strange Q about mushrooms

[PiercedOne]

I have an English Bulldog, and I take her for walks every morning.
Well she loves to eat lots of stuff she shouldnt (underwear, wood chips, dirt, grass)
We have a lot of mushrooms in our neighbor hood and im always pulling her away from trying to eat them and some days she gets the better of me and others she doesnt.

This morning tho she went and smelled some and didnt touch them at all. So my question is can dogs tell the difference between edible ones or not? or was this just a fluke?

[Michigan Mike]

Hey PO
Not that strange of a question, and is a good one that any pet owner might ask.
Plenty of poisonus and even deadly shrooms smell
good and there even some that will not kill humans but will dogs.
Here's a small excerpt from NAMA.
And the destroying angel mentioned here is pretty common in
Michigan.
I think very few actually get reported, since the cause is
usually unknown.

Here is an excerpt from a 2007 NAMA report

The pattern of increased interaction between
mycologists and veterinarians has led to continued
reports of dogs ingesting mushrooms. Clearly,
some dogs will ingest mushrooms again and again,
getting sick again and again.

Mushrooms that are generally not lethal to humans, e.g.
Scleroderma species and Inocybe species, can kill dogs.
Dogs also consume the “Destroying Angel” mushrooms,
with often lethal results.

This year three dog deaths were reported from the Pacific Northwest.
Unfortunately, there were no vomitus or fresh
mushrooms available to identify the culprit. In two
cases where the dog survived, Judy Roger was able
to identify chunks of mushroom thrown up by the
dogs; one case involved Paxillus involutus, and the
other involved the Scleroderma cepa group.

From here
http://www.namyco.org/images/publications/8_Toxic_2007.pdf


mike

[fasthunter]

It's true about the destroying angel. I would most definitely learn to ID that one. If you're dog eats it it's toast!:tdo12: Sure is a pretty shroom though.

[Roosevelt]

Dogs and other animals don't have any insight as far as edible VS. poisonous. and like Mike said most shroom poisonings in dogs probably are undiagnosed/ reported.

Humans, dogs, deer, rabbit, slugs, rolly bugs, etc. all have different digestive systems and you can't judge what will poison or not poison based on what you see something else eat.