Taking Care of Tender Paws
New products melt snow and ice without hurting your pal's pads

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — December 7, 2004
Pohla Smith

It's about time to haul out your bags of salt for those icy mornings, but you might want to think twice about the product you're using if you've got pets.

Dogs and cats who lick rock salt or salt-based products off their paws and coat can develop skin conditions, intestinal problems and an inflammation of the stomach called gastritis.

"It's very much of an irritant," said Dr. Peg Rucker, of Lebanon, Va., past president of the American Animal Hospital Association.

"Concentrated amounts [of salt] between the toes can cause ulcers and a lot of redness to tissue. They're going to lick that excessively, and that causes acute moist dermatitis, or pododermitis. ... Then they can get bacterial infection and need antibiotics."

While licking their feet, cats and dogs are going to eat the de-icer, and that can cause internal problems, depending on how much they ingest and whether it's rock salt (sodium chloride) or compounds including the salts known as calcium chloride and potassium chloride.

"I've had it cause G.I. irritation and a few with gastritis, but I've not had it cause any untoward effect," Rucker said. "Dogs and cats aren't high salt eaters unless they're over-active cleaning their feet and toes."

Rock salt and salt-based snow melters also pose a potential danger to humans.

Salts are a skin irritant, said Ed Krenzelok, director of the Pittsburgh Poison Center at Children's Hospital. Ingestion, particularly of sodium chloride and potassium chloride, also could lead to trouble if taken in large amounts.

"It's like anything. An old Swiss physician from the 15th century, Parcelsus, said everything is potentially a poison," Krenzelok said. The only thing differentiating remedy from poison is the dose.

He stressed, though, that sodium chloride and potassium chloride are much more hazardous than rock salt.

Fortunately, there are snow melters on the market without salts, including Safe Paw and Ice Melt Down.

However, Ice Melt Down, made of three proprietary, or legally secret, organic chemicals is not completely hazard free.

Rusty Pisle, national sales director for Lima, Ohio manufacturer HJP, Inc., said, that in dogs it occasionally "may cause gastroenteritis, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea or cause them to becomes depressed and slow reflexes.

"Otherwise it just results in a sore tummy and gas."

In humans, ingestion of 100 grams, or 3.527 ounces, — a hefty amount — can cause drowsiness, depression or other effects on the central nervous system, he said. (If it happens, do not induce vomiting. Keep warm to counter shock and seek medical attention.)

"A couple years ago a women's child got into it and the poison center called, and we gave them information and had no problem, but it's safe for them to walk on. It's safe around children and pets," Pisle said.

Safe Paw, also marketed as Safe Thaw, grew out of a product chemical engineer Steve Greenwald, of Huntingdon Valley, Bucks County, invented for the nuclear power industry to rid facilities of ice and snow. "It wouldn't kill fish, and it had to be safe on equipment and safe for people and whatnot."

Later, Greenwald's son asked if he could make a product that wouldn't irritate his dog's feet or make him sick.

Both products are available in supermarkets and online. Ice Melt Down can be found at www.drsfostersmith.com. Try www.petedge.com or www.just4pooches.com for Safe Paw. PETCO and PETsMART also carry Safe Paw.

Pohla Smith can be reached at psmith@post-gazette.com or 412 263-1228.