Winter Storms: Safety
Antifreeze, warm engines can be deadly to cats, dogs
That fall nip in the air can make even parked cars deadly to cats and dogs. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension veterinarians say cooler weather often leads to two fatal attractions for household pets.
Check under hood
As the weather cools, many cats are attracted to the warmth of the car's engine. If you don't check for pets, they can be under the car hood when you crank the car. And many of them wind up getting into the fan belt. When this happens, there often isn't much a veterinarian can do to help.
Don't be careless with antifreeze
A more common cool-weather task can also prove fatal for outdoor pets. As winter nears, many people check, change or add to their car's antifreeze. Being just a little careless in this chore has killed many dogs and cats.
UGA experts say the ethylene glycol in some antifreeze is extremely deadly. It's deadly to any mammal and it's a fairly common cause of death in cats and dogs.
Many new antifreeze products don't contain ethylene glycol. Those shouldn't be toxic to pets. UGA experts recommend using these products carefully either way.
Antifreezes containing ethylene glycol are deadly to cats and dogs for three reasons. One, the animals lap it up voluntarily, even when water is nearby. Two, it takes only a tiny amount to kill a dog or cat. And three, most people don't know it's that lethal.
Cats and dogs seem to like the taste of it. Only one-fourth of an ounce of antifreeze will kill a 10- to 12-pound cat. Two ounces will kill a 25-pound dog. This amount can easily be spilled if you don't use care when first pouring a full container.
Symptoms of antifreeze poisoning
Ethylene glycol affects mostly the kidneys. Dogs and cats get severely dehydrated and have below-normal temperatures.
They'll also show weakness and staggering in their back legs and a sluggishness that leads into coma and eventual death.
All that happens in a few hours. So for a veterinarian to have any chance to successfully treat the dog or cat, he has to know the animal has consumed antifreeze.
The symptoms are easy to confuse with injury, encephalitis or an overdose of a number of drugs, UGA experts say. There usually isn't time for a lab analysis.
Not only must the veterinarian know the animal has gotten into antifreeze, but it's also crucial to tell him exactly when it happened.
Treatment
The treatment varies at different stages. For the veterinarian to really know what to do, he needs to know how long it has been since the antifreeze was ingested. Timing is critical.
If you take an antifreeze-poisoned cat or dog right away to the vet and tell him all he needs to know, he may be able to save it, depending on how much antifreeze it consumed.
But all the pieces rarely fall together. So only about 20 percent of the dogs and cats survive.
Prevention
UGA experts say, for this reason, prevention is the best tactic. Pet owners should be very careful not to let animals get to the antifreeze in the first place.
Taking the extra care and time to wipe up spills or hose down the place where the radiator boils over is the easiest, cheapest and most effective way to protect your pets from antifreeze poisoning.