Pet Safety / Compounds / Difenacoum

Is Difenacoum safe for dogs and cats?

Extreme risk for pets

Difenacoum poses extreme risk to dogs through the standard SGAR mechanism; half-life in dogs approximately 60–90 days. Less commonly implicated in US pet poisonings due to limited domestic registration, but a significant concern in the UK, Europe, and Australasia where it is widely deployed. Delayed coagulopathy 3–7 days post-ingestion; vitamin K1 for 4–6 weeks. Secondary relay toxicosis through poisoned rodents is a documented exposure pathway.

What is difenacoum?

The IUPAC name is 4-hydroxy-3-[3-(4-phenylphenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalen-1-yl]chromen-2-one.

Also known as: 4-hydroxy-3-[3-(4-phenylphenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalen-1-yl]chromen-2-one, Neosorexa, Diphenacoum, Difenakum.

IUPAC name
4-hydroxy-3-[3-(4-phenylphenyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalen-1-yl]chromen-2-one
CAS number
56073-07-5
Molecular formula
C31H24O3
Molecular weight
444.5 g/mol
SMILES
C1C(CC2=CC=CC=C2C1C3=C(C4=CC=CC=C4OC3=O)O)C5=CC=C(C=C5)C6=CC=CC=C6
PubChem CID
54676884

Risk for dogs

Extreme risk

Difenacoum poses extreme risk to dogs through the standard SGAR mechanism; half-life in dogs approximately 60–90 days. Less commonly implicated in US pet poisonings due to limited domestic registration, but a significant concern in the UK, Europe, and Australasia where it is widely deployed. Delayed coagulopathy 3–7 days post-ingestion; vitamin K1 for 4–6 weeks. Secondary relay toxicosis through poisoned rodents is a documented exposure pathway.

Risk for cats

Extreme risk

Extreme SGAR toxicity in cats; relay toxicosis through prey hunting is the primary cat exposure route. Clinical hemorrhagic syndrome with delayed onset. Vitamin K1 treatment for 4–6 weeks required. The UK's high density of difenacoum use and cat-owning households makes this a clinically important compound for European veterinarians.

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Difenacoum.

AgencyYearClassificationNotes
Unknown——

Regulators apply different standards of evidence — animal-data weighting, exposure-pattern assumptions, epidemiological power thresholds — which is why two scientific bodies can review the same data and reach different conclusions. The disagreement is the data.

Where pets encounter difenacoum

  • Industrial Facilities — Manufacturing plants, Chemical storage areas, Waste treatment sites
  • Occupational Environments — Factories, Warehouses, Transportation vehicles

Safer alternatives

Lower-risk approaches that achieve a similar outcome to Difenacoum:

  • Integrated Pest Management (IPM); Biopesticides; Physical controls
    Trade-offs: Combines biological, cultural, and targeted chemical controls; reduces overall chemical use 30-70%; requires trained practitioners and monitoring infrastructure; higher management complexity; proven effective at scale in many crop systems.
    Relative cost: 1.2-2×

Frequently asked questions

Is difenacoum safe for pets?

Difenacoum poses extreme risk to dogs through the standard SGAR mechanism; half-life in dogs approximately 60–90 days. Less commonly implicated in US pet poisonings due to limited domestic registration, but a significant concern in the UK, Europe, and Australasia where it is widely deployed. Delayed coagulopathy 3–7 days post-ingestion; vitamin K1 for 4–6 weeks. Secondary relay toxicosis through poisoned rodents is a documented exposure pathway.

What products contain difenacoum?

Difenacoum appears in: Manufacturing plants (Industrial facilities); Chemical storage areas (Industrial facilities); Factories (Occupational environments); Warehouses (Occupational environments).

See Difenacoum in the pets app

Look up products containing difenacoum, compare to alternatives, and explore the full data record.

Open in pets View raw API data

Sources (2)
  1. US EPA: Second-Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) — Risk Mitigation Decision; brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone, difenacoum; non-target wildlife secondary poisoning; restriction to certified pest control operators; tamper-resistant bait stations; consumer product phase-out (2011) (2011) — regulatory
  2. ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center: Rodenticide Toxicosis in Dogs and Cats — anticoagulant SGARs/FGARs; bromethalin; cholecalciferol; zinc phosphide; vitamin K1 dosing; decontamination windows; INR monitoring; prognosis by rodenticide class (2023) (2023) — veterinary

Reference data, not professional advice. Aggregates publicly available regulatory and scientific data; not a substitute for veterinary, medical, legal, or regulatory advice. Why we built ALETHEIA →