Reports of several dogs being poisoned in Ermelo over the last few weeks have recently surfaced on social media.

Mr Theo Craven, employee of ACSU, confirmed several positive cases.

Mr Craven warned residents to be on the lookout for bits of food that might lay scattered in their yards.

“Do not pick these up with your bare hands – preferably use gloves or something similar to avoid exposing the skin’s surface,” he advised.

According to Mr Paul Bester Koen, a reaction officer at ACSU Security, his dog Max was sick and showed symptoms of weight loss and a lack of appetite.

Mr Koen was afraid that his dog was poisoned as he was also vomiting.

“I woke up to feed Max one morning and he did not respond to me as per his custom,” Mr Koen recalled.

“I found Max lying at our back door looking dehydrated and weak.”

He said he realised immediately that something was off so he took two raw eggs and milk and forced the dog to swallow it.

Two days prior to Max getting sick, Mr Koen and a colleague had the unfortunate task to collect two dogs that were also poisoned in Ermelo.

“The lingering sadness of the owner was palpable.

“In my line of work, we are taught to be tough in most circumstances, but we too are just human and this really got to me.”

Mr Koen shared his story on Facebook with the hope of getting advice on how to treat Max, as all the indications were that he too had been poisoned.

Mr Koen said: “The response from the community was amazing.”

One of his close friends gave him medication to give to max that apparently helps animals recover from being poisoned.

The same afternoon he said he could see a major difference in Max as he was responsive and wagging his tail.

“We also bought concentrated charcoal from the chemist and gave it to him the evening.”

Max was still unwilling to eat, but drank a lot of water.

The next day, however, he was back to normal.

Mr Koen thanked everyone who sent messages, phoned him and shared advice.

Make sure to read more about this in the next Highvelder.