As the temperature drops and the rain becomes ever more present in our lives, so do the thousands of mushrooms that pop up in the Squamish region during fall.
If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, you’ve likely noticed the number (and vast variety) of mushrooms that have sprouted in the last few weeks.
While some people might like to use this season to forage for wild mushrooms—something The Squamish Chief urges readers not to do without proper education—it can also prove to be a dangerous time for dogs who are renowned for eating things they shouldn’t.
Forest ecologist and co-author of the book Mushrooms of British Columbia, Andy MacKinnon told The Squamish Chief that the Sea to Sky corridor is renowned for its funky fungi.
“The Squamish region is particularly blessed with mushrooms. We have recorded more than 3,500 species of mushrooms for British Columbia and probably at least a couple thousand of them have been recorded from the Squamish area over time,” MacKinnon said.
“So there are lots and lots of different mushrooms that can be found around Squamish. A whole rainbow of colours, different sizes and shapes. Some of them parasites, some of them decomposers, and a lot of them growing in association with plants in various relationships.”
Despite being well-versed in mushroom history, MacKinnon said the jury is still out as to what type of mushrooms dogs are drawn towards eating.
“We don't have a really good understanding of which mushrooms dogs like to munch on. We do know that there's a group of usually odd smelling mushrooms called the fibrecaps, that are poisonous to varying degrees, depending on the species, and that have caused poisonings in dogs,” he said.
“The vast majority of mushrooms, like the vast majority of plants, aren't particularly poisonous or particularly delicious, so you have to be really, really unfortunate to find a poisonous mushroom. But one of the types of mushrooms that there have been dog poisonings from is the fibrecaps.”
Also on the list of “do not eat” mushrooms you can find in Squamish are Smith's amanita, which MacKinnon describes as “quite a poisonous mushroom.”
“It has poisoned dogs, and it's also poisoned some people who thought they had found a pine mushroom and ate a Smith's amanita instead,” he said.
“There are a variety of different toxins present in different concentrations in different mushrooms, and for most of the ones that I'm familiar [with], the difference has to do with the size of the animal eating the poison.
“In other words, I think that a lot of the common poisons will have the same effect on dogs as they have on humans, but could have a much more profound effect on a 30-pound dog than on a 200-pound human.”
Despite this, the forest ecologist reassures that while a number of mushrooms can make you sick, the death toll in B.C. from ingesting poisonous mushrooms is surprisingly low.
“There are very few people who have died from mushroom poisoning in British Columbia, and not a lot of dogs that have died from mushroom poisoning either,” MacKinnon said.
“Though some people and some dogs have gotten quite sick from eating the mushrooms, it's a very rare thing for a person or a pet to die from mushroom poisoning. Certainly, more people have died from plant poisoning than mushroom poisoning.”
Mushroom poisoning in dogs hard to diagnose, says Squamish vet
Sea to Sky Veterinary Clinic owner Dr. Fraser Davidson said this time of year is known for an increase in dogs presenting to the clinic with suspected mushroom poisoning.
“Dogs get vomiting and diarrhea all through the year, but there certainly often seems to be an increase of it at this time of the year,” Davidson said.
The local veterinarian said it’s hard to determine whether a dog is sick as a result of mushroom poisoning unless the owners see the dog physically eat the mushroom.
“Usually, [what happens is] the dogs are off leash, and so the owners don't often know what they've eaten. They might have been out in the woods, and then they come back and the dogs are sick—that's a more common story,” he said.
“Sometimes the owner might have literally witnessed them eat a mushroom, and sometimes they've just been off in the woods doing their own thing and then they get home and the dogs started vomiting and having diarrhea everywhere.
“That's why sometimes it's a presumed ingestion but not proven.”
Davidson also noted that not too many mushrooms are “deadly” to dogs but other factors such as an already poor immune system could cause a more severe reaction.
Symptoms of a dog who has ingested a poisonous mushroom include excessive salivation, a tender stomach, which can rapidly progress to vomiting and/or diarrhea.
I think my dog has eaten a mushroom. What do I do?
As for what to do if you suspect your pooch has ingested a poisonous mushroom, Davidson first suggests snapping a photo of it.
“Take a picture of the mushroom [if there are others around] to figure out if it’s actually a problem or not. If it's a safe mushroom, well, you can probably ride it out, but if it's concerning you can always try and get them to the vet quickly, and we can induce vomiting to get the mushroom to come back up.
“If that's not an option, then the next step would be giving them activated charcoal, just to try to bind up the toxins that can be present in mushrooms so that they'll just end up passing out the feces without being absorbed into the body.”
Both MacKinnon and Davidson concur that the best way to prevent your beloved pooch from eating a funky fungi is to keep them on a leash.
“I'd suggest keeping them on a leash a little bit more. As we've just come out of dry weather, and it suddenly started raining, there's a lot more puddles. There's ponds, bogs, ditches that now have water in them and so we see a lot more symptoms of things like giardia and all of these often manifest in a similar way, an upset stomach,” Davidson said.
“So, that's why it's so hard to know [if it's mushroom poisoning] unless you witnessed your dog eating the mushroom. Did they eat the mushrooms or did they just drink from a filthy puddle that's now present because we've started to get rainy weather, and that puddle was loaded with protozoa parasites and other disgusting things?.
“So, I think that when it starts to rain it's not a bad idea, if you are out with your dog, just to keep them on leash a little more.”
