to my mind antifreeze poisoning in cats rates as the most serious common
toxicity seen in veterinary practice stay tuned as I discuss why this is what
symptoms and signs to look out for how much antifreeze will kill a cat and just
how likely they are to survive I've we've not met before I'm dr. Alex from
ourpetshealth.com and my aim is to help you and your cat to live a
healthier happier life so make sure you're subscribed if that's something
that you're interested in so what is antifreeze and where is it found well
the main active ingredient in antifreeze is a chemical known as ethylene glycol
and it is this that is poisonous so don't confuse this with propylene glycol
which is a completely different chemical that is found in many products as well
as certain foods and drinks propylene glycol can be found in certain
antifreeze products but even here it is generally considered safe ethylene
glycol is the ingredient you need to be worried about so now that confusion is
out of the way where do you find antifreeze well the most common use of
anti freezes in cars either radiator fluid screen wash and some d
ices understandably then the most common source of antifreeze poisoning in cats
is in garages driveways and in workshops so antifreeze is those sometimes put in
the water of ornamental ponds and water features in gardens and poisoning has
been known to occur from this source even though the product has been diluted
with a large amount of water so how is antifreeze poisonous to cats well one
big issue with antifreeze is the fact that it seems to be attractive to cats
it has a sweet taste which makes it appealing to dogs and children now as
you may know that cats can't actually taste sweet but nonetheless they do
still appear to be attracted to the taste of antifreeze and this is a real
problem as it doesn't take much hantai freeze to be poisonous to cats as I'll
discuss a little bit later so the signs and symptoms of antifreeze poisoning in
cats can be broken down really into three stages in stage one that starts as
early as 30 minutes after consuming the poison and it can last for about 12
hours or so it's characterized by nervous signs and that includes
incoordination wobbliness disorientation mental depression you're also likely to
see vomiting alongside an increase in thirst and urination
Stage two takes place between hours 12 and 24 following poisoning and during
this time your cat actually might seem to be improving but really underneath
the surface irreversible damage will be taking place and stage 3 is when
complete renal failure takes place urine stops being produced in the symptoms of
this include lethargy anorexia dehydration vomiting diarrhea or
alliteration salivation fast heart rate fast breathing possible seizures and
coma the kidneys also might be swollen and painful on examination and as you
can imagine this is ultimately then fatal so not all cats will progress in
exactly this order and in this timeframe even so though it's clear that the
poisoning is both fast-acting and rapidly fatal but how is ethylene glycol
poisoning then diagnosed well it can be difficult there are test kits available
but they're not very accurate with some medications causing a false positive
results and they might actually not be sensitive enough in cats to pick up all
cases of poisoning so they can incorrectly come back as a negative
result in my experience this means that most practices will not even stock these
tests a blood test though to look at general body and organ health will often
be the first thing to be run in any cat showing some of the symptoms that we've
discussed as a result of antifreeze poisoning so these won't show specific
changes that only antifreeze can cause but instead they'll show changes that
are due to acute kidney failure now this can be due to different diseases of
which antifreeze poisoning is just one urine testing though is also very useful
and in some cases can confirm the diagnosis of ethylene glycol toxicity
and what your vet will be looking for here really is the presence of certain
crystals within the urine so these are only present after about three hours
post poisoning and once a certain amount of kidney damage has taken place urine
stops being produced and so crystals won't be seen in any urine that is
present within the bladder also some antifreeze products contain a dye that
can cause the urine to glow under UV light so that can be another thing to
look for and based on the test results your vet may wish to do other tests such
as abdominal x-rays or rock before reaching a working diagnosis of
antifreeze poisoning in your cat how then do we treat antifreeze poisoning in
cats if we suspect or if we know it has occurred well needless to say treatment
must begin as early as possible in it must be aggressive it if it has any
chance of succeeding this is not to poisoning where treatment can be carried
out to home on a tight budgets if it's to be attempted it must take place in
the veterinary clinic and it may prove to be pretty expensive so to start with
your cat may be made to vomit if there's any poison within the stomach that can
be removed but the issues to this and that it's only really useful in the
first hour of poisoning it shouldn't be done in any cats that are showing
nervous symptoms and cats are notoriously hard to actually makes vomit
in the first place the next step is to try and prevent the
formation of these toxic breakdown chemicals and this can be done with
repeated intravenous ethanol or alcohol injections there is also another drug
called from episode which can be used if available although in again in my
experience that's often not the case and then finally supportive care is
given to try and maintain hydration and support kidney function and control any
other symptoms of poisoning a cat is suffering from so the big question then
how much antifreeze will kill a cat well short answer is not a lot simply walking
through a puddle and then licking their fur clean is likely to mean that cat
ingest enough antifreeze to be fatal and this is not just because cats are so
small they are in fact also over three times more sensitive to ethylene glycol
toxicity than dogs and the toxic dose in cats have undiluted antifreeze is 1.4
mil per kilogram body weight and this means that a standard ten pound or four
and a half kilo cat only needs to drink a little over 6 mil of antifreeze to
develop fatal poisoning a teaspoon of ethylene glycol could kill your cat so
what is the prognosis for a cat that's been poisoned well it's not very good
ethylene glycol poisoning has a reported fatality rate of around 91 to 97 percent
and to be honest I'm surprised it's not higher if you know your cat has been
exposed to antifreeze as soon as it happens then you
to get them to your vet immediately and if that's the case the prognosis might
be actually good but the reality is is that most cases we only know something's
wrong when too much damage has already taken place for a cat to stand any
chance of survival and often it may well in fact be kinder to consider euthanasia
rather than treatment once the diagnosis is confirmed unless you're catching it
really early so prevention then is clearly better than cure for such a
terrible deadly poison and really the energy spent trying to prevent it is
worthwhile and it's not rocket science so the first step is to keep any
products containing ethylene glycol safely locked away you don't even want
to give your cat the chance to lick the outside of a container
disposing of empty containers to prevent this is also very important if possible
you could also switch to an antifreeze product containing propylene glycol
rather than ethylene glycol but unfortunately they're not always
available and where they are they often quite a bit more expensive than our
normal standard antifreeze products now some antifreeze products have a
bittering agent added to make them less appealing to drink but really it's
unclear just how effective this is and cats or dogs or even children and
especially when cats only need to consume such a small amount for a fatal
poison to occur you know by all means use these products but don't let them
change how careful you are in using them and storing them so the next thing to do
to prevent antifreeze poisoning in cats is just to take great care when you are
using any products try and avoid spills and if there are any accidents then make
sure the mess is cleaned up thoroughly straight away also keep your cats away
whenever you're handling these chemicals finally check your car radiator
regularly and immediately repair any leaks you don't want a puddle of liquid
forming under your car especially when it's cold in the woods of an engine may
actually be quite attractive to a cat so have you ever had a cat suffer from
antifreeze poisoning please leave your story in the comments down below just to
help other cat owners understand what it is like and how serious it can be and
how important prevention is also make sure you check out my other articles on
common cat poisons so you can do your best to protect your cat from anything
else that might be toxic to them and until next time i'm dr. alex from our
pets health because they're family
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