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Diagnosing mushroom poisoning in dogs can be difficult and often includes identification of suspect mushrooms. Visual identification may be hindered by mastication, oral medications, or poor quality of environmental mushroom samples. Other analytical techniques may thus be necessary to aid in mushroom identification. A 5-y-old neutered male Labrador Retriever dog developed acute onset of vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, seizures, and somnolence. The dog was treated at a veterinary clinic and was briefly stabilized, but died during transport to an emergency clinic. On postmortem examination at the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, the dog's stomach was full of mushrooms covered with activated charcoal. Mushrooms were damaged, fragmented, and discolored, precluding accurate visual identification. Mushroom pieces were sent to the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California-Davis for PCR identification; the neurotoxic mushroom Amanita muscaria was identified. A qualitative liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was developed to detect ibotenic acid and muscimol, the toxic compounds present in A. muscaria. Mushrooms, stomach contents, and urine were analyzed by LC-MS; ibotenic acid and muscimol were detected in all samples. Because identification of ingested mushrooms is sometimes necessary to confirm mushroom poisoning, PCR can identify ingested mushrooms when visual identification is unreliable.

The CE-ESI-MS/MS method for the identification, separation and determination of mushroom toxins, namely ibotenic acid, muscimol and muscarine, was developed. It proved to be sensitive and thus useful for the real sample analysis with omitting the labor and time consuming pretreatment step. The CE-ESI-MS/MS method was applied on the spiked human urine. The analytical characteristics of the proposed method, such as limits of detection, linearity and repeatability of the peak area and the migration time, were evaluated. The RSD of the migration time and peak area were from 0.93% to 1.60% and from 2.96% to 3.42%, respectively. The obtained LOD values were at the nanomolar concentration level, therefore the developed method is sufficient for the determination and quantification of studied toxins in human urine after mushroom intoxication., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The fly agaric is a remarkable mushroom in many respects; these are its bearing, history, chemical components and the poisoning that it provokes when consumed. The 'pantherina' poisoning syndrome is characterized by central nervous system dysfunction. The main species responsible are Amanita muscaria and A. pantherina (Amanitaceae); however, some other species of the genus have been suspected for similar actions. Ibotenic acid and muscimol are the active components, and probably, some other substances detected in the latter species participate in the psychotropic effects. The use of the mushroom started in ancient times and is connected with mysticism. Current knowledge on the chemistry, toxicology, and biology relating to this mushroom is reviewed, together with distinctive features concerning this unique species.