Air Freshener = Deadly?

[sheena lee]

I read a long time ago - I forget where - that those spray air fresheners are terrible for chinchillas, and that someone had known someone who sprayed some in the same room as a chinchilla and it died the next day.

For that reason, I'm really careful and close the doors whenever my mother in law sprays the apartment. We also have those automatic ones that go off every 9, 18 or 36 minutes (they're always set to 9, and we have 4 of them in a 1200sq ft place...) I hate that stuff, but she loves it..

Is there any truth to that? I feel like it probably is bad enough for humans, so I'm really careful, but the cat seems to fair out well... Can it kill chins?

 

[mistywaterwoman]

I work for a wellness company, you wouldn't believe the amount of toxic crap that is in most of the household products out there, and air fresheners are one of the worst. Google the name of the product and "MSDS sheet" along with it, that should give you an idea of how bad it is. MSDS is manufacturer safety data sheet or statistics or something like that.

 

[Spoof]

Is there any truth to that? I feel like it probably is bad enough for humans, so I'm really careful, but the cat seems to fair out well... Can it kill chins?

In college I had a roommate move in that would completely coat the house when I was in class. About four months in I came home early and caught her spraying each individual cage and chinchilla. She moved out at the end of that month.

I probably had around 13 chinchillas at the time and nobody died. She used lysol, fabreeze and glade. It does make their coats feel like crap when it gets on them. I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't figure out why they felt so rough even after I dusted them. There is some sort of residue that comes out of those sprays that builds up on things. :skeptical:

I don't use them in my house because they give me headaches. When mom came to visit she sprayed my laundry room down because it "smelled like a barn". Duh, that's where I keep the hay! (I LOVE the smell of fresh hay)

 

[Crazy]

I've heard that air fresheners can kill small animals.
I keep anything that can release anything into the air the heck away from my chinchillas.
I'm sure it would take an excessive amount, and a predisposition for it to kill one...but why chance it? Plus, I have a hamster in the same room as them. Even smaller lungs.
When my parents put up air fresheners in their house I was sneezing a LOT and my nose hurt and I was dizzy. I'm naturally sensitive to that stuff.
My cat also started wheezing. He gets bad allergies, and he was showing classic signs of an asthma attack. So again...it probably depends on the individual.

If it CAN kill a small animal why chance it? Your lungs would be better off too.
I personally feel that your paranoia is justified, but then again I freak over every little thing.

 

[ChinnyMom]

i would never use a spray or anything that releases something into the air around my chins. i do have one of those gel air freshener thingies in the closet in the chin room, but the closet door is always closed. this helps keep the 'chin smell' from permeating the items in the closet too much (clothes i don't wear often, etc). not that my chin room gets smelly, i don't allow it to ever get to that point, but the general 'animal smell' i don't want on me when out on a hot date or something, lol.

 

[sheena lee]

I definitely am very careful. I don't personally spray air freshener in any of the rooms occupied by my boyfriend and myself (our bedroom and the office where the chins are). My mother in law* knows that I hate sprays so she won't spray in those rooms either. But I know that sometimes some remnants of stuff sprayed in another room might float into the office, if the door is open a crack and the automatic one in the hallway goes off. I sometimes turn them off or down, but once she notices she'll turn them on again. Don't wanna p**s off the MIL too often

They give me headaches and nausea too, and the one in the kitchen always goes off when I'm walking by with food! See my MIL is a smoker and wants to make sure the apartment doesn't smell like smoke, she overdoes it with the freshener (I would suggest simply smoking outside but I am more simplistic and black/white in my problem solving, so...)

*the term mother in law is used loosely here, but in French (I live in a primarily French household) it applies to the parents of your spouse or your boyfriend/girlfriend regardless of if you're married, so I use it to be concise eheh*

 

[Crazy]

She smokes inside the house with animals inside?
. . . I'm staying out of this discussion since that irks me (and ruins everything in the house) and I will end up not saying nice things.
I wish you much luck and for your chins to live long healthy lives.
I'm sorry you're stressed out by this. Hopefully the two of you can come to a compromise.

 

[sheena lee]

Yeah she smokes inside, but like I said I always keep the chin door closed and we don't smell it in there. My boyfriend - her own son - has asthma and she doesn't care. She has smoking-induced asthma as well.

I don't say anything because it's not my place to call her out on things. Some people get older and can't change. Smokers are notorious for thinking its not as bad as they say it is on tv. We're moving in a few months, so I don't bother getting aggravated. I'm not overly concerned about the smoke and the chins since I do my best to keep them away from it, but I understand your irkness about it.