Due to many reasons (including FOUR major hurricanes in Florida
during the past 2 months), I am WAY behind in reading all my email,
especially anything in any of my user-IDs other than lakai_gp.
This message was sent to me 6 weeks ago, to my "healthy" email
address where I used to be subscribed to a half-dozen health-
related maillists..

petmedicinechest.com used to be one of my favorite mail lists,
with many good tips on how to keep all our pets healthy.
Although this is about bird deaths, it may be important for
dogs as well, especially young puppies.

Canine Medicine Chest has stated, "If you wish to reprint this,
you have our permission, but please do so in its entirety in order
for our contact information to be available."
--
Warmly, Joy LaCaille - Holistic_GP listowner
& the "Naturally Reared" Lakai German Pinschers
http://www.germanpinschers.com/lakai.html

===================
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 12:09:52 -0400
From: Canine Medicine Chest <dogmed@...>
Subject: Letter of warning from a long-time Customer
TO: Canine Newsletter Readers
FROM: Canine Medicine Chest

As all of you know, from time-to-time we reprint letters that come from our
trusted customers who care enough about all animals' welfare to take the
time to send us their own personal experiences. This letter comes from a
long long time customer from Texas who lost some of her most precious
birds after using a common household product. The following is her
story in her own words:

"ATTENTION ALL BIRD LOVERS!

I want to share with you a tragic incident, in hopes that it will
spare you the loss of your treasured feathered friends.

My grandmother's cedar chest was positioned in my bird room.
Since it was in need of polishing, I looked in my cabinet to find
OLD ENGLISH FURNITURE POLISH, which stated on the label that it
CONTAINED NATURAL LEMON OIL and had NO WARNINGS WITH REGARD TO
INHALATION TOXICITY.

Tragically, after ONLY TWENTY MINUTES of using this product in my
bird room, I had lost three of my precious budgies, Cupcake, Turner,
and Blue. I frantically rushed all other birds from the room to
outdoor fresh air. Not knowing for certain at this time what
epidemic had befallen my flock, I began mapping the day's routine
in my mind, down to the last 30 minutes. The quickness and nature
of their deaths was textbook for food or chemical toxicity.
Since their diets had not been altered on this particular day, and
the furniture polish had been applied only 30 minutes ago, I had to
come to the horrifying conclusion that it was the TOXIC FUMES
from the OLD ENGLISH FURNITURE POLISH that was responsible for
these tragedies. I immediately opened all windows and moved the
cedar chest out of the room,

Within TEN MORE MINUTES my sweet conyer, Sunny died in my arms.
At this point, my theory was confirmed because even though he was
the biggest bird, his cage was positioned closet to the chest.
My cockatiels were spared, but exhibited toxicity symptoms.
My theory was that they were not as exposed to the fumes, since
their cages were positioned further away from the chest and nearer
the air conditioning vent, which provided some air circulation.

I immediately began treatment for toxicity on my cockatiels using
METALOX and HEMOTOX combined with SYSTAMAJUV, PROBAC, and TRACE
MINERALS. I was so glad that I kept a stock of products on hand
for emergencies. I am very grateful, because now after about a
week since the incident, my cockatiels, Buddy, Sambo, and Tweety
are stabilizing, showing some weight gain, and on the way to recovery.

Besides the grief and sadness from the loss of my feathered friends,
I now have to deal with the guilt that IT COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED.
I appeal to you to PLEASE keep the environment that YOU and YOUR BIRDS
live in free from toxic fumes!

Make a point to think about FUMES AND CONSUMPTION TOXICITY levels
when trying a new product and even using your old ones in your
household.

According to The Reckitt & Coleman Household Products report
submitted to the Gov. for OLD ENGLISH FURNITURE POLISH, there was
NO TESTING DONE FOR INHALATION; consequently, there was
NO WARNING ON THE LABEL FOR INHALATION TOXICITY.
This proves that you can't always trust that the label is giving
you accurate and complete information about the product.

Please be informed and responsible, you just might SAVE THE LIFE
of a pet, a child, or your own …

Regretfully submitted,
Julia"
-------
Thankfully, Julia has an emergency medical kit that she had stocked
with Hemotox and Metaltox for just this type of extreme emergency.
With toxins and pets, one has a very very short time to react.
The smaller the pet, the shorter the time because the more quickly
the poisons are spread within the blood stream.

All dog owners should most definitely have these toxicity removers
in their medicine chest too. Go here for further information:
http://www.petmedicinechest.com/canine/discussions/toxinstext.asp

We thought you better know.
Yours for robust dog health,
The Team
www.caninemedicinechest.com
doghelp@...
(402) 571-4466
PS. As always, call us or email us if we can help you with
any dog health questions.
PPS. Pass this along to another dog lover if you wish.
PPPS. If you wish to reprint this, you have our permission,
but please do so in its entirety in order for our contact
information to be available.
3443 Highway 44 - Logan, IA 51546