Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Two dogs with tremors and seizures after eating moldy rice
By Naudé, T W et al.·Published in Journal of the South African Veterinary Association·2002·Department of Paraclinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Tremorgenic neuromycotoxicosis in 2 dogs ascribed to the ingestion of penitrem A and possibly roquefortine in rice contaminated with Penicillium crustosum.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Two dogs became very shaky and had seizures after eating old rice that had mold on it. They both vomited and showed signs of agitation and tremors. One dog needed anesthesia to calm down, while the other was sedated. Thankfully, both dogs recovered well after treatment. Tests on the rice revealed it contained harmful substances from the mold, which caused their symptoms.
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Abstract
Two dogs developed alarming tremorgenic nervous stimulation shortly after ingesting discarded rice that had been forgotten in a refrigerator for an undetermined period and that was covered with a grey-green mould. Both dogs exhibited vomition followed by slight salivation, tremors and ataxia and 1 showed such severe agitation and seizures that it necessitated anaesthesia with thiopentone followed, on recovery, by xylazine. The other dog was only sedated with xylazine. They made an uneventful recovery. The rice vomitus yielded a pure culture of Penicillium crustosum. On chemical analysis it was negative for organochlorine, organophosphor and carbamate insecticides, as well as for strychnine, but contained 2.6 microg/g of the mycotoxins penitrem A as well as 34 microg/g of roquefortine as determined by LC-MS and confirmed by MS-MS. This is the 1st South African case of naturally occurring penitrem A toxicosis and also the 1st case where quantification of the levels of mycotoxins in dog vomitus is reported. The tremorgenicity of roquefortine and its contribution towards this syndrome, is questioned.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12665136/