Intoxication of a dog with alkaloids of the fire salamander

The fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) belongs to amphibians and is widespread in natural habitats over Europe. Its distinctive black-yellow skin produces toxic alkaloids in the dorsal and parotoid skin glands. These alkaloids can cause clinical signs of intoxication and may lead to death of an animal after mucosal contact or ingestion of the fire salamander. Although there are many anecdotal reports on dog intoxication with the salamander, there are no published data available for that kind of intoxication. We assume that this is due to the fact that most dogs die after intoxication with toxic alkaloids of the fire salamander. This paper describes the clinical case of a dog which survived the intoxication after the contact with a fire salamander. Publication of this case report has a certain value to those people who deal with dogs because contacts of dogs with salamanders are not rare, but so far there is no publication in the literature on survival of a dog after biting a fire salamander.