>My vet suggested that if you are traveling with fuzzies you should always
>carry a couple of bottles of rubbing alcohol.  If you encountered a traffic
>accident and you can't move for a hour and your frozen water bottles have
>thawed, your air conditioning doesn't work etc., etc..  You should always
>have rubbing alcohol to pour over your fuzzies...
 
My understanding is that pediatricians use to recommend rubbing alcohol to
cool children with fevers, and emergency rooms used to use it for this
purpose as well.  They had to stop, though, since several poisonings
occurred since the toxic ingredient in the rubbing alcohol (I believe it's
added to keep people from drinking the stuff) is absorbed through the skin.
People that I know who have young children rub alcohol products like rum or
vodka on their children to cool fevers instead ..  it's much less toxic.  I
think I'd prefer to use that to running the risk of poisoning the animal
with the rubbing alcohol ...
 
- Ela
[Posted in FML issue 2377]