- Joined
- May 16, 2014
- Messages
- 95
- Purraise
- 143
Had a scare yesterday. The little abandoned kitten we rescued two weeks ago, called Little Fox, has been doing incredibly well (his story is in the Orphaned Kitten Forum!). He has doubled his weight, plays, talks, tears around the house, purrs endlessly, and is just a complete joy. Yesterday morning, I was eating some carrot cake at my desk. I dislike raisins, so I picked out three (very small ones) and left them on the plate next to me. Next thing I know, Fox is scarfing them down - he ate two. He is 6 weeks old (best guess) and weighs two pounds. I know raisins are dangerous for dogs, so I instantly Googled cats and raisins, and sites everywhere said they are dangerously toxic to cats too. I called my vet. They had me call the emergency clinic, who told me to call the ASPCA Poison Hotline, which I did. The toxicologist said that the info on cats is so sparse and anecdotal that most reported cases of serious effects were more likely not from the raisins. But since he's so little, to monitor him closely, and if he vomited even once, take him straight to the emergency clinic. He is totally fine. Ate, played, bopped around the rest of the day and is a happy kitten. Whew. I have access to medical databases, and when I started searching the literature, MOST of the articles were about dogs, and the rare reports of cats eating raisins simply weren't conclusive that the illness was in fact due to raisins, and that some cats eat them with no problem. But the initial Google search was very scary, with sources all over the place just saying that raisins were dangerous, and that even one raisin could cause acute kidney failure. Even on the rare occasions when a source was given, the source really only mentioned dogs.
This is not AT ALL to say not to be careful! And absolutely, any time you're worried, check it out! If I hadn't been scared by what I found at first, I might not have called the vets, and been put through to an expert who told me what to do and watch for. Always better safe than sorry! But it troubles me that info like this - of dubious truth - gets amplified kind of uncritically all over the web, and how easy it could be to be misled or make poor decisions. I'm grateful to the ASPCA Poison Hotline (888-426-4435; $95 charge for the service, and be prepared to spend some time on hold!) for their guidance. I will force myself to eat the damn raisins myself in penance and to be SURE no one else eats them, regardless. But we had a good outcome, and I learned something!
This is not AT ALL to say not to be careful! And absolutely, any time you're worried, check it out! If I hadn't been scared by what I found at first, I might not have called the vets, and been put through to an expert who told me what to do and watch for. Always better safe than sorry! But it troubles me that info like this - of dubious truth - gets amplified kind of uncritically all over the web, and how easy it could be to be misled or make poor decisions. I'm grateful to the ASPCA Poison Hotline (888-426-4435; $95 charge for the service, and be prepared to spend some time on hold!) for their guidance. I will force myself to eat the damn raisins myself in penance and to be SURE no one else eats them, regardless. But we had a good outcome, and I learned something!
and I'm glad your baby is ok 
