Winter Fatalities in Cats
Winter Fatalities in Cats: Ethylene Glycol (Antifreeze) Toxicity in Cats
Veterinary pathologists in the Diagnostic Services at UCD School of Veterinary Medicine have issued a timely warning to the veterinary profession, cat owners and the general public who are involved in car maintenance, that in recent years there has been a re-emergence of deaths in individual, and groups of, cats due to ethylene glycol poisoning. Ethylene Glycol is a major component of Anti-Freeze used particularly in car radiators.
This condition is usually associated with the autumn and early winter periods, times when there is active car maintenance in preparation for the winter and antifreeze, which has a sweet taste, is readily drunk by cats with only small quantities required to induce a relatively rapid kidney failure.
Cats may initial present as dull, listless, incordinated and this can rapidly lead on to kidney failure and death. Similarly dogs can also be poisoned by ingestion of ethylene glycol. Post mortem examination confirms the intoxication.
While the exacts sources of the ethylene glycol cannot be confirmed, discarded small quantities of antifreeze or pools of fluid from leaky car radiators are potential sources and therefore it is important to be vigilant in the storage and removal of this toxicant.