Antifreeze Poisoning in Cats: Conserving Olga Secure From Poisonous Chemical substances

Hello, I’m Christopher! Learn my introduction to be taught extra about me and my foolish Russian Blue cat, Olga.

Antifreeze and different chemical compounds containing ethylene glycol, resembling hydraulic fluid, de-icing merchandise, motor oil, paints, solvents, and wooden stains, are poisonous to cats and different animals. A small spoonful of antifreeze can kill a cat, and most felines don’t survive until they’re handled inside 6 hours.

Antifreeze Poisoning

The preliminary indicators of antifreeze poisoning embrace vomiting, lethargy, incoordination, extreme urination, hypothermia, extreme thirst, and seizures. Sadly, the cat’s situation appears to enhance after 12 hours, which may trigger an proprietor to suppose they’ve recovered.

They will change into dehydrated and breathe sooner, however kidney injury, comas, and dying are extra seemingly after 12 hours.

Conserving Olga Secure

I don’t let Olga outdoors or enable her to discover my storage, the place most of my poisonous chemical compounds are saved, so she is much less more likely to be uncovered to ethylene glycol than an outside cat. Nevertheless, I’m all the time cautious about the place I retailer family cleaners and different hazardous merchandise.

Olga can open doorways and cupboards, and I don’t preserve something poisonous within the loos since she likes to open the cupboards often. Though cats dislike candy meals, they’re interested in antifreeze’s aroma.

They will get sick from licking their paws after strolling by means of an antifreeze spill within the storage or sipping from a container with ethylene glycol. It’s obscure why somebody would deliberately poison a cat, however it occurs extra usually than you suppose.

Punishing a Cat Assassin

A number of years in the past, I used to be visiting a good friend once I heard folks screaming outdoors. Once we went outdoors to research, we discovered that one of many neighbors had left a tray of antifreeze outdoors to kill a stray cat.

A number of the condo’s residents had change into hooked up to the cat and ceaselessly fed him, they usually wished to homicide, or not less than mortally wound, the person who had killed him. They pounded on the assassin’s door and yelled, however he was both at school or hiding inside.

He was by no means injured or killed by the offended mob, however one of many cat lovers contacted the native college’s editor-in-chief. The cat killer was a journalist till he murdered the cat, and I’m glad the editor determined that unethical workers don’t make the perfect writers. I perceive that stray cats annoy folks and kill wildlife, however a number of humane deterrents can preserve them away.

Animal Cruelty Legal guidelines

In america, killing a cat is a felony and may end up in fines of as much as $5,000 or 2 years in jail. Every state imposes completely different penalties, however some legislatures try to determine an animal cruelty registry that’s modeled after intercourse offender lists.

Rising the fines and jail phrases for offenders might lower the variety of antifreeze deaths, however they gained’t persuade me to permit Olga to discover the outside. I’m paranoid sufficient about dropping a piece of onion or garlic on the ground once I’m making dinner, and I don’t wish to fear about one other particular person injuring or killing my cat.

Conserving your cat indoors could seem egocentric since they can’t discover the setting and hunt small animals, however it protects them from poisons, parasites, vehicles, and merciless people.