tissue when it gets stuck in the gullet.

What will your vet do?

As soon as you bring your dog to your vet, they will start assessing your pet and its condition. They will figure out all the symptoms. They will go for by word of mouth lacerations or black chalky substances within your dog’s mouth. They can wash your dog’s mouth for 17-20 minutes with normal water. After all this, they will perform X-rays to look if the battery exists there or there is another problem and there is a battery then where exactly it is. According to them after the X-rays, they discuss with their colleague and if they find necessary they will operate the surgery to remove out the battery.  After the surgery, they will give some prescription of anti-ulcer and pain relief medication and a diet chart.

Conclusion

A battery is a battery it does not matter how big or small it is. All the batteries are very harmful to your dog and pet. Sometimes when you come home and you find the remote of your television has been chewed and the battery is missing. You search everywhere but unable to find, suddenly you have a thought that what if your dog ate. This can be dangerous.

If the battery is chewed and is already inside the stomach it can reflect the threatening of life and lifelong injury of mouth and throat.

As soon you realized that the battery has been chewed by your dog, you call your vet or an emergency vet.

Unluckily, you cannot do anything by yourself at home to cure battery ingestion. Now as you know battery chewing is very harmful and dangerous to live, it is significant that you don’t wait. Get your dog to the vet and they will perform the treatment.

Don’t start panicking it’s not that your dog will not come home. It is a matter of time as If you delay getting your dog to the vet your chances to lose the dog will higher. It’s better to don’t panic be relax and contact to vet.