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Protect your pets from dangers of antifreeze

Protect your pets from dangers of antifreeze

Date published: 6/6/2003

There are dangers of not properly containing antifreeze. Two nights ago, my dog, Heidi, was in good spirits, playing in the yard with another dog. Later that evening she began vomiting and urinating all over the house, which was very unlike her.

Hours later she tumbled down the stairs and I realized that she had lost control of her back legs and balance. She was acting "drunk" and stumbling around. I took her to the local vet first thing that morning where they realized something was terribly wrong with her. She had now lost control of her front legs and had to be carried to my van.

I took her to a wonderful, 24-hour animal hospital in Richmond where they determined she had drank approximately 3 to 4 cups of antifreeze, and it was shutting down her kidneys. Although they worked around the clock on her, her kidneys stopped working and her chest began filling up with fluid, making it difficult to breathe. We had no choice but to put our friend to sleep.

Antifreeze looks like Kool-aid and tastes very sweet, so it is very attractive to small children and animals. Some people may not know the dangers of leaving antifreeze out, perhaps they don't have small children or even animals, but it kills in a very painful way that causes the animal to suffer before they die.

Heidi was a member of our family. She was a gentle giant--a 107-pound Rottweiler--who would lick you to death, and show a burglar where the television was long before she would think about biting him. She would have been 5 years old next month.

We shouldn't have lost Heidi like that. Please don't let another family go through what we are going through, and dispose of chemicals in a responsible way.

Beverly Comer

Spotsylvania

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Date published: 6/6/2003