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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1547076
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Challenges in Companion Animal Toxicology View all 5 articles
Incidence of hypernatremia in dogs treated with single dose activated charcoal for acute toxicant ingestion: multi-center retrospective study (2018-2023)
Provisionally accepted
Timothy Young 1
Rebecca Walton 2*
Poyee Cheng 1
Jiazhang Cai 3 Jonathan P Mochel 3 Katherine Peterson 4- 1 VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital, Los Angeles, California, United States
- 2 Iowa State University, Ames, United States
- 3 University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States
- 4 BluePearl, Duluth, Georgia, United States
Objective: To retrospectively evaluate the incidence and clinical significance of hypernatremia in dogs administered a single dose of activated charcoal (AC) or activated charcoal with sorbitol (ACS) for acute toxicant ingestion.Methods: Retrospective study between the years 2018-2023. Ninety-six dogs evaluated by a university teaching hospital and private practice emergency hospital treated for acute toxicant ingestion with a single dose of activated charcoal, with or without sorbitol.Results: Medical records were retrospectively reviewed. No dog developed hypernatremia, defined as sodium greater than 155 mEq/L, during the study period. The toxicant ingested was not significantly associated with a change in sodium (Na) at any time point (P = 0.433 at 6-12 hours, P = 0.09 at 12-14 hours, and P = 0.486 at 24-48 hours). Ingestion of multiple toxicants, compared to single toxicant ingestion, was also not significantly associated with a change in Na at any time point (P = 0.126 at P = 6-12 hours, P = 0.452 at 12-24 hours, and P = 0.516 at 24-48 hours). Time from ingestion to presentation was not significantly associated with a change in Na at any time point (P = 0.422 at 6-12 hours, P = 0.881 at 12-24 hours, and P = 0.516 at 24-48 hours). The administration of AC compared to ACS was not significantly associated with a change in Na at any time period (P = 0.715 at 6-12 hours, P = 0.137 at 12-24 hours, P = 0.582 atThere was a significant difference between Na on presentation and at 12-24 hours and 24-48 hours (P = 0.025 and P = 0.015, respectively.) Median Na values decreased at all-time points Deleted: toxin 40 Formatted: English (US)
Keywords: Decontamination, Electrolyte derangements, Toxicity, Sorbitol, Hypernatremia
Received: 17 Dec 2024; Accepted: 11 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Young, Walton, Cheng, Cai, Mochel and Peterson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Rebecca Walton, Iowa State University, Ames, United States
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