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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Pet owners please read! UPDATE 12-21-07
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Jason Black
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1723
From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 09-26-2007 09:58 PM
UPDATES ARE POSTED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER BELOW
Please - if you have a dog or cat, please know that there are SEVERE and DEADLY repercussions from the chemicals in many of the familiar Flea/Tick treatments, like Biospot, K9 Advantix, Advantage and those over teh counter versions you find in Pet & discount stores.
Below is a post I contributed tonight (9-26-07) to http://www.elversonpuzzle.com/biospot.html
As hard as my heart aches right now, I'd like to first Thank You for continuing to maintain this website, which is where I first leaned about the adverse effects of biospot. About a year ago, I bought Biospot for my two Peke's from Drs. Foster & Smith online. I Google'd up Biospot, just to be on the safe side, and learned, thru numerous sites that there were apparent issues with the product. Being somewhat concerned, I knew to watch the dogs after initial application. Both were fine, and never showed any ill effects from the dosage. Fast forward a year. Two days agao, my wife gave Kia & Bella their somewhat regular dose of Biospot.
As I type this, Bella is under emergency care at the local Vet's office. She was to undergo a blood transfusion tonight with an immediate catheter in place. My wife came home from work today to find her laying in the floor lethargic and very unresponsive to any stimuli. Her breakfast dish had not been touched, her morning treat was still in its' place on the sofa and the puppy pad was a bright yellow/orange hue. She phoned me in a panic and I told her to put Bella in the car and take her to the Vet IMMEDIATELY. By the time I got there, the Vet (Dr. Bruce Crull) had diagnosed her with IMHA. He noted the overwhelming yellow tinge to her belly and her lethargy and processed blood work immediately. Her PCV is a 9 when it should be more than 30. He was very clear in the fact that this is a very bad case of IMHA and advised that we should consider a blood transfusion. We instructed him to do whatever it took to treat Bella. She is at the Vet now, alone and in a cage, without her sister, Kia, and not to mention without my wife and I. My wife is frantic and my trying to console and reason with her is of little good. I'm not sure what's worse, knowing how dire this diagnoses is, or not knowing what poor Bella is feeling/going thru right now all be herself...
I have been looking at numerous sites trying to find positive results from dogs diagnosed with IMHA, but the responses thusf ar are very dismal, so I've stopped looking for the night. While I can't prove that the IMHA is a direct result of the Biospot, I will always hold in my heart that it IS the reason our poor Bella is where she is right now. If this post does nothing more, I hope that it will stop ONE person from applying this product, or any like it, to their beloved pet! We did not notice any strange behavior at all until this evening when my wife got home from work. Bella did vomit once yesterday and again this morning very early in the AM, but I attributed this to the fact that she has vomited every once in a while because she east so fast and doesn't seem to chew half her food. I wish I would have thought more about what might have been going on this morning. Perhaps they would have been able to begin treatment quicker which could have slown down the aggressiveness of the red blood cell destruction....
Thank you again for your site and folks - FOLKS - PLEASE REFRAIN FROM USING BIOSPOT OR ANY PRODUCT OF THE LIKE ON YOUR PET.... It is my sincere hope that this will prevent at least ONE pet from suffering like our poor Bella is.. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Please Bella - Get better so we can bring you home!
UPDATED 10-7-07
I wanted to let you all know that Bella had to have another transfusion yesterday morning. On Wed night
she became very unstable, not able to hold herself up and breathing heavily. To make a long story short,
her PCV count dropped from a high of 18% back down to 6%. Her reticulated (sp?) count was also very
low which means she was not, and still is not, reproducing her own red blood cells. She has no appetite
and is being 'force fed' to some degree. Our regular vet has been really good about keeping me up to
speed with what's going on, as I've been out of town for the last 6 days.
I flew back into town today and immediately went to the vet's office to pick her up. (she's been day tripping
at the vet for monitoring all week) I noted right away that she was more alert and she began licking me and giving kisses right away, which she has not done up to the point, at least to this degree.
Her appetite seems to be coming back. She ate a handful of boiled chicken that was pulled into tiny pieces
and some steak that my mother in law made for her last night. Oh, and when we got home today, she saw
one of her treats on the floor.. she went right over to it, picked it up, walked off and hid it, like she always
does. She looks more alert, is drinking PLENTY of water (mixed with pedialyte) and still seems to have an appetite, which I'm happy about.
The true test will come on Monday, when she goes back in for more bloodwork. I'm praying that her PCV is
up beyond 25 and that her reticulated count is up in the teens. If her counts are still low, Dr. Crull wants to do
a bone marrow aspirate. From what I gather, this is a very painful procedure, but it will allow them to identify
any underlying issues that may be present that are preventing Bella from reproducing red blood cells. He mentioned cancer, which I do not believe to be the case, and some other possibilities that I don't recall the names of. Please say a prayer for my Bella in hopes that her counts begin to climb after this last transfusion
of spun blood on 10-4-07.
UPDATED 10-7-07
Bella appears, from the outside, to be making some improvements. She is eating finally, and, after two days had a bowel movement. She is alert enough to know when she has to pee, and will move to her puppy pad when she needs to. She's having balance issues, but I'm attributing this to the fact that she has a port on her hind leg, which throws her off a little. In addition, she's on four different meds right now, so they may be messing her up a little.
The true test, as noted above, will come tomorrow once they have done blood work again. I'm praying that her PCV is up around 30 and her reticulated (sp) count is up where it needs to be, around 15% or more.
UPDATED 11-23-07
Bella is still undergoing weekly bloodwork. Her PCV counts are back up in the 30's range and her retic count has climbed to between 7% and 8%, which is not the best in the world, but is far better than where she was the two months ago.
Unfortunately, she had a slight relapse of sorts over the last week. Her routine Monday bloodwork showed a drop in PCV count to the high 20's and a retic count of 2%. The vet had me bring her back in today for a re-test, jst to be sure that was nothing really out of line taking place.
Today, her PCV count was at 30%+ which is good, and her retic count climbed to 5.7%, which is also a good sign that nothing really wrong is taking place.
I have to say, this has been a HUGE roller coaster ride from the start. It's painful to see something you love so much so out of sorts and knowing that there is nothing that you can do to make it better, at least not immediately. Bella has gained a couple pounds, but she looks HUGE compared to her normal self. This is due to the prednisone.. which will be slowly backed down as she maintains healthy blood counts, which, for me, can't happen fast enough. I just want her to be herself.. she looks like she is beat all the time now.. little energy... sad expression on her face... just not 'Bella'.
In the meantime, I've found solace at a few websites that have an enormous amount of information about AIHA/IMHA and it's effects on pets and their owners. Many, MANY folks have endured the same thing we are going thru right now, many with positive outcomes, many without.
Thanks to all of you who have kept Bella in your thoughts or who may have said a prayer for her... she definitely needed it.
UPDATED 12-2-07
Bella went in for weekly blood work on Friday. Her PCV dropped from 30 to 28. Her retics were 4.5.
We are in week 9 and it seems like she's beginning to regress. Our vet is getting worried that if she doesn't hit her turn around quick, things could go from bad to worse, and quickly.
He began a scrip for Doxycycline Friday and indicated that it would likely take two weeks to notice any effects, if any were to be noted.
I'm lost now. He mentioned the possibility of a teaching school, which our nearest would be NC State in Raleigh, NC. He also noted that he was aware of experimental testing, which I will not allow, so that was quickly ruled out.
I know that many of you here have been waiting longer than our nine weeks, but knowing that she's on such a high dose of pred also makes me worry a little. She's blown up like a tick right now.. Gained a few pounds, maybe two, but looks really swollen. At times, she seems energetic, but it only lasts for a few minutes at best, then it's back to normal and she's resting.
I don't understand how she can look like she's doing so much better on the outside, when the inside is really not that much better off than it was 7-8 weeks ago.
Bella is currently on Pred - 15mg, azathioprine (unsure of dosage) and famitodine (Pepcid AC), and now Doxycyline (again, unsure of the dosage as I had to leave town for work and the wife is administering it)
She's a Peke who is five years old and weighs 20lbs now. She was at 17 or so prior.
I don't know how the rest of you battle this ride. My heart is saying one thing, logic is telling me otherwise. I can't imagine coming home and not seeing Bella at the door, but I hate seeing her in the shape she's in now, knowing what she was like prior to this damned disease....
EDIT FOR UPDATE 12-21-07
Took Bella to the vet for routine bloodwork. We had been on vacation (Disney World) for a week. While on vacation, we had a close friend stay at our house and dog sit both Kia and Bella. We recieved reports of Bella being a maniac while we were gone. She was running around, playing more, staying up late at night, just being, well, herself.
Took her in for her bloodwork.. got the call from the vet late in the afternoon. PCV was, for the first time since 9-28-07, up to "normal" range. It was 37%!
Her retic count was also up from her last testing, to 6%.
We were able to drop the daily dosage of Prednisone to 1 10mg pill in the morning. This is down from the initial 20mg dosage.. and I'm happy about that. She was recently put on doxycycline, which is an antibiotic used to treat a tick borne disease. We don't know if it is coincidental or not, but she's getting higher blood counts after being on this for about 11 days. she'll be on it for a month and we'll see what happens as time passes.
At any rate, this was very good news and Leah and I are very happy to hear the great news!
[ 12-20-2007, 10:08 PM: Message edited by: Jason Black ]
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Jason Black
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1723
From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 09-27-2007 09:33 PM
Shane:
Thanks..
Chris:
It was a topical treatment, and the sad thing is that we don't know, for sure, that the Biospot is what caused her symptoms, but I'll never be convinced otherwise.
She's had a transfusion of Oxyglobin (I think it was) and that didn't work, so the vet began a second transfusion of whole blood from his own dog (long story). My wife went down to see her tonight and it seems that she may be a very little bit better, but she's still very bad off. She did stand up for Leah, which was more than she did for me.. she is still very weak and had two very bad bouts of diarrhea today, which, of course, leads to dehydration.
They did begin administering the steriods (prednisone) today, which is supposed to help 'jump start' her healing process. I really don't understand the process, but I know that it's what's done in cases of IMHA according to everything I've read online..
At any rate, we're paying one of the Vet tech's to stay overnight with her for monitoring. The worst isn't over yet, but we feel like between last night and tonight, the most critical time is passing. It's still not good, by any stretch, but the fact that she's still here makes me feel a little bit better.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 10-01-2007 07:26 AM
Yes, Jason, keep us informed. Hope all works out for the best. People who don't have pets simply don't understand how much they become part of our families and how traumatic it is when anything bad happens to them.
In this same vein. If you have a bird of any type, parakeet, canary, cockatiel, and you own any non-stick cookware -- be VERY VERY CAREFUL. There is a little known, DEADLY fact that no one warms you about, not the pet stores that sell the birds or any warning whatsoever on the cookware itself, but non-stick coatings (905 of which are Teflon or a knockoff of that compound), even the ones imbedded in the metal, they all off-gas toxic fumes when they get over heated.
I was cooking in the kitchen, my cockatiel's cage is in the foyer, about 40 feet from the kitchen. There is no door between the two. I got a phone call in the middle of cooking and forgot about the pot on the stove. When I remembered and ran to turn it off -- it had only been a few minutes -- the liquid in it had not quite evaporated; it was by no means completely dry and certainly not yet burning. But it was enough. When I left the kitchen to go back on the phone, I passed the cage and noticed the bird was gone. He had free reign of the house when we were home so I didn't think anything of it, but I hadn't heard him fly -- it's a distinctive sound. Curious, after the phone call I went back to investigate and found him dead in the bottom of the cage.
At the time I didn't connect the incident in the kitchen with the death of the bird. But I told a friend how I had discovered the dead bird after I almost burned something on the stove. She called back a few hours later and said she found information on the internet saying that when the Teflon coating overheats, even to temperatures used on a normal cooking range, it produces a toxin that will kill fowl in as little as 4 minutes. It causes their lungs to fill with fluid and basically they drown.
I was devastated. I had never heard this, and indeed Dupont has know about this for years and refuses to put warnings on their Teflon products. I have no idea why they don't; all other manufactures that make products which can be harmful to pets put those warnings on the labels. Knowing this will not stop me from buying the damn pots, just that I would be very careful when cooking. When I later bought another bird, I asked the sales person at Petland about the Teflon thing and she hadn't a clue. A letter to Neil Padren, the CEO of Petland telling him that his sales people should warn customers who are buying birds about this danger got no response.
So be forwarded. DON'T cook in non-stick potware if you have a bird in the house. Or at least put it in an isolated room when cooking.
Here: http://www.ewg.org/reports/toxicteflon/
EWG finds heated Teflon pans can turn toxic faster than DuPont claims.
In two to five minutes on a conventional stovetop, cookware coated with Teflon and other non-stick surfaces can exceed temperatures at which the coating breaks apart and emits toxic particles and gases linked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pet bird deaths and an unknown number of human illnesses each year, according to tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG).
In new tests conducted by a university food safety professor, a generic non-stick frying pan preheated on a conventional, electric stovetop burner reached 736°F in three minutes and 20 seconds, with temperatures still rising when the tests were terminated. A Teflon pan reached 721°F in just five minutes under the same test conditions (See Figure 1), as measured by a commercially available infrared thermometer. DuPont studies show that the Teflon offgases toxic particulates at 446°F. At 680°F Teflon pans release at least six toxic gases, including two carcinogens, two global pollutants, and MFA, a chemical lethal to humans at low doses. At temperatures that DuPont scientists claim are reached on stovetop drip pans (1000°F), non-stick coatings break down to a chemical warfare agent known as PFIB, and a chemical analog of the WWII nerve gas phosgene.
For the past fifty years DuPont has claimed that their Teflon coatings do not emit hazardous chemicals through normal use. In a recent press release, DuPont wrote that "significant decomposition of the coating will occur only when temperatures exceed about 660 degrees F (340 degrees C). These temperatures alone are well above the normal cooking range."
These new tests show that cookware exceeds these temperatures and turns toxic through the common act of preheating a pan, on a burner set on high.
In cases of "Teflon toxicosis," as the bird poisonings are called, the lungs of exposed birds hemorrhage and fill with fluid, leading to suffocation. DuPont acknowledges that the fumes can also sicken people, a condition called "polymer fume fever." DuPont has never studied the incidence of the fever among users of the billions of non-stick pots and pans sold around the world. Neither has the company studied the long-term effects from the sickness, or the extent to which Teflon exposures lead to human illnesses believed erroneously to be the common flu.
The government has not assessed the safety of non-stick cookware. According to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food safety scientist: "You won't find a regulation anywhere on the books that specifically addresses cookwares," although the FDA approved Teflon for contact with food in 1960 based on a food frying study that found higher levels of Teflon chemicals in hamburger cooked on heat-aged and old pans. At the time, FDA judged these levels to be of little health significance.
Of the 6.9 million bird-owning households in the US that claim an estimated 19 million pet birds, many don't know know that Teflon poses an acute hazard to birds. Most non-stick cookware carries no warning label. DuPont publicly acknowledges that Teflon can kill birds, but the company-produced public service brochure on bird safety discusses the hazards of ceiling fans, mirrors, toilets, and cats before mentioning the dangers of Teflon fumes.
As a result of the new data showing that non-stick surfaces reach toxic temperatures in a matter of minutes, EWG has petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to require that cookware and heated appliances bearing non-stick coatings must carry a label warning of the acute hazard the coating poses to pet birds. Additionally, we recommend that bird owners completely avoid cookware and heated appliances with non-stick coatings. Alternative cookware includes stainless steel and cast iron, neither of which offgases persistent pollutants that kill birds.
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Jason Black
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1723
From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 10-07-2007 02:41 PM
James
Thanks for asking -
Phil
Thanks for the thoughts buddy..! You need to email me sometime..
Copy/Pasted from another post I made on another site:
I wanted to let you all know that Bella had to have another transfusion yesterday morning. On Wed night
she became very unstable, not able to hold herself up and breathing heavily. To make a long story short,
her PCV count dropped from a high of 18% back down to 6%. Her reticulated (sp?) count was also very
low which means she was not, and still is not, reproducing her own red blood cells. She has no appetite
and is being 'force fed' to some degree. Our regular vet has been really good about keeping me up to
speed with what's going on, as I've been out of town for the last 6 days.
I flew back into town today and immediately went to the vet's office to pick her up. (she's been day tripping
at the vet for monitoring all week) I noted right away that she was more alert and she began licking me and giving kisses right away, which she has not done up to the point, at least to this degree.
Her appetite seems to be coming back. She ate a handful of boiled chicken that was pulled into tiny pieces
and some steak that my mother in law made for her last night. Oh, and when we got home today, she saw
one of her treats on the floor.. she went right over to it, picked it up, walked off and hid it, like she always
does. She looks more alert, is drinking PLENTY of water (mixed with pedialyte) and still seems to have an appetite, which I'm happy about.
The true test will come on Monday, when she goes back in for more bloodwork. I'm praying that her PCV is
up beyond 25 and that her reticulated count is up in the teens. If her counts are still low, Dr. Crull wants to do
a bone marrow aspirate. From what I gather, this is a very painful procedure, but it will allow them to identify
any underlying issues that may be present that are preventing Bella from reproducing red blood cells. He mentioned cancer, which I do not believe to be the case, and some other possibilities that I don't recall the names of. Please say a prayer for my Bella in hopes that her counts begin to climb after this last transfusion
of spun blood on 10-4-07.
UPDATED 10-7-07
Bella appears, from the outside, to be making some improvements. She is eating finally, and, after two days had a bowel movement. She is alert enough to know when she has to pee, and will move to her puppy pad when she needs to. She's having balance issues, but I'm attributing this to the fact that she has a port on her hind leg, which throws her off a little. In addition, she's on four different meds right now, so they may be messing her up a little.
The true test, as noted above, will come tomorrow once they have done blood work again. I'm praying that her PCV is up around 30 and her reticulated (sp) count is up where it needs to be, around 15% or more.
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