That fall nip in the air can make even parked cars deadly to cats and dogs. A University of Georgia veterinarian says cooler weather often leads to two fatal attractions for household pets.
"As the weather cools, many cats are attracted to the warmth of the car's engine," said Jim Strickland, an Extension Service veterinarian with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
"If you don't look out for them, they can still be in there when you crank the car," he said. "And many of them wind up getting into the fan belt."
When that happens, he said, there often isn't much a veterinarian can do to help.
A more common cool-weather problem may be even more deadly. As winter nears, many people check, change or add to their car's antifreeze. Being just a little careless in this chore has killed many dogs and cats, Strickland said.
"The ethylene glycol in some antifreeze is extremely deadly," he said. "It's deadly to any mammal. And it's a fairly common cause of death in cats and dogs."
Many new antifreeze products don't contain ethylene glycol, he said. Those shouldn't be toxic to pets. "It's best to be careful, though, even when using those products," he said.
Antifreezes containing ethylene glycol are deadly to cats and dogs for three reasons, he said. One, the animals lap it up voluntarily, even when water is nearby. Two, it takes only a tiny amount to kill a dog or cat. And three, most people don't know it's that lethal.
"Cats and dogs seem to like the taste of it," Strickland said. "I don't know if it has a sweet taste or what, but they naturally go to it if it's around."
Only one-fourth of an ounce of antifreeze will kill a 10- to 12-pound cat, he said. Two ounces will kill a 25-pound dog.
"It's easy to spill that much antifreeze when you first start to pour a full container," Strickland said.
Ethylene glycol affects mostly the kidneys, he said. Dogs and cats get severely dehydrated and have below-normal temperatures. They'll show weakness and staggering in their back legs and a sluggishness that leads into coma and eventual death.
All that happens in a few hours. So for a veterinarian to have any chance to successfully treat the dog or cat, he has to know the animal has consumed antifreeze.
"The symptoms are easy to confuse with injury, encephalitis or an overdose of a number of drugs," Strickland said. "And by the time you can get a lab analysis done, it's usually too late to help the animal."
Not only must the vet know the animal has gotten into antifreeze, but it's also crucial to tell him exactly when it happened, Strickland said.
"The treatment varies at different stages," he said. "For the vet to really know what to do, he needs to know how long it has been since the antifreeze was ingested. The timing is critical."
If you take an antifreeze-poisoned cat or dog right away to the vet and tell him all he needs to know, he may be able to save it, depending on how much antifreeze it consumed.
But all the pieces rarely fall together. So only about 20 percent of the dogs and cats survive.
"The best way to handle it is to be very careful not to let animals get to the antifreeze in the first place," Strickland said.
Taking the extra care and time to wipe up spills or hose down the place where the radiator boils over is the easiest, cheapest and most effective way to protect your pets from antifreeze poisoning.
