TKS Fluid and Pets

[exM20K]

The only way to completely fill the Mooney with fluid is to fill until it runs out of the overflow drain on the bottom of the plane.  In order to minimize the mess, I have a small Tupperware container below the drain to catch the cup or so of overflow that happens whenI fill the plane.  I’m generally pretty careful to dump that waste fluid into a 5 Gallon bucket with a lid, which in time I can dump at our free hazmat household dump station.  I am very careful to glove up when handling fluid.
 

The reason I’m writing this is tough: our 10 year old beagle was scheduled for a tooth extraction earlier this week, as a fractured tooth had caused an abscess on the outside of his mouth, and he wasn’t eating much.  Pre-anesthesia blood tests showed stage 4 renal failure.  We are doing what we can for the poor little guy (subcutaneous fluid, careful diet, etc).  While I don’t think he ever got into the TKS fluid, this sad occurrence brought it to front-of-mind: as little as five tablespoons of ethylene glycol can be fatal to a mid-sized dog.  The fluid is sweet, and animals, domestic and wild, will lap it right up. 
 

Please be cognizant of spills, puddles, or uncovered waste containers. Any antifreeze is deadly to animals.

thanks.

-dan

[aviatoreb]

42 minutes ago, exM20K said:

The only way to completely fill the Mooney with fluid is to fill until it runs out of the overflow drain on the bottom of the plane.  In order to minimize the mess, I have a small Tupperware container below the drain to catch the cup or so of overflow that happens whenI fill the plane.  I’m generally pretty careful to dump that waste fluid into a 5 Gallon bucket with a lid, which in time I can dump at our free hazmat household dump station.  I am very careful to glove up when handling fluid.
 

The reason I’m writing this is tough: our 10 year old beagle was scheduled for a tooth extraction earlier this week, as a fractured tooth had caused an abscess on the outside of his mouth, and he wasn’t eating much.  Pre-anesthesia blood tests showed stage 4 renal failure.  We are doing what we can for the poor little guy (subcutaneous fluid, careful diet, etc).  While I don’t think he ever got into the TKS fluid, this sad occurrence brought it to front-of-mind: as little as five tablespoons of ethylene glycol can be fatal to a mid-sized dog.  The fluid is sweet, and animals, domestic and wild, will lap it right up. 
 

Please be cognizant of spills, puddles, or uncovered waste containers. Any antifreeze is deadly to animals.

thanks.

-dan

I had an over flow incident when I first got this plane - about a dozen years ago with a tiny tiny puddle in the hangar that I was going to clean up the next day because it was cold - I came back the next day and there were several dead must lying in the puddle.

[Pinecone]

5 hours ago, aviatoreb said:

I had an over flow incident when I first got this plane - about a dozen years ago with a tiny tiny puddle in the hangar that I was going to clean up the next day because it was cold - I came back the next day and there were several dead must lying in the puddle.

Hmm, a way to get rid of mice.

[aviatoreb]

4 hours ago, Pinecone said:

Hmm, a way to get rid of mice.

well then I had a bunch of dead mice to get ride of.  but yeah.  in the words of bugsy Malone - I iced them!

[GeeBee]

I used to be in a real panic when my IA came to my hangar because he brought his dog and my TKS panels drip after use, so I had puddles everywhere.

 

There is "safe anti-freeze" but it uses propylene glycol rather than ethylene glycol. PG as they call it is even in some flavored drinks in small amounts. It is also what you drink to clean out for a colonoscopy, so if you injest a good amount, have a toilet nearby.

Type 1 de-cing fluid is EG. Type 2, 3 and 4 are PG. It is also why you cannot de-ice on open pavement unless it is a "capture pad"

 

[A64Pilot]

PG is also what’s in RV Anti-Freeze, I used it to “pickle” the watermaker on our boat. It’s the Pink anti-freeze you can get in the camping section at Walmart.

It’s extraordinarily rare for me but I use it to de-ice my airplane if it was outside in freezing rain which happens once in a blue moon down south.

Readily available and cheaper than Ethylene Glycol.

There is also an Automotive formula that uses PG, but I’ve not tried it. 

Note, I’m not abdicating use RV antifreeze for TKS fluid, but for other uses that don’t require aircraft specific product it works well.

[Pinecone]

57 minutes ago, GeeBee said:

There is "safe anti-freeze" but it uses propylene glycol rather than ethylene glycol. PG as they call it is even in some flavored drinks in small amounts. It is also what you drink to clean out for a colonoscopy, so if you injest a good amount, have a toilet nearby.

Actually they use POLYethylene glycol.  It works as a bulk material pushing everything through you.  Different mechanism from the older preps.

[redbaron1982]

12 hours ago, exM20K said:

The only way to completely fill the Mooney with fluid is to fill until it runs out of the overflow drain on the bottom of the plane.  In order to minimize the mess, I have a small Tupperware container below the drain to catch the cup or so of overflow that happens whenI fill the plane.  I’m generally pretty careful to dump that waste fluid into a 5 Gallon bucket with a lid, which in time I can dump at our free hazmat household dump station.  I am very careful to glove up when handling fluid.
 

The reason I’m writing this is tough: our 10 year old beagle was scheduled for a tooth extraction earlier this week, as a fractured tooth had caused an abscess on the outside of his mouth, and he wasn’t eating much.  Pre-anesthesia blood tests showed stage 4 renal failure.  We are doing what we can for the poor little guy (subcutaneous fluid, careful diet, etc).  While I don’t think he ever got into the TKS fluid, this sad occurrence brought it to front-of-mind: as little as five tablespoons of ethylene glycol can be fatal to a mid-sized dog.  The fluid is sweet, and animals, domestic and wild, will lap it right up. 
 

Please be cognizant of spills, puddles, or uncovered waste containers. Any antifreeze is deadly to animals.

thanks.

-dan

Hope your dog gets better and can live with the renal failure. When I was a teenager I had a dog that got renal failure as well, it was back in Argentina, where vets are not as sophisticated as here so I don't know if it was stage 1, 2, 3, or whatever, but basically, if he ate red meat or regular dog food he would be just lying down without energy to move. He managed to live 6 more years (he got to 16 years, quite an achievement for a dog). We fed him chicken breast, he loved it and he was perfectly fine with it, you couldn't tell that he had renal issues.

[GeeBee]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

Actually they use POLYethylene glycol.  It works as a bulk material pushing everything through you.  Different mechanism from the older preps.

Most have went to polyethylene as it does not cause as much nausea, PG is still used in food. Personally I won't eat anything that has it.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/propylene-glycol#TOC_TITLE_HDR_4

[ilovecornfields]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

Actually they use POLYethylene glycol.  It works as a bulk material pushing everything through you.  Different mechanism from the older preps.

Actually, it’s an osmotic laxative, not a bulk laxative like Metamucil. One of my favorite trade names, GoLYTELY. Because it makes you “go” and it has electroLYTES. Also my favorite because you usually don’t go litely,, you go until you have massive diarrhea.

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2013/019011s025lbl.pdf

[GeeBee]

My co-pilot pulled out his 2 liter water bottle (we get the big bottles on international). He said, "My wife bought this water flavoring for me, it's really good for you." He squeezed some in from a bottle like a food coloring container. I said, "You know the big ingredient in that stuff is PG". Well sure enough in about 30 minutes he had to use the lav. The again, and again. I said, "You're %^&^ing your brains out, right?" He said, "How did you know?". I said, "It's PG, it make you %^&^ and now, you are behind the hydration curve, good stuff indeed!". When I fly, I drink nothing but pure water. Even as a passenger. My biggest medical problems on board can all be traced to dehydration, mostly either caffeine or alcohol induced. On flights over 6 hours I would make sure the flight attendants pushed water to the passengers, when I started doing that, my medicals decreased to near zero. 

[EricJ]

There are bitterants that can be added to coolants (e.g., antifreeze) to make them undesirable to animals.   I suspect they'd work in TKS fluid.

 

[GeeBee]

You mean like the kind on the lithium coin battery that my  2 year old grand daughter downed right after she disassembled the alarm clock?

[EricJ]

8 minutes ago, GeeBee said:

You mean like the kind on the lithium coin battery that my  2 year old grand daughter downed right after she disassembled the alarm clock?

Was that a liquid?

[GeeBee]

They coat the batteries with bitternent

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/29/21493443/duracell-new-coin-batteries-bitter-coating-taste-terrible-child-protection

[ilovecornfields]

4 hours ago, GeeBee said:

They coat the batteries with bitternent

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/29/21493443/duracell-new-coin-batteries-bitter-coating-taste-terrible-child-protection

Not all of them have it but it’s a good idea. Those button batteries are no joke. They’ll melt through your esophagus in no time. When my son was little balloons and button batteries stayed far away from anywhere he could reach. He’ll probably outgrow me by next year so I’m sure he’ll start putting stuff where I can’t reach it soon.

[Pinecone]

17 hours ago, ilovecornfields said:

Actually, it’s an osmotic laxative, not a bulk laxative like Metamucil. One of my favorite trade names, GoLYTELY. Because it makes you “go” and it has electroLYTES. Also my favorite because you usually don’t go litely,, you go until you have massive diarrhea.

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2013/019011s025lbl.pdf

I don't remember which one they did for my last colonoscopy, but it was quite mild.  I did stay home that day, but it wasn't the issues of previous preps.  Just the urge to go, calmly walking to the bathroom, and nothing explosive.

 

[GeeBee]

The other thing about adding bitters is it would drastically reduce the population of beautiful young southern widows with their magnificent sweet iced tea.