Ethanol Poisoning In Newborn Kitty

LeniGish

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The short story:
My newborn foster had a light respiratory infection at exactly seven days of age.
I gave it colloidal silver in water but was uncertain of the dosage, so I contacted wolfcreekranch.com/ wolfcreekranchorganics.com to ask advice.
The lady told me to give the kitten Vibactra Plus, an antiviral tincture I had purchased from her company in the past.
The tincture, made by Amber Technology, comes with a dosing chart from "under 3 lbs" (2 drops) to "151-250 lbs," and absolutely no cautionary note.
I gave my kittens (weighing 0.3 lbs) two drops each around 4 or 5 pm, and another drop before bedtime, and maybe one the following day, even though the symptoms were long gone. (The second kitty was not even coughing, but just had tiny hiccups in his breath.)
The second kitty (who had not been coughing) died Sunday morning.
The kitty with the cough hung on until Tuesday morning. I spent a lot of time with him. He would not nurse any more. I did not know what to do to make it better. Sometime in the course of Sunday I realized it was alcohol poisoning. The lady at Wolfcreek was telling me my kittens had worms I did not know about and I needed to dose them with diatomaceous earth.

  1. I would like everybody to be warned: Experts make mistakes, too! You are the one living with your cats. You are the one, who is going to be sorry if something bad happens. Do not let down your "gatekeeper" mind when receiving professional (or in this case, salesperson) advice!!
  2. Ethanol, wine, beer, alcohol, and of course methanol -- are all toxic to cats, much more so than to humans!! I am never going to use an alcohol-based medication on my cats again.
  3. Newborn internal organs and livers are not yet functioning. They cannot tolerate what an adult can.
  4. Keep activated charcoal on hand at all times. It is good medicine for a poisoned critter or human. I will have to research dosing to be sure. I do not know whether that could have saved my kittens.
  5. I am unsure of what to do. I was very nice in describing the symptoms of alcohol poisoning to the sales rep as my kitten was dying. After he died, she wrote to me: "With all of the symptoms your kittens were having, it is unlikely you could have saved them." So I replied unequivocally that it was her advice that made me poison my cats. They were fine until she told me to give them her tincture! I forwarded the letter to her company, as well. But I am just unsure of what other steps I ought to take. (At the very least, write to Amber Technology to tell them to stop extracting their herbs into alcohol -- there are safer carriers.) Advice?
 

Furballsmom

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I am SO sorry this happened to you!!!
Thank you for posting this. I think that writing to Amber Technology would be a good step to take.
If possible, in the future can you incorporate information from a veterinarian, or even a university veterinary medical department.

There are several good pieces of information in mamanyt1953 's post in this thread;
Cat Is Pretty Sick And I'm Feeling Lost And Alone
 
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LeniGish

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A sad experience. A cautionary tale to deal only with licensed vets.
Research _everything_ thoroughly before putting it in your cat. I have heard several tales of cats dying at the vet's office. Most recently, somebody in one of my facebook groups lost a cat because she took her for spaying and the cat was allergic to the anaesthetic.
 
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LeniGish

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writing to Amber Technology:
Dear Sir or Madam,
I suppose you are aware that your products are being sold by Wolf Creek Ranch in California. This complaint has to do both with your policy and with theirs, and has to do with some advice I received from them, that killed two of my kittens.
My one-week-old newborns were doing fine, but one of them had a slight cough. I gave it a dropper full of diluted colloidal silver, but was uncertain about dosage for such a tiny animal. I asked somebody at Wolf Creek Ranch what further to do, specifying in my message "newborn uri" (subject line) and "week old kitten" (first sentence). She told me to administer your Vibactra Plus, which I had already purchased last Winter. Taking the bottle from the shelf, I read absolutely no caution on the box or on the bottle, and "under 3 lbs -- 2 drops." It seemed weird to me to be giving tincture to a newborn, but trusted the advice. I administered two drops to that kitten, and also to another kitten, who had a little hiccup in his breath. five hours later, I administered one more drop each, even though the symptoms had disappeared. The following day administered one drop again, and wrote to Wolf Creek to say that their (your) formula had worked splendidly. I went to get them a photograph, but found that both of those kitties were somnolent and would not wake up for me. They also had their eyes closed. I sent a photograph of them in that state, and the Wolf Creek employee said, "oh, I hadn't realized your kitties were that small." The following morning, one of them was dead (the one that had NOT coughed) and bloated like a little balloon. This kitten's only symptom prior to the medication was a few hiccuppy breaths. Wolf Creek insisted, "our products are safe for puppies and kittens."
This was last Sunday. The kitten that had originally coughed was somnolent, lethargic, ataxic, not nursing, but alive. I fed it goat milk and spent many hours in the room with him on Sunday and Monday. By late Sunday I suspected ethanol poisoning, but did not know what to do other than to look up lethal doses of alcohol. I was shocked to start finding out how toxic _any_ alcohol is to cats (ethyl- or methyl-) Tuesday morning the kitty was gasping his last breaths as I walked into the room.
This entire accident certainly had three levels of stupidity, and would have been prevented if:
1. Amber Technology provided a cautionary note on its label and/or more precise dosage instructions (once a day? once only? every two hours? what puppy and kitten ages are safe for this product? What if an animal is under 0.5 lb? Antidote in case of toxicity (activated charcoal)?) OR
1.a. Amber Technology would extract their herbs into glycerin, apple cider vinegar, brine, honey or blackseed oil, and if an extra preservative were desired, used tocopherols or uv or something. (In fact, I just found out apple cider vinegar is very therapeutic to cats, and by itself can help them with respiratory infections.) This would be safer not only for very young animals, but also for all cats, since ethanol is a known toxin to them and the internet is plastered with articles about its high toxicity to cats.
2. If Wolf Creek provided a cautionary note or more precise dosing instructions, or had their sales reps refrain from giving medical advice.
3. If I had exercised my discretionary capacity and researched tinctures for cats before following the instruction given by Wolf Creek's sales rep.

Now there are only two dead kittens to bear witness to this crime. Four drops of your tincture killed them, and there is nothing that would make this up to me. But you do need to take action and created a cautionary leaflet to put in your medications, much as you find a leaflet and cautionary instructions in any medication. Otherwise you are not a serious company and should not be creating medicine at all.

Helene
 

StefanZ

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One remark re dosages.
If it is 2 drops for under 3 lbs, it means of course, if you necessary must try to give to an infant of 0,3 lb, you cant give 2 drops. Its a 10x overdosage.

It should be 0,2 drops at most by sheer basic mathematics. Say, take one drop and dilute it 5x...
Give 1 drop of that dilution.
 
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LeniGish

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Written to Wolf Creek Ranch on Tuesday:
Dear (Redacted),
I wish you had left the first sentence out of your e-mail. My kittens were fine and active before the tincture. I will send you photographs and videos from my phone when it is done charging. It was your oversight of "Newborn kitten URI" and "week old kittens," (with the telltale "I hadn't reaslized your kitties were that small" in your next e-mail), combined with my gullibility that allowed them to get alcohol poisoning. Bloating is a sign of alcohol poisoning. You do not introduce ethanol as a kitten's first food, ever!! People on the staff of a company that treats medical issues should know that. The second one bloated just prior to death as well, but not as badly. My one kitten, the one that passed yesterday, was active, healthy, with a mild cough -- until you told me to give it vibactra. The one that passed two days ago did not even have a cough when I "treated" it to some of your alcohol tincture. It just had a small hiccup in its breath, and I wanted to boost its immune system. The two remaining kittens had one dropper of saline/diatomaceous at your recommendation, and no other treatment. Neither of the two is ill nor has worms, nor had them in the past.
You tell me now to use colloidal silver OR Vibactra Plus on the mom, but not both -- but you recommended using both concurrently on my _newborns_! (Although at the time, you did not know they were newborns because you had read neither the subject line nor the first sentence.)
I tried to take the brunt of the blame for killing my kittens, but really, when people write to "experts," they trust that they are getting sound advice, and it is NOT sound advice to give _any_ ethanol to a newborn kitten. The part of the blame that is mine is that when I read "under 3 lb -- 2 drops" and I did not think to question your advice _or_ that instruction. The part of the blame that is wolf-creek's is that the medication does not come with instructions or enough cautions about _when_ puppies and kittens are old enough to be treated, nor how to test toxicity for a substance (grain alcohol) known to be toxic to cats, much more so than to humans. Maybe the mistake is in extracting into alcohol at all, since honey, glycerine, salt water, and oil are also possible, non toxic solvents. Another option is to extract into alcohol, and evaporate the =CO-OH prior to bottling. The medications also do not come with a leaflet, which I would have read thoroughly prior to administering. (There is a caution on the website about alcohol, but I didn't open the website again after getting a recommendation from the website's employee (you) to administer the product to my NEWBORNS.)

Some of the symptoms of alcohol poisoning my cats were showing (in no particular order) is:
blindness - won't open eyes
somnolence/comatose -- won't wake up
bloating
weakness, won't latch
ataxia -- uncoordinated/unproductive movement
stench that began prior to death
emaciation/weight loss (the second cat weighed 0.24 lb at death -- it had lost 20% of its body weight!!!)

(Redacted), I was really trying to be nice about this, because I let my guard too far down when I read your first e-mail, but ... wow... my cats were healthy until I contacted you!! If Wolf-Creek educated you to administer alcohol tincture to a newborn, they should be out of business. If you decided this on your own, you should be admonished. As far as I am concerned, I won't use or purchase any more tinctures for my cats until I evaporate the alcohol. I am going to leave the bottles open on a shelf and see whether that does the trick. As far as preservation, some companies preserve with tocopherols and some companies preserve with other technologies (uv or other).

Helene
 

di and bob

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My heart cries for your pain. I pray their tiny souls will be at peace, your heart will carry their memories forever.
I give you thanks for the warning. Newborns have such delicate systems, even those that are very experienced and trained can make mistakes or administer something that would not harm an older cat/kitten. I agree, there should be more precise dosing information, that 2 drops for under 3 pounds is way too vague. i hope your tragedy can bring about change. Once again, thanks for the warning!
 

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These products are not medication, and there is no "right" way to use them, as they haven't been studied. So there's no way to prove you were advised to use them in the "wrong" way. It may have been the alcohol, it may have been the silver (after having done my own research, I'm against the internal use of colloidal silver), maybe the kittens would have died no matter what you did. There's no way to know.

Allopathic medicine isn't perfect either, but at least it's better researched so we can know proper dosages and all that. In the case of kitten URIs I really think antibiotics are a much safer bet.
 
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LeniGish

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Response from Amber Technology:
Dear Helene Berger,

Thank you for taking the time to reach us. It saddens our heart to read the experience that you have gone through with your two precious kittens. I want you to know that we take matters like this seriously. It has been our policy for many years that our alcohol based products are not to be given to any pets under the age of 6 weeks. I don't know if you have given this information to Wolf Creek Ranch, however, I would love to forward this to the owner so she can take the necessary actions needed in their training process as we will remind all our dealers the same. Thank you for the suggestions that you have provided, moving forward, we will start adding a statement on our inserts, boxes and other literature.

Sincerely,
Jenny Estrada
Amber Technology
 
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LeniGish

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I want to write this back to Amber Technology (unsent):
Dear Ms Estrada,
When you mentioned the leaflet, I noticed it for the first time!!! I had previously thought it was just a tag.

Here are my suggestions:
  1. On the box, write somewhere: "see insert for further detail," just like you would see on a commercial "conventional" medication.(Or on the front of the insert: "read first.")
  2. Switch the drops and mL columns. Not knowing any better, my kittens got .2 mL (and .1 mL and .1 more mL) of the tincture.

  3. Do add the instruction about age, as well as what to do if your animal is _much_ less than 3 lb. (Your age policy of administering only to 6+ week old cats is only known to the public if you mention it in the insert.)
  4. Use apple cider vinegar for extraction. its action would be synergistic with the herbs, and it is NON TOXIC to cats. Otherwise maybe write a cautionary note about toxicity of ethanol to cats, and an antidote in case of overdose (activated charcoal), much as you would see on a tube of toothpaste ("If more than a pea-sized amount is ingested, call a poison control center immediately."). You could even include a baggie with 1 tbsp of activated charcoal or alternately some cat-size pills of pure activated charcoal. This might cause some people not to try it... but then, see how successful fluoridated toothpaste has become despite the warning -- but seriously, it is better to be honest, because cases like mine are liable to cause a bad name for natural medicine.


Helene
 

tarasgirl06

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First, L LeniGish , my heartfelt condolences for the loss of your precious little ones. Nothing can undo this, or heal your heart from this. <3 ((((((((^^ ^^))))))))) <3 Fly free, whole, healthy, and forever Loved, sweet angels. <3
It is always very risky giving any kind of medicine to such tiny kittens. Accidents do happen, failure to thrive happens, and things we can't explain happen. I lost a seemingly very healthy, bouncy little girl to wet-form FIP I am sure she contracted from the vax for it, which I never had again for any cat in my care, and would not have had in this case if I had not previously lost my beloved Sunny to dry-form FIP at almost 16.
Kittens, by their very nature, have a fairly high attrition rate in the wild. That is why cats are so fecund. It is no less painful, though, to lose them, at any age and for any reason.
As for licensed vets, they, too, can err. As can licensed MDs, one of which prescribed me something that almost killed me AFTER I specifically told him to flag my file for a substance that was in this stuff as being an extreme allergen for me. He insisted what he prescribed did not contain the substance I was allergic to. I told him to look in his pharmacopeia. Hopefully he got it after that.
 

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Switch the drops and mL columns. Not knowing any better, my kittens got .2 mL (and .1 mL and .1 more mL) of the tincture.

I suggest writing the dose as 0.2 ml instead of just .2 ml. It's far too easy to miss the decimal point if you don't include the zero in front of it.
 
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