SPOKANE, Wash. — People in the Spokane area awoke on Dec. 11 to a fresh coating of snow, a 2.1 inches fell overnight and into the morning.
This means its the time of year where road crews will be using deicer to make roads more passable as people try to make it to work and take their kids to school.
KREM recently covered how researchers at Washington State University developed a new deicer using grape waste to treat roads.
This has led to many questions about if the current deicer was harmful for pets and animals.
KREM's Amanda Roley set out to verify if road deicer is harmful for pets.
Is road deicer harmful for animals?
The City of Spokane uses a solution of magnesium chloride to deice roads in the winter.
KREM can verify that this commonly used substance can be harmful to pets, but Dr. Suzanne Coulston at Southcare Animal Center said it depends on the pet and how much it consumes.
If a pet consumes a high volume of the magnesium chloride deicer, it could suffer from gastrointestinal distress or an ulcer, according to Coulston. But she said cases of sickness are extremely rare.
In smaller levels of consumption, it can cause minor GI distress or nausea.
Also, Coulston added, animals usually don't consume it due to the salty flavor.
But what about the type used by WSU researchers, the grape waste byproduct?
KREM can verify it is unlikely to harm pets.
Dr. Coulston said whole grapes can be toxic to pets. While it affects each pet differently, it can cause kidney failure to some pets, Coulston said.
WSU Researcher Xianming Shi,who developed the grape extract-based solution, said it should not have any major affect on pets because the concentration of the grapes is so low.
In conclusion, KREM can verify the deicer the City of Spokane currently uses can cause harm to animals in large amounts, but are unlikely to consume much of the solution. KREM can also verify that pets are unlikely to be harmed by deicer made with grapes.