Is your home dangerous?

When it comes to our households, pets are more vulnerable to poisoning than we think.  It's not always the obvious like rat poison or pesticides.  Sometimes it's the things we least expect ... from house plants to carpet cleaners.  The most common ways of poisoning are the ingestion of foods, plants, chemicals, medications and poisons meant to eradicate insects and other animals.  About 20% of all poisonings are from insecticides and 15% are from cleaning products.  Out of all household poisonings, about 1-2% of all poisoned pets die.  Though the fatality percentage seems small, the trick is to prevent poisoning at all costs, in the FIRST place!  We certainly don't want our pets to suffer and recovering a pet from poisoning can be quite costly and sometimes the residual damage can decrease a pet's lifespan.

Household Culprits

Pet poisoning in particular can occur in many ways.  The first category includes household cleaners, paint removers and thinners, drain and toilet bowl cleaners, floor and furniture polish, lye, floor and furniture wax and oven cleaner.  The second category includes antifreeze (which is the number one dog poison because of it's sweet taste), alcohol, acetone, lead-based paint, aspirin (especially toxic to cats) chocolate, human medicines, bleach, crayons, gopher poison, rat and insect poisons, snail and slug bait, detergents (which is the number one poison for children), hair dye, magic markers, weed killer and, as you can well imagine, the list goes on.

Wrongful exposure to any of these things can cause throat burns, stomach burns and intense irritation around the mouth if ingested.  The worst-case scenarios are bloody vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, abdominal pain, convulsions, comas and death.  One must think about the long-term affects of exposure to these things on our pets, in particular.  Over time, the accumulated exposure to toxic substances over long periods can have any number of medical implications.  The threat of toxins to the body is so real that a branch of medicine has been formed called Environmental Medicine.  These doctors work on cases such as farmers exposed to years of pesticides, workers exposed to asbestos and children exposed to lead.

How Toxic is My House?

According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), 50% of all illness can be traced to indoor pollution, which is most likely directly related to the use of household cleaners.  If cleaning products affect us this way, imagine the effect it can and does have on our pets and children.  Stroll through the grocery aisle and take a real look: if a product is truly safe, then why should it have warning labels?  Many of these products claim to be safe, but if you look past the jargon and learn to read the labels, they will prove otherwise.

In addition to household toxins, there are lists of plants that are toxic to animals.  To find out more about these plants and more about poison care in general, you can go to ASPCA's website.

Some Kibbles of Information

Cats, in particular, are very sensitive to chemicals.  If you don't rinse the litter box well enough, when the cat uses the litter box, he can get the residue of the chemical on his feet.  Because cats groom constantly, they're virtually ingesting this residue.  Furthermore, some cleaners (especially those that contain ammonia) leave vapors that can bother your cat.  Since cats have a tendency to use their litter box right after its cleaned, those fumes can be unhealthy for your cat.  And lastly, if your finicky cat still smells an odor even after you've cleaned the box with what you thought was a good cleaner, there's a chance that your cat will select another spot as a toilet and may stubbornly stick to that choice for the long haul.  Microbest Biodeodorizer doesn't just cover up odor, it eliminates it safely.

Not only does the concentrated Microbest Deodorizer clean and eliminate odor from litter boxes, it also has a plethora of other household uses.  It also eradicates odors from very diverse places such as trash receptacles, recycle bins, clothes hampers and drain lines.  It's also safe to use on pet bedding after accidents.  And it's much safer than other chemicals to use in small, closed spaces like bathrooms.