A very pregnant Northern California mom is getting
attention for her quick instincts after her 4-year-old son was bitten by a
rattlesnake. But state wildlife officials say what she did was dangerous.
Jaclyn Caramazza and her family were walking on a bike
trail in Folsom over the weekend when her son Vinny stepped on a baby
rattlesnake, KTXL-TV reported. The snake quickly coiled up.
Minutes later, Vinny’s foot turned purple and began to
swell. Caramazza removed her son’s shoes and found two puncture marks.
Nine months pregnant, this mother sprang into action.
“Mama Bear instinct in me decided to suck the venom because
that’s what Bonanza does,” she told KTXL.
Vinny was taken to an area hospital and is doing well.
But trying to suck out venom with your mouth is a bad idea,
state wildlife officials say.
"That's an absolute 'do not do,'" said Warden
Chris Stoots of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, because of the
risk for the person sucking out the poison of becoming ill.
There are venom-suction devices that help remove the
poison, Stoots said, but few people carry them when hiking.
According to Fish and Wildlife, if possible, a rattlesnake
bite should be washed gently with soap and water. Rinsing with water alone also
will do.
The bite victim should be kept calm and rushed to the
hospital and the wound site should be kept below heart level.
Most snake bites occur when people accidently step on or
try to touch a snake, Stoots said.
Attempt to move or kill a snake, Stoots said, and in most
cases "you'll lose."
Crumbs & Whiskers, Washington DC’s first cat cafe, will
open its Georgetown doors to the public June 20 after a successful Kickstarter
campaign raised twice as much as the owner expected.
Owner Kanchan Singh plans several pre-grand opening parties
to thank those Kickstarter supporters.
Crumbs & Whiskers, at 3211 O St. NW, will have about
two dozen felines in residence at a time, all vetted and vaccinated by the
cafe’s partner, the Washington Humane Society.
Why would you go to a cat cafe?
A boyfriend who’s allergic to cats, stress relief or just
the desire to enjoy a cat’s company without the responsibility of owning one,
Singh’s Kickstarter pitch suggests.
She also says the cats have a much better chance of being
adopted in an environment like this than they would in cages at the Humane
Society.
Singh signed a lease for the O Street space in April and
spent the last two months going through the permit and building process.
The Crumbs & Whiskers Kickstarter campaign had an
original goal of $15,000, and raised almost $36,000 from more than 700 backers.
You can watch Singh’s Kickstarter pitch video here:
Denver, Colorado - Amanda
Jamrogiewicz filed the lawsuit on behalf of her mother, Sue Hodges. The two
claim they visited the cat cafe back in February and a cat named
"Morpheus" bit Hodges.
"[Morpheus] flipped onto his back when my mom still
had her hand out," Jamrogiewicz told 9NEWS. "When she was going down
to continue petting him, he bit her on her hand rather aggressively and
wouldn't let go for at least 15-20 seconds."
"When she finally got her hand away it was bleeding in
about 7 or 8 different spots," she said.
Jamrogiewicz said her mother was treated for the bite at
the counter. But after she got home, she realized it was infected.
She went to an urgent care clinic for treatment and was
charged $305. She asked the café to pay the medical bill, but the owner, Sana
Hamelin, wouldn't agree to it.
The suit demands $5,920 for the $305 in medical bills plus
missed work and the emotional toll for the entire endeavor.
"We wouldn't be able to survive as a business model if
we were opening ourselves up to taking responsibility for a cat's behavior,
because we can't guarantee that a cat won't bite or scratch," Hamelin
said.
Hamelin said she did offer to pay part of the bill, but
admits people get adequate warning about how unpredictable cats are with signs
warning people to "pet at their own risk."
"We just let everyone know [petting] is a risk. If
they're not willing to take that risk, then they shouldn't pet cats that don't
belong to them," she said. "I don't think there's a cat in existence
that hasn't bitten or scratched."
Jamrogiewicz said her mother missed a week of work because
of the infected bite and complications from an antibiotic she was prescribed.
She said her mother is the sole provider for the household after her father
went on disability because of a brain tumor.
"They're under a lot of financial stress,"
Jamrogiewicz said. She claims the missed work hurt her parents' finances even
more.
She said the day of the bite, Hamelin asked if it was
Morpheus who bit her mother. Jamrogiewicz claims Hamelin knew he was a dangerous
cat and should have been removed from the café.
However, Hamelin told 9NEWS Morpheus was one of the most
popular cats in her shop.
"He was here for a long time and was very popular with
our customers and managed to interact with a lot of people," Hamelin said.
Hamelin says after Jamrogiewicz and her mother started
asking for compensation for the bite, she told the rescue that provided the
cats for the café. That rescue then decided to pull all of their felines from
the café for risk.
"Because of your claim, the shelter has terminated its
relationship with the café," Hamelin wrote in an email to Hodges on March
11.
Jamrogiewicz said Hamelin is blaming her mother for losing
that rescue, and the accusation is causing emotional stress.
Hamelin said she agreed to pay more than half of Hodges'
medical bills in the beginning, but the family refused to agree to that
settlement demanding the entire total.
Jamrogiewicz offered another settlement to Hamelin: if the
shop paid her mother's medical bills, Jamrogiewicz would make a donation to a
cat rescue for the same amount.
Hamelin turned that settlement down and instead offered to
make the donation herself in lieu of paying the medical bills.
Jamrogiewicz and her mother refused and filed the $6,000
lawsuit in early April. Hamelin was served last week.
"I guess a lot of people think this is frivolous, and
to us, to be honest, it is too," Jamrogiewicz said. "She should have
just paid the $300."
Hamelin said she could have just submitted the claim to her
insurance, but it was already close enough to the deductible. Also, she worried
about her insurance rates going up.
She also said she didn't want to create a precedent for
others to sue over an issue she clearly warns people about before they walk in.
"I'm just a solitary person trying to do this by
myself so it's tough to be sued when you're not a big corporation," she
said "We're not rolling in money here."
If you're like many people, you might want to give your dog
some peanut butter as an occasional treat. Or you might want to use peanut
butter as a trick or reward to get your dog to take their medications? In many
cases this is perfectly fine (so long as it's not in excess — as too much can
cause pancreatitis and/or contribute to obesity).
However, with the introduction of a unique line of peanut
and other nut butters onto the market — Nuts ’N More — the answer to the question of whether or not
it’s safe to give, even a small quantity of, peanut butter to your dogs is no
longer a straightforward one. Why? Because of the sweetener that’s been used to
replace the sugar in this line of peanut and other nut butters. That sugar
substitute is called xylitol.
Is Xylitol Safe For Dogs?
Xylitol is a sweetener that's gaining in popularity because
of its dental beInefits for people as well as its suitability as a sugar
substitute for people with diabetes. Because of its ability to help prevent
cavities and tooth decay and its low glycemic index, xylitol is proving to have
some good dental and other health benefits for people. Unfortunately, while
xylitol appears to be perfectly safe for people, it is extremely dangerous for
dogs — even in small quantities.
Ingestion of as
little as 0.1 gram (g) of xylitol per kilogram (kg) of body weight (0.1 g/kg)
can cause a rapid and dangerous drop in a dog’s blood sugar (a condition called
“hypoglycemia”). Hypoglycemia can show as staggering, appearing disoriented,
collapse, weakness, and seizures.
Just slightly more than that, approx. 0.5 g/kg xylitol
ingestion, can lead to debilitating, and sadly often deadly, destruction of a
dog’s liver cells.
These quantities, or toxic doses, are based on the data
that the animal-specific poison control hotlines have collected from reported
cases. To highlight that these are reported cases is important, because not
every case of toxicity makes it to the vet, and not everyone that does go to
the vet is called into the animal poison control hotlines. So the actual toxic
doses could be even lower, and dogs with certain pre-existing medical
conditions (such as diabetes, hepatitis, and others) are likely to be even more
sensitive to the toxic effects of xylitol.
The gaining popularity of xylitol as an ingredient in a
growing number of products (incl. gums, mints, chewable vitamins, and many
others) highlights the importance of reading ingredient labels, as well as the
danger of assuming that what's safe for you, or even your kids, is also safe
for your pets.
Below are their current packaging label (from their
website) and their website FAQ on xylitol.
Product Description
In the meantime, please learn more about the danger xylitol
poses to dogs and the range of products xylitol is commonly found in. And since
awareness is truly crucial to helping people avoid xylitol toxicity in dogs,
please share what you’ve learned here with your dog-owning and dog-loving
friends and family.
If you think your dog has eaten xylitol. Please contact a pet poison control hotline away and they'll be able to guide you as to what to do next.
