Undetectible poisoning

Hi.
I’m writing for help on poisoning. I want something that’ll work fast, but can be put in a drink. It can’t be detectible on a blood test. I also want something unique—not cyanide or something like that.

Hello.

Okay. How about something not available in the United States? (Assuming the setting is in the USA)

Years ago, coyotes were poisoned with a substance known as 10 80 (ten eighty), a poison that affects metabolism in mammals. It’s illegal in the USA.

The poison is stable in alcohol, if that helps.

After ingestion, symptoms appear in 30 minutes to two hours. The first indication that something is wrong is nausea, followed by a sense of apprehension. Stomach ache and sweating are next. Twitching starts as the muscles are affected, and progress to seizures. Left untreated, it affects the heart, causing malignant rhythms that kill.

If help reaches your victim in time, a hospital can try to support the patient symptomatically with IV fluids, treatment of heart rhythm disturbances, and meds for seizures. If they know what your character was poisoned with, the doctors can try administering glyceryl monoacetate, which may compete for the poison at the level of the body’s cellular metabolism. There is no laboratory assay for 10 80. Citric acid levels may be elevated in the blood.

Alcohol (the drinking kind) was used as an antidote for many years with little success.

Few (very few) people or animals survive the poisoning.

Questions? Comments?

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Kelly has worked in the medical field for over twenty years, mainly at large medical centers. With experience in a variety of settings, chances are Kelly may have seen it. Sometimes truth seems stranger than fiction in medicine, but accurate medicine in fiction is fabulous.
Find her fiction at www.kellywhitley.com.