A DOG was poisoned after walking around an area in an Oxfordshire town.

The incident happened on Tuesday at 2.30pm when a Bicester resident, who has asked not to be named, was walking her dog Buddy with her husband near Bure Park.

They noticed him sniffing for a while at a spot on the grass.

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She said: “Buddy is only seven months old so he snuffles at everything - we had moved to a long line (dog lead) recently. He spent a lot of time at this one particular place.

“My husband went to investigate and found the pellets and we immediately knew they looked sinister.”

The pellets were pink, grain-based rat poison.

Bicester Advertiser: The rat poison was in the form of pink, grain-based pellets which had been laid in grass

She added: “I Googled rat poison and similar images came up. So we phoned the vet and they saw him immediately. The vet confirmed it looked suspiciously like rat poison.

“Buds was made to be sick and given activated charcoal for two days to soak up anything left inside him. Thank goodness we acted quickly and got him to the vet.”

The woman has to take Buddy to have blood tests at the vets today and if they come back showing an issue, he will have to start a course of vitamin K for four weeks.

After discovering the poison, the woman cleared up the pellets and alerted Cherwell District Council and Bicester Town Council about the incident.

She also encouraged other dog walkers to be ‘extra careful’ by sharing a post on Facebook.

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Hart Vets in Bicester also put out a post on its Facebook page urging people to be ‘vigilant’ in the Bure Park and Southwold area of the town after Cherwell District Council’s dog warden informed the vets of the poisoning.

It said: “Please be vigilant and if you think your dog is unwell, contact your veterinary practice as soon as possible.

“If you see your dog eating something suspicious, it can be helpful for us to see any associated packaging. Rodenticide poisoning is best treated early on, so please call if you have any concerns.”

Cherwell District Council said there has been one current case of a dog being poisoned, but that this is the third incident in the past four years in the area.

On the previous two occasions it was a blue, grain-based rat poison that was laid down.

Rat and mouse poisons, also known as rodenticides, are products formulated to kill rodents.

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According to Vets Now, an out-of-hours emergency and critical care service for pets, the chemicals used in these products are often highly toxic to dogs and can cause internal bleeding, kidney failure, organ damage and even death if eaten by your dog.

Rodenticides vary in colour and can come in different forms, such as pellets and liquids.

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