Getting a vehicle ready for winter brings out the most hazardous products most households own, and they end up on a concrete floor at nose height. Coolant is the one that matters most, because it tastes sweet and a small amount can permanently damage the kidneys. Ten minutes of tidying in September prevents nearly all of it.
Walk the space, not the list
Rather than memorizing which chemicals are dangerous, go and look at four places. Nearly every case we see traces back to one of them.
1. The floor
Anything at floor level is available to a dog or cat, and this is where the risk concentrates. Containers parked beside the door, a jug nobody put back, a funnel and a drip tray from the last oil change, an open bag of ice melt.
Cats matter more here than most people realize. They do not need to drink anything: they walk through a film of spilled liquid, then sit down and clean their paws and coat, which is a complete route into the body.
Action: everything goes up onto a shelf or into a closed cupboard. Nothing lives on the floor.
2. The shelf itself
Look at what is actually there. Coolant, washer fluid, brake and power steering fluid, oil, solvents, de-icer and lock de-icer, RV or boat winterizing products, and very often rodent bait from last year.
Two rules cover the lot. Everything stays in its original labelled container, and every lid gets tightened. The worst poisonings we deal with involve something decanted into a water bottle or an unmarked jug, because then nobody knows what the animal drank.
Action: tighten the caps, bin anything unlabelled at the hazardous waste depot, and put the ones you use most on the highest shelf rather than the handiest one.
3. The driveway
Go outside and look at where the car sits. A bright green, orange or pink patch means a leak, and a leak is a hazard for every animal on the street until it is fixed, not just yours.
Puddles matter more in autumn because there is rain to spread them and because dogs drink from puddles on a walk without thinking about it.
Action: soak a spill up with cat litter or sand, scrub the spot with plenty of water, and fence the area off from animals until the concrete has dried. A drip that keeps coming back needs a mechanic, not a winter of parking over it.
4. The door
An open garage on a Saturday afternoon is an invitation to a neighbourhood cat, and a workshop with a curious dog wandering in and out is where the accidents happen.
Action: keep cats indoors while you work and close the door behind you when you finish.
Why coolant is in a category of its own
Ethylene glycol is sweet, so animals do not avoid it. They seek it out, which is the opposite of how they behave around most chemicals.
The amount required is small, particularly for a cat, and there is no safe quantity to watch and see about. The other feature that catches households out is that an affected pet often looks unsteady for a few hours, then appears to improve, and that apparent recovery is when people decide not to phone.
So the rule is short: if you think coolant has touched your pet at all, ring us that minute, container in hand. Do not wait for signs, and do not try to make your pet vomit. Come through our urgent care and we will start while testing is under way. Results from our diagnostics service show us how the kidneys are holding up, and with this chemical the numbers say far more than how your pet looks in the waiting room.
If you are switching coolant at the next service, ask the shop about a propylene glycol based product. It still needs the same storage discipline, but it sits lower on the hazard scale.
What you might notice at home
An unsteady or drunken walk, vomiting, a sudden increase in drinking and urinating, lethargy, or simply an animal who spent time in the garage and is now off. Later on, no urine production, mouth ulcers, collapse or seizures, by which point the situation is much harder.
With the other products on the shelf, expect drooling, vomiting, mouth irritation, or a chemical smell on the coat. A pet who has walked through oil or solvent needs help from our medical services team rather than a bath at home, because grooming it off is the problem you are trying to prevent.
While you are out there
Three more things worth five minutes each. Put rodent bait in a tamper-resistant station or get rid of it. Sweep up any spilled birdseed or pet food that is drawing rodents to the garage in the first place. And check whether anything stored at floor level in the shed deserves the same handling as the garage, since garden chemicals live the same life.
Autumn brings poisonings from outside the garage too. Our guide to autumn mushrooms in South Surrey and White Rock covers the one that appears on lawns overnight.
Frequently asked questions
My dog drank from a puddle under the car. What now?
Phone us immediately and describe the puddle. Do not wait to see how your dog behaves, because with coolant the first several hours can look unremarkable. Bring the container if you know which product leaked.
How do I tell coolant from rainwater?
Coolant is usually brightly coloured, slightly sticky and sits under the engine bay. Do not spend long deciding. If your pet drank from a puddle under a vehicle, phone and let us work through it with you.
She walked across a spill but did not drink anything.
Still an exposure, and still a phone call. A cat cleans her paws and coat within minutes, which puts the coolant inside her just the same. Ring us before you bathe her, because the order you do things in matters here.
Is washer fluid dangerous too?
Yes. It contains a different alcohol and it is toxic. It also gets topped up more often than coolant, so the jug spends more time open on the floor. Same rules apply: cap it, shelve it, wipe up spills.
We store everything in a locked cupboard already. Anything else?
Then you have solved most of it. The remaining gaps are the afternoon the cupboard is open while you work, the spill nobody wiped, and the driveway leak outside the garage entirely. Those three are worth the walk-around.
What should I do with old fluids?
A recycling or hazardous waste depot takes them. What you want to avoid is the drain, and the row of half-empty jugs that accumulates at the back of a shed for years, because those are the ones that eventually get knocked over.
Speak to the team at Peace Arch Veterinary Hospital
If there is any chance your pet has been near coolant or another garage chemical, phone us now and bring the container.
Published by the team at Peace Arch Veterinary Hospital.
This article is for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for an in-person veterinary examination or advice about your individual pet. If you have an urgent concern about your pet, contact Peace Arch Veterinary Hospital or your nearest emergency veterinary hospital right away.
Peace Arch Veterinary Hospital
124-1959 152 St, Surrey, BC V4A 9E3
Phone: (604) 536-3131
Hours: Monday to Thursday 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM; Friday 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM