You pull the tags off your pillows and mattress and take the scissors to the warning label on your blow-dryer after it catches on the corner of the sink for the 100th time, never really considering that those warning labels are there for a serious reason.
Of course, product liability in this country is big business. Hobby Lobby announcing the recall of thousands of holiday lights after only two wire-breakage complaints demonstrates the trigger-happy absurd fear of lawsuits and large punitive damage rewards. The USDA is so overwhelmingly alarmist about E.coli outbreaks, they are willing to require farmers to scrap entire crops of spinach even though there is no evidence infections resulted out of those specific fields. The list can go on endlessly.
Another great bastion of liability is in the health care industry. We turn our ears deaf after hearing the same warnings we once understood as truth, turn into the lore of yesterday. Eggs and coffee were going to kill us in the 1990's. Now trans-fats are going to be our undoing. With this constant barrage of warnings, turning a deaf ear to the media is an inevitable lifestyle choice for people merely wanting to live without constant fear in their hearts.
There is a legitimate side to many of these warnings. It only takes one experience to be reminded of how quickly things can go from normal to completely out of control . Watching Christmas trees go up in flames on television, or hearing the tale of the toddler losing her life after swallowing toy magnets is sad and horrible, but realistically none of us expects that to happen because it is almost entirely out of context with our daily lives.
I would like to offer my own out-of context story, for no other purpose then it falls squarely into the category of things you are warned about, but assume will never happen to you personally.
Many of you own dogs. In fact, a recent set of statistics released by the census bureau relays that 36.1 percent of the people in the United States have a dog. Many people have different levels of attachment or detachment towards their animals. One united fact about dogs, cats, babies, gerbils, anything alive, they do not come with warning labels or care instructions. If you decide to take one into your care, you are free to be as smart or stupid about it as you would like as long as it doesn't fall into that fuzzy category called "neglect".
Having shown, bred, hunt-tested dogs for many, many years, my nose is often pressed in books or articles about health, nutrition, genetics, and training related to dogs. My vet most likely considers me an educated nuisance because I can pre-diagnose my dogs before I get there. In this particular instance, paying attention to all of those warnings and scare-tactics paid off.
On a Sunday morning recently I gave my nine week old puppy a vaccine for Parvovirus. I had done it dozens of times. You can get the same vaccines as your vet, and, if you are a brave sort around needles, inject the dog yourself. The caveat on this particular day was my beloved new acquisition, who, despite the fact he'll be 80+lbs, already has a bevy of cutsie-poo names, went into anaphylactic shock within five minutes of the injection.
Anaphylactic shock is what happens to people who are allergic to peanuts or shellfish accidentally come into contact with them. Humans and dogs can both suffer from this reaction when vaccinated, after eating the wrong types of foods, or coming into contact with other harmful types of microbes absorbed through the skin or mucus membranes. People suffer with rapid decrease in heart rate, lightheadedness, difficulty breathing or difficulty swallowing. Without intervention, anaphylaxis can be fatal.
In dogs, signs of anaphylaxis include, lethargy, white or pale gums, weakness in extremities, slow or no breathing, and a blank stare. In my puppy's case, his gums were as white as copy paper and his little 14 pound body was as limp as a dishrag.
Dogs are not necessarily violently allergic to the same things humans are. They are, for most instances, not prone to food allergies because their diet is limited. Things that can possibly cause anaphylaxis in dogs include anesthetic agents, snake venom, spider venom, and antibiotic preservatives in vaccines.
The latter was the cause of my puppies' reaction. Though I have had it explained to me many times that vaccine reactions are caused by the preservatives in the vaccine and not the vaccine itself, the importance of such a differentiation was never more apparent than in those short few seconds when my mind was trying to wrap itself around what was happening.
Thankfully we made it to the vet in time and my puppy will not suffer any kind of permanent health issues resulting from the incident. The only point of humor I could glean from the incident was when I realized I'd flown out of the house in my flannel Christmas pajama bottoms, a chewed-on "Valley Forge '05" t-shirt and Teva sandals. It was only funny because things turned out so well. At least I had my priorities straight.
Over the years, I have heard of many unlucky stories, mostly related to dogs who went under anesthesia and never came back out because of anaphylaxis. You can discuss the risks of vaccination and anesthesia with your vet beforehand and they can advise you on the safest methods available. For the rest of my pup's vaccine schedule, he will be pretreated with an anti-histamine prior to his shot. If he ever needs any other type of treatment involving injections, we will take similar precautions.
My vet reassured me these circumstances I encountered were unusual. Primarily, it was a very short time between exposure and reaction. The average time can take up to 30 minutes. This is important to remember if you take your dog to the vet - a reaction can happen much later, even after you get home.
Consider this a one of those pesky warning tags that comes with a dog. Your pillow may never catch on fire, and it is highly unlikely you will drop your blow-dryer in the tub. It is probably just as unlikely your dog will go into anaphylactic shock, but at least you know it is possible.