On the day before Thanksgiving, Susie Shipman found her dog Max lying in blood, his dense, grey fur matted with red.

She quickly called Dr. Ron Schuler of Orcas Veterinary Service. He suspected it was rat poisoning and told her to meet him in town immediately.

“I had to be really strong and hold it together,” Shipman said. “Max is my everything. He’s my family. He’s my constant companion.”

Shipman doesn’t know how, but her dog ingested large amounts of rat poison, which causes hemorrhaging and leads to death if left untreated. After blood transfusions and a lot of supplements, Max survived, but it was a difficult journey.

A very sick canine

Max, an enormous Shiloh Shepherd, was quickly losing blood through his mucus membranes. Shipman raced into Eastsound to meet Dr. Schuler, who treated the dog with vitamin K. He sent Max home, but the prognosis was grim. Soon after, Max began bleeding heavily through his eyes and mouth. After consulting with Orcas vet Dr. Jill Bates, Shipman was on her way to the Northwest Veterinary Blood Bank in Bellingham.

“I didn’t pack a thing – no numbers, no food,” she said. “I drove like a bat out of hell and just made the boat. I knew that if I didn’t hop on that ferry, he would have died.”

Shipman says the back of her truck looked like a murder scene. By the end of his ordeal, Max lost two gallons of blood. He received a total of nine transfusions.

“He’s such a majestic beast, I thought, ‘This is not how you are going to go,’” said Shipman, who remembers holding her dog’s paws, closing her eyes and envisioning their favorite activities. “I told him, ‘we’re going to have another snowball fight. We’re going to go running on the beach again.’”

Shipman and the vets who treated Max are astounded that he survived. She attributes it to a variety of factors: his blood transfusions, an intense will to survive and prayers and positive energy from Orcas Islanders.

“Some dogs bleed internally from rat poison and you never know,” Shipman said. “So I am grateful he bled through his mucus membranes.”

The dangers of rat poison

In early November, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it took another step in the process to cancel 20 mouse and rat control products that do not adequately protect people, pets and wildlife from the danger of ingesting rodenticides. The EPA determined that safer rodent control products are now widely available, effective and affordable.

“When used as directed, these products help consumers control household rodents and reduce accidental exposure,” reads the EPA website.

A list of these products as well as tips to safely control rodents is available at: http://goo.gl/Pl7Jp.

The EPA plans to remove merchandise from the consumer market that contain the most toxic and persistent active ingredients, products sold as loose pellets or without protective bait stations, which keep children, pets and other animals from accessing the enclosed rodenticide bait.

If a dog consumes rat poison, some of the signs are green stool, profuse bleeding, anemia, lethargy, blindness and seizures. The poison works by inhibiting an enzyme that uptakes and reuses vitamin K, which is critical to blood coagulation. Rats – or whomever ingests the toxins – slowly bleed to death, a process that Dr. Schuler of Orcas Veterinary Service says is relatively painless.

Schuler treats cases of rat poisoning every few months, but they are rarely as severe as what Max experienced. Typically pet owners bring their pooches in after catching them consuming poison.

“In that case, we get them to vomit and treat them with vitamin K,” Schuler says. “That usually fixes it … once they start bleeding like Max, it’s a much bigger project.”

Shipman is puzzled as to how Max consumed such large amounts of poison, as she keeps him tied up when he is outside. It’s possible he ate a poisoned rat, since they move slowly and are easier targets for owls, cats and dogs.

Schuler cautions people against using rat poison, but if they must, he says to “put it in a place that a dog cannot get to.”

“Trapping rats or getting a cat are good options,” he said. “I have two cats in my barn and I don’t have any rats.”

Recovery

Shipman has had Max since he was eight weeks old and 18 pounds.

“I never thought we could get any closer,” Shipman said. “I’ve have had dogs from the pound before, and we had that connection where they knew I saved their lives. But we didn’t have the puppyhood bond. With Max, now we have the life-saving connection and the puppy connection.”

Max usually weighs 140 pounds, but he is now down to 125. In addition to his weight loss, Max moves a little more slowly. He is still taking supplements for his blood, as it takes a month for the rat poison to leave his system.

“I am so grateful,” Shipman said. “I feel so lucky that he is alive. And there has been so much community support.”

Shipman urges people to think twice about using rat poison. She also encourages pet owners to donate their dog’s blood at the Northwest Veterinary Blood Bank, which has saved canines and felines from extreme anemia, rat poisoning and infection. She says in 10 years, the blood bank has received donations from only 300 dogs.

Now that she and Max are back home, once again strolling through Eastsound and walking on the beach, Shipman is figuring out how to pay her vet bills that total $3700. Her friends launched a donation website and have already raised a quarter of the amount. To donate, go to http://goo.gl/UH9WA.

“People who I hardly know are donating $20 because they are dog lovers,” Shipman said.