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Back in May 2004 I posted a warning here regarding the dangers of allowing dogs to eat raisins ( ‘Raisin The Alarm  – Do Not Poison Your Dogs‘ ). I followed that warning up again last year with another post ( ‘Raisins And Grapes – Toxic For Dogs‘ ) – the reason for the follow-up post being that, depressingly, one of the constant themes seen in searches that arrive at this blog is still people with very sick dogs trying to discover if raisins could be the cause.

I think the two posts above pretty much cover the basic details regarding how dangerous raisins and grapes are for dogs so I won’t reiterate them here in this post. However, by chance the raisins & dogs subject came up in conversation recently and I was pointed to this document - Grapes, raisins and sultanas and other foods toxic to dogs (202Kb .pdf) published by the VPIS (London) Medical Toxicology Unit,

The document contains more useful and detailed information on the subject than you will find anywhere here.

Take care of your dogs – do not allow them to consume grapes or grape derivatives. Few people seem to realise this, so please pass this information on to friends who ‘own’ dogs.

Thanks to Stoney for pointing out the document.

An important reminder now that the holiday season is approaching; raisins and grapes can kill dogs.

‘This is not to say you need live in fear of your dog keeling over dead if he swallows a grape or two. However, if he downs a handful of grapes or even a smaller amount of raisins, get him to your veterinarian right away. Aggressive treatment with intravenous fluids and close monitoring are his best chance for survival.’

At this time of the year there are often a lot of cakes, biscuits, puddings, deserts and so on around that contain grapes and/or raisins. Do not allow your dog to eat any of these things as grapes and raisins are highly toxic to dogs and can easily kill them.

There are more details here on this old post of mine: Raisin the alarm, do not poison your dogs.

Take heed as dogs will eat foods containing these things given a chance.  Make sure that it is a chance they do not get.

I received an unusual text message this morning from the Portuguese Government.

Swine Flu Text Message

Roughly translated it says;

“Autumn officially begins today, and thus Swine Flu will probably return, and most of you will die. If you begin to feel unwell, please file your tax return immediately. “

No, actually it says;

“With symptoms of flu, please stay in your house and telephone 808242424 or contact your doctor. Strengthen your hygiene measures. Avoid infecting others. Consult www.dgs.pt”.

The tax return part probably comes later.

You know when instinct shouts that something is seriously not right?

Thirty minutes ago my instinct really screamed at me and, sure enough, things really were not right as the scorpion shown above was heading extremely rapidly towards my left foot – which was at the time completely unprotected against attack.

Seriously dangerous? I have no idea, but it is quite clearly a scorpion and that was enough for me to decide to apply a little ‘maximum prejudice’ to it.

You know, despite usually being the type to rubbish concepts that, superficially at least, sound as silly as this one does;

‘Throwing “swine flu parties” in an attempt to get immunity against the virus while it is a fairly mild form is not a good idea, doctors say. Reports have emerged of people intentionally mixing with friends who have flu.’

I’m willing to bet that, as risky as it sounds, going out and deliberately ‘catching’ this flu at at this point in the development of the virus is probably a good idea.

Personally, I’m willing to take the risk. How about you?