My Dog Ate Slug Pellets: What To Do

Slug pellets are the fastest-acting poison in most gardens, there is no antidote, and the box may still be in the shed years after they were banned.

Of everything in this guide, slug pellets move the quickest.

A dog that has eaten metaldehyde bait can go from slightly unsteady to full convulsions in a very short space of time. There is no specific antidote, so treatment is about supporting the dog through it, controlling the seizures and bringing down a body temperature that climbs dangerously fast. Veterinary poison data puts the death rate in dogs somewhere around fourteen to seventeen per cent, which is high for a garden product.

If your dog has been at slug pellets, this is a get-in-the-car situation, not a phone-and-think one.

What to do

1. Treat it as life-threatening and go, ringing your vet or a poison line on the way so they can prepare.
2. Bring the packaging if you can lay hands on it quickly. Do not spend ten minutes hunting.

In the UK, the Animal PoisonLine. In the US, the Pet Poison Helpline.

Banned does not mean gone

Metaldehyde was banned in the UK in April 2022, which sounds like the end of the story and is not.

Boxes bought before the ban are still sitting in sheds, greenhouses and allotment stores all over the country, and they do not expire in any meaningful sense. If you have moved into a house with an old shed, or you are staying somewhere with one, assume there may be a tub of pellets on a shelf in it.

Metaldehyde pellets are often dyed blue or green. Be aware too that some older slug baits use methiocarb instead, which produces a different but equally serious picture. As with rat poison, the packet answers a question you cannot answer by looking at the dog.

Two things people get badly wrong

Do not try to make your dog sick, and above all never use salt water to do it. Salt water is a dangerous home remedy in its own right and it causes its own poisoning. This comes up often enough with slug bait to be worth stating plainly.

Do not attempt to induce vomiting at all if your dog is twitching, rigid or seizing. A dog in that state cannot protect its airway.

And do not wait for signs before ringing.

What it looks like

• Unsteadiness and twitching early on
• Rapid deterioration from there
• Continuous convulsions
• A body temperature climbing hard
• Breathing failure at the late end

The speed of the change is the tell. Most poisonings unfold over hours. This one can turn within minutes, so a dog that seems only slightly wobbly is not necessarily at the start of a slow decline.

Sheds, greenhouses and borrowed gardens

The classic case is a holiday cottage or a country hotel with a garden, a shed nobody has emptied for a decade, and a dog with an hour to explore.

Before you let a dog loose in an unfamiliar garden, look along the borders and the base of the veg patch for scattered pellets, and check whether the shed door actually shuts. Allotments and working farmland deserve the same caution.

What to say on the phone

Say the words "slug pellets", and say the colour if you saw them. It tells the practice to prepare for a seizuring patient before you arrive rather than after, which with this poison is a meaningful head start.

If you have the tub, bring it. Metaldehyde and methiocarb are managed differently, and the label settles it.

Clearing an unfamiliar shed

If you have inherited a shed, or you are staying somewhere with one, the pellets are usually in an old plastic tub on a low shelf, and often not in their original packaging.

The safest approach with anything unlabelled and granular in an old garden store is to assume it is a hazard, keep the dog out entirely, and shut the door properly rather than pulling it to.

Other garden and farm chemicals

Slug bait is the fastest-acting thing in most sheds, but it is not the only hazard.

Some insecticides, particularly older products used on roses and flower borders and in agriculture, poison a dog by jamming the nervous system open. The signs are unmistakable once you know them, because everything leaks at once: heavy drooling, streaming eyes, urination, defecation and vomiting, alongside muscle tremors, laboured breathing and seizures.

Old flea collars belong in the same category. Some older ones used these chemicals, and a forgotten collar in a holiday cottage cupboard is exactly the sort of thing a dog will chew.

If your dog has eaten or been dusted with something that smells strongly of chemicals, ring the vet, take the container, and wash the product off the coat with plenty of cool water. A contaminated coat is an ongoing dose, because the dog absorbs through the skin and licks it off at the same time.

Sources

This article was written using guidance from Animal PoisonLine (VPIS), the UK's only 24/7 poison advice line for pet owners, run by the Veterinary Poisons Information Service; Pet Poison Helpline, a 24/7 animal poison control service for North America; and RSPCA, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the UK's oldest animal welfare charity. This guidance is for general information and does not replace a consultation with your own veterinarian. In an emergency, always contact a vet. Read [how we write our health guidance](https://rochsociety.com/how-we-write-our-health-guidance/). Last reviewed July 2026.