DANGER OF ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES AND PETS... OK, just had the fright of my life with little Midnight so feel I need to stress the risks on here. It may or may not apply to you, but useful to know and spread the word. The juice used in the e-cigs that gives of the smokey vapour while delivering the nicotine to the user is made up of 60% propylene glycol (antifreeze) 36-39% food flavourings. The nicotine content makes up the remaining percentage. That is to say a high strength fluid of 3.6% will contain 36 milligrams of nicotine per 1 millilitre of dilutent. When used as it should be, this cocktail is relatively harmless, however if ingested the high levels of nicotine will have grave consequences for the animal. The liquid is readily available to re-fill the cartridges in bottles up to 30ml and the cartridges when bought pre-filled contain up to 2ml of fluid. Toxic dose is approx. 2mg per kilo of body weight. Lethal dose is approx 8mg per kilo of body weight. So a bottle of high strength liquid has the potential to send an entire sled team to rainbow bridge or indeed the musher and his wing man...! The scary thing is the juice comes in all manner of mouth watering flavours, from cookie dough and choc chip to roast chicken. Luckily the first thing nicotine poisoning does is stimulate the vomit centre of the brain and it cannot be absorbed in the acid environment of the stomach, it needs to pass into the small intestines for absorption. Symptoms include. Tremors, constricted pupils, drooling, hallucinations, excitement, vomiting and diarrhoea, twitching, seizure, racing heart rate, high blood pressure or possible circulatory collapse at high doses. Sorry this post is a bit technical and a possibly a bit over dramatic but cast your your eyes on the pavement in any town and you will see these discarded cartridges. Even a used one will most likely cause severe vomiting. Ive spoken with the vet who treated Midnight and he has taken pictures and will document the dangers and put out a bulletin within veterinary circles. As these e-cigs become more widespread so will the risks of someone inadvertently poisoning their pet. So if you know anyone who uses one of these things let them know the dangers.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 18:28:36 +0000
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