Hello

Our dog bit into one of those hot/cold packs that are often used to cool down picnic hammers or to apply on injuries.

She did this on sunday (today is wednesday). She has the symptoms of being very drunk and today has problems standing and walking. She had what seemed to be a fit during the night and she has vomited often.

Our vet says to wait and see what happens.

We are very worried and would appreciate any advise

There is an Animal Poison Control Center. The number is: (888) 426-4435. However, they do charge a substantial fee (around $60), to be charged to your credit card.

I'm no expert, but with the kind of symptoms your dog is showing, I would be a lot more concerned than "wait and see," as your vet advised. If it were a human child with those symptoms, at the very least he/she would be hospitalized, given IV fluids to help flush out/dilute the poison, and kept for observation overnight. I would expect that even with a dog, IV fluids might be helpful in the same way, even if there is no other antidote. At least the dog would already be in the hospital, there for resuscitation, should she go into crisis.

The bottom line is this: Do you trust your vet, or do you think you want a second opinion/a different vet?

Unfortunately our dog died.

We called the vets poison bureau and following this took the dog to a specialist unit but it was too late. In such cases the dog should be treated within hours of contamination.

It took 4 days for the effects of the poison to finally kill our dog.

We still have the freezer packs and there are no listing of the bag's contents and no warnings of any dangers. Although we are guilty of not acting quick enough, I think that a warning on the bag would have helped. I dread to think of what might happen if one of these were to leak onto something that is accessible by an infant.

that's terrible..and i guess that is one strange dog..

That's awful. I'm so sorry to hear that.

That's so sad. I'm truly sorry for your loss, and for what your dog had to go through. You're right: The manufacturers should put a warning on the freezer packs. At the very least, it would be helpful in case the pack leaks inside a lunchbox, and gets all over the food, or our hands.

Im sorry you lost your dog. How very sad.

But I'm a little concerned...hot/cold gel packs should not be toxic. That's why they don't carry any warnings. Are you sure your dog couldn't have gotten into something else besides the gel pack? Like antifreeze or lawn chemicals, for example.

[cooperjasper]

I came across your posting and wanted to let you know that this has happened to us too. Our dog chewed the corner of the ice pack and ingested a very small amount of the gel inside. He died 3 days later from Ethylene Glycol (antifreeze) poisoning. We have had the ice pack tested and it tested positive for Ethylene Glycol. We are also concerned about the fact that this same ice pack was in our child's lunch box. We are pursuing this case.

[cooperjasper]

This happened to my dog 3 weeks ago. He ate part of a children's brand ice pack and went into acute kidney failure and died 2 days later. We sent a biopsy of his kidneys and part of the ice pack to a toxicology lab at Texas A&M University and they determined that it is ethylene glycol (antifreeze) in the pack. The ice pack is labeled NON-TOXIC. We are actively pursuing this . I would love to "talk" with you.

[Timwinglobay]

Do any of you know the brand name and ingredients of the gel pack that your dog(s) ingested? It's like pulling teeth to get ingredients from the company that I'm contacting for my dog who does tell me that the gel is non toxic and not hazardous. However, the gel my dogs go into is a clear, odorless gel from a pack with the brand name Kaz. I would imagine that based on brand, they have their own ingredients. It still amazed me that there is nothing listed on the bag. It should be mandatory to have the ingredients listed. My local emergency vet could not give me information, nor could my local human poison control. ASPCA poison control (1-888-426-4435 SAVE THIS FOR EMERGENCIES IN THE FUTURE!!), although charges $60 for information because they are NOT funded in any other way (I will write that off on my taxes as a donation), did have information about the pack I had and told me there is nothing toxic. Please add specifics if you can about your product, as it may be helpful to others that find this post when they are in need. It's the main listing in Google that comes up when you do a search for ingredients gel pack dog, etc. I'm so very sorry about the loss of your dogs. I hope in some way that others can be spared with any information we can share on this forum. -Cris

[Lara's mom]

This post is a YEAR old...

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by Timwinglobay

Do any of you know the brand name and ingredients of the gel pack that your dog(s) ingested? It's like pulling teeth to get ingredients from the company that I'm contacting for my dog who does tell me that the gel is non toxic and not hazardous. However, the gel my dogs go into is a clear, odorless gel from a pack with the brand name Kaz. I would imagine that based on brand, they have their own ingredients. It still amazed me that there is nothing listed on the bag. It should be mandatory to have the ingredients listed. My local emergency vet could not give me information, nor could my local human poison control. ASPCA poison control (1-888-426-4435 SAVE THIS FOR EMERGENCIES IN THE FUTURE!!), although charges $60 for information because they are NOT funded in any other way (I will write that off on my taxes as a donation), did have information about the pack I had and told me there is nothing toxic. Please add specifics if you can about your product, as it may be helpful to others that find this post when they are in need. It's the main listing in Google that comes up when you do a search for ingredients gel pack dog, etc. I'm so very sorry about the loss of your dogs. I hope in some way that others can be spared with any information we can share on this forum. -Cris

Neither of the 2 members that lost their dog to the gel packs have been 'active' in here for a long time, BUT Cooperjasper left an email address on his/her profile page if you would like to talk to this member---Just click on their name in their above post and will bring you to their profile page. Note: This forum has gone through changes (which I do not like at all)--You might have to click a few times to bring up the message to be able to click on the profile page once you click on the name---I still do not get the whole message box but eventually you should see the word profile--just keep clicking on it and hopefully you will get the profile page of Cooperjasper! Then go to the word CONTACT and click .

[fattmabian]

DO NOT PAY TO SPEAK TO POISON CONTROL FOR YOUR DOG, if your dog is chipped through HOME AGAIN and you pay the yearly fee you can call them and talk to an emergency vet for free. they are very helpful and actually called back the next day to check up on our dog. while i was on the phone with the people form home again they said when you call poison control you are in fact calling them, the calls are forwarded. luckly i told the lady we had called before (poison control) and they are refunding my money. the service pays for itself, we have to call about every other month as our dog gets into everything she can.

[gob]

Hi,

This is a question for CooperJasper and AngelsArrowLuna.

Our dog may have eaten some gel from a SmartTemp ice pack. What brand did your dogs eat? I called smarttemp and they said it's fine, poison control said they never heard of antifreeze in gel packs, and 2/3 vets said "wait and see". But, reading your posts has me worried. This just happened a couple hours ago.