Description
This article is from the Pet Owner's Guide
to Common Small Animal Poisons, by Julie Dahlke, DVM, a
graduate of the University of Minnesota, College of Veterinary
Medicine.
Drugs: Cleaning Products - XXX
Again, this category contains dozens of products used around the home
including toilet bowl cleaners, bleach, detergents, caustics (e.g.,
Drano(tm), Ajax(tm)), pine oils and others. Although intended to keep
our lives safe and healthy by maintaining a clean environment, these
products are often highly poisonous to living tissue if a dog or cat
eats or becomes otherwise exposed to the chemicals in the cleaner.
These cleaners can destroy tissue on contact by acid or alkaline
burns, by dissolving through tissue membranes, by absorbing through to
the animal's bloodstream and causing generalized illness and a variety
of other mechanisms. Pine oils and electric dishwashing detergents
particularly tend to be quite toxic although the range of chemicals
included in cleaning products can cause signs varying widely from mild
local irritation (many detergent soaps) to deep penetrating tissue
damage (alkaline products) to severe systemic disease (pine oils and
others). Once again the best remedy is prevention. Keep all cleaners
tightly closed when not in use to prevent accidental spills and
ingestion. Also, be sure to keep pets out of newly cleaned areas to
avoid paw injuries from walking in the newly applied cleaning solution
and mouth burns from the animal then grooming itself. Also be aware of
the possible dangers of toilet bowl cleaners from dogs and cats who
consider the toilet just another water bowl! In case of accidental
exposure to cleaning products, it is generally recommended to flush
the skin (or mouth) with plain water to wash away remaining chemicals,
then call in to your veterinary clinic for further instructions. In
the AAPCC 1990 report, 5.9% (2,217 animals) of all non-drug poison
exposures were inquiries following exposure to cleaning products, with
80 of those animals being moderately to severely affected.
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small animal, pet, poison, guide, plant, drugs, chocolate, cleaning products, fertilizer, flea, insecticides
