Pets and falls - Page 1

THURSDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- Dogs and cats may be favored companions of many Americans, but they're also apparently the cause of falls that results in thousands of injuries each year. U.S. health officials report that 86,629 people annually are injured in dog- and cat-related falls. That's 240 people a day who wind up in hospital emergency rooms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "I get asked a lot if pets are a fall hazard," said Judy Stevens, a senior epidemiologist at the CDC and first author of the report. "We found that of the 8 million falls from all causes, about 1 percent were related to cats and dogs." Acknowledging that pets provide benefits, too, Stevens said that the CDC wanted to make people aware that they can be a fall hazard, and the benefits need to be balanced with these risks. 

For the complete article see this link:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_82191.html

This why I stress even to owners of very small dogs how important things like "stay" and "heel" are.  Prevents accidents. I have to say 1% is pretty minor, though. This winter alone I fell on my ample behind on the ice at least a dozen times and didn't trip over my dogs once.

Dogs, whether well trained or not, get underfoot. As a paramedic in former years, I saw many people who had fallen becuase they got tripped up by their dog or cat. 

And no, use a little sense, this has nothing to do with PETA. Perhaps you might read the link before you make such a stupid statement.

I had a homecare patient who fractured his femur tripping over his golden retriever.

I've also suffered broken toes on two different occasions when a dog moved unexpectedly while I was stepping over top of it.

Not enough to make me give up my dogs, of course...

The worst broken toe I ever suffered was when my employer paged me, and, still half asleep, I tripped over the couch on my way to the phone!

Guess that means I should stop working, eh? 

I would bet gravity is involved in over 95% of falls....

This is just like many medical studies, yes it should raise some concern in people that are perhaps prone to falls, but should not construed as saying anything other than yes some people can trip over their pets.

In pharmacy there is a list of drugs that have been associated with falls in the elderly. some insurerers  will often argue that these drugs should never be used in the elderly but the study actuality says to asses the persons risk factors and see if the drug provides greater benifit than risk. For some patients these drugs are appropiate and often the only drug that can be used for certain conditions..

For me the dogs are worth the risk

 

Agree, almost any study can be arranged to get the results wanted.  I spent 19-years in R&D, I saw many results from many studies that I had serious questions about.

I'm sure there are studies out there that "prove" gravity causes falls only 93.89% of the time. 

I think stairs result in falls and inguries.   Gonna have my taken out as soon as the weather gets better.  My dog fell down them the other day.

Sheri

I think stairs result in falls and inguries.   Gonna have my taken out as soon as the weather gets better.  My dog fell down them the other day.

Sheri

I would have to say that 99.9% of falls involving pets have some component of owner stupidity involved. Included in that percentage would be my own experiences. When I was a kid, learning how to ride & handle horses, the one lesson pounded into my my hard little head was --whatever happens, it's never the horses' fault. And that goes with dogs, cats, birds, whatever. You're the human, you're the responcible party. You're supposed to have the brain, & be doing the thinking. Either you were doing something dumb, or not paying attention, or not in control of your animal, or yourself. I hate stories that blame the critter, & relieve the dumbass owner of the critter from blame. Just a generalization, not saying that this is one of those stories, but I heard a blurb about this on the AM news today, & they were touting it as a Warning to Pet Owners! The Hidden Dangers of Pets! Yikes! One of my pet peeves! jackie harris