PET OWNER WARNINGS

[Guest guest]

I HAVENT CHECKED OUT THE SWIFTER ONE YET.. BUT THE OTHER ONE SEEMS VALID.. BUT THOUGHT I'D PASS IT ON ANWAY..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Go to the ASPCA.org home page for accurate info re poisons...and yes,theres something there about grapes and raisens.

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POISON ALERT

This week I had the first case in history of raisin toxicity ever seen at MedVet. My patient was a 56 pound, 5 year old male neutered lab mix who ate half a box of raisins sometime between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Tuesday. He started with vomiting, diarrhea and shaking about 1 AM on Wednesday. But, the owner did not call my emergency service until 7 AM. I had heard somewhere about raisins AND grapes causing acute renal failure but hadn’t seen any formal paper on the subject. We had her bring the dog in immediately. In the meantime, I called the ER service at MedVet, and the doctor there was like me -- had heard something about it, but…. Anyway, we contacted the ASPCA National Animal Poison Control Center and they said to give IV fluids at 1 ½ times maintenance and watch the kidney values for the next 48-72 hours. The dog’s BUN (blood urea nitrogen level_ was already at 32 (normal less than 27) and the creatinine over 5 (1.9 is the high end of normal). Both are monitors of kidney function in the bloodstream. We placed an IV catheter and started the fluids. Rechecked the renal values at 5PM and the BUN was over 40 and creatinine over 7 with no urine production after a liter of fluids. At that point I felt the dog was in acute renal failure and sent him on to MedVet for a urinary catheter to monitor urine output overnight as well as overnight care. He started vomiting again overnight at MedVet and his renal values have continued to increase daily. He produced urine when given lasix as a diuretic. He was on 3 different anti-vomiting medications and they still couldn’t control his vomiting. Today his urine output decreased again, his BUN was over 120, his creatinine was at 10, his phosphorus was very elevated and his blood pressure, which had been staying around 150, skyrocketed to 220. He continued to vomit and the owners elected to euthanize.

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From a Pennsylvania rescue list::I recently had a neighbor who had to have their 5-year old German Shepherd dog put down due to liver failure. The dog was completely healthy until a few weeks ago, so they had a necropsy done to see what the cause was. Theliver levels were unbelievable, as if the dog had ingested poison of some , and when he's outside, someone's with him, so the idea of him getting into something unknown was hard to believe.

My neighbor started going through all the items in the house. When he got to the Swiffer Wetjet, he noticed, in very tiny print, a warning which stated "may be harmful to small children and animals." He called the company to askwhat the contents of the cleaning agent are and was astounded to find out that anitfreeze is one of the ingredients. (actually he was told it's a compound which is one molecule away from anitfreeze).Therefore, just by the dog walking on the floor cleaned with the solution, then licking it's own paws, and the dog eating from its dishes which were kept on the kitchen floor cleaned with this product, it ingested enough of the solution to destroy its liver.Soon after his dog's death, his housekeepers' two cats also died of liver failure. They both used the Swiffer Wetjet for quick cleanups on their floors. Necropsies weren't done on the cats, so they couldn't file a lawsuit, but he asked that we spread the word to as many people as possible so they don't lose their animals.

j:)

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