Ethylene Glycol

Re: Ethylene Glycol

kirsty — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 19:23:15 GMT

Sadly we see these regularly - suspect mainly deliberate and is a well known poison amongst the racing pigeon fraternity.

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 17:36:40 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"]The police aren't interested[/quote] Our local police were as helpful as possible, the PCO went and talked to the possible suspect but of course no proof. I did write an article in the local papers and free directory so maybe that helped. But the fact the cases stopped my prove that just the publicity or the police presence made them think twice.

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Bob Russell — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 16:25:34 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"]

A sad update

Client had 7 cats, lost 4 so far.

The police aren't interested

Neil

[/quote]

They will be when you contact the local paper! They are usually very keen to do stories like this, it is good for circulation figures!

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Neil Wheadon — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 16:07:19 GMT

A sad update

Client had 7 cats, lost 4 so far.

The police aren't interested

Neil

Re: Ethylene Glycol

mariette asselbergs — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 20:56:41 GMT

[quote user="Linda Filshie"][quote user="mariette asselbergs"] 4 hours 10 ml of 40% vodka by mouth which he liked very much

[/quote]

Labrador by any chance?

[/quote]

Right, lab cross about a year old, real teenager!

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Hanna Bennett — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 20:31:41 GMT

this year we have seen quite a few neurological ethylene glycol cats - large kidneys and completely disorientated - at least two with the typical crystals in the urine.

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Neil Wheadon — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 11:36:12 GMT

On the twelth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

12 Christmas puddings

11 bunch of Lillies

10 strips of tinsel

9 trays of Milk Tray

8 leather gloves

7 holly berries

6 ferrero rocher

5 toy cars

4 golf balls

3 kebab skewers

2 turkey carcases

and a stocking full of quality street.

All dealt with in the past 20 years.

Neil

Merry Christmas to all those manning the OOH calls

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Bob Russell — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 10:16:15 GMT

Don't forget the good old Lily at this time of year! People visit bearing bunches of flowers, almost always containing the damn things!

Non-malicious poisoning happens too!

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 09:48:02 GMT

Some people are just evil - and I'd dearly love this to be a mandatory capital offence.

Wynne

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 09:25:21 GMT

We had a run of 3 cases in the summer in just a week, all from the same household. The client is a stereotypical nutty cat lady with loads of cats who fosters for a a local cat re-homing charity. The obvious conclusion was that someone resented them messing in their garden and poisoned them, however what was odd was that she has dozens of cats and the only ones affected were foster cats, and there are no other proven cases I'm aware of in the area which has a high housing density and a high density of cats. There was no evidence of a local source like a leaking car radiator and we suspected a case of Munchhausen's disease by proxy here however unlikely it might seem. There was one anecdotal story of a someone nearby who saw her neighbour spray her cat with liquid from a spray bottle and when she challenged him he said he was doing it to cool the cat down as it seemed hot (a very unlikely scenario), and the cat allegedly died shortly afterwards but AFAIK there was no PM exam. or diagnosis. The RSPCA and the local PCO took an interest and sniffed around this local suspect but there was nothing more to go on and there have been no more cases since.

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Linda Filshie — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 21:49:37 GMT

[quote user="mariette asselbergs"] 4 hours 10 ml of 40% vodka by mouth which he liked very much

[/quote]

Labrador by any chance?

Re: Ethylene Glycol

mariette asselbergs — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 19:39:17 GMT

There might be another thing going on. A week ago I was ECC-ing and a dog was brought in which had been lapping up a red fluid from a big pool dumped outside an ice skating ring. The staff of the ice skating ring told the owner very helpfully (!!) that it was ethylene glycol but no problem for dogs. Owner went on the internet and brought the dog in right away, showed us photographs of the stuff and was definitely antifreeze. We gave the dog apomorphine and afterwards cerenia and every 4 hours 10 ml of 40% vodka by mouth which he liked very much and he survived uneventfully. Police was not interested to do anything about it.

Unfortunately this is the time when antifreeze is being used so spills are to be expected even without bad intent. Good for Halfords to have bitter antifreeze.

Mariette

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Nicola Lawlor — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 18:40:35 GMT

How horrible - hope the scum involved gets their come-uppance over this.
Have the local police and RSPCA been informed - presume the man who brought the ham in can give information about where it was found and therefore there just may be a chance of catching said scum in the process if the authorities are pro-active in this case?

Re: Ethylene Glycol

bob lehner — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 16:57:37 GMT

I can't believe it's not 'buttering'....!

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Niall Taylor — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 15:59:18 GMT

I was going to say - buttering isn't going to help at all!

What an appalling thing to do, to deliberately poison an animal. I wonder what would make someone do that sort of thing?

I'll put the word round locally, and about the Halford's attempt to reduce the risk too - very commendable.

Cheers,

Niall

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Neil Wheadon — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:40:07 GMT

Ahhhhh iPAD spell checker in action Shows it does have a sense of humour Neil

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Niall Taylor — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:36:19 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"]Halfords are selling antifreeze with a buttering agent in it now which should be applauded[/quote]

?Bittering agent, perhaps?

Niall

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Neil Wheadon — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:25:20 GMT

Yes it looks like someone is poisoning the cats and he brought in the evidence. I wasn't there when the ham was brought in, so can't comment on the circumstances. The point of the post was to alert vets that if seeing cats with bizarre clinical neurological signs, then Ethylene Glycol is on the list, and especially those in the Bristol area. Halfords are selling antifreeze with a buttering agent in it now which should be applauded. Neil

Re: Ethylene Glycol

Niall Taylor — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 09:13:55 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"]The next night his other cat came in with a high BUN and he had a packet of ham soaked in antifreeze (seen by another vet)[/quote]

Sounds a most distressing case - I'm not clear on the sentence above though. Are you suggesting someone is poisoning cats by leaving baited ham around for them to eat?

Niall