PTfE tape and birds

[monkey]

Hello guys.

 

I recently joined this forum and posted in the Memorial section after losing a 6 month old Grey. I am awaiting his necropsy results.

 

I did SO much research on Greys before I bought one, months and months of reading articles, lists, forums, books I was super careful. I threw out my smellies, stopped wearing perfume, stopped using air fresheners, even the tumble drier. I knew how dangerous Teflon is to birds, and I thought I knew every appliance Teflon was hidden in, until today.

 

My sweet bird Elwood passed away. I won't go into it again as I've posted in the Memorials, but I have been racking my brain as to what I did wrong.

 

I live in the UK, and it's just turned cold enough to warrant using my heating. My place is heated using radiators. Last year I had a new radiator installed, and my desk is situated right next to this radiator. Elwood was out, he'd had breakfast, he flew to me, played, had headrubs then died. No warning. It was very fast and I am devastated.

 

The radiator had been on prior to him being out, so it was in the cooldown stage.

 

At 1st I wondered if radiators were covered in a paint that could be toxic to birds, but after some research I've found they're powder coated, much like bird cages.

 

Then I found out after lots of searching, that plumbers primarily use PTFE Tape (aka Teflon Tape) on valves, pipes, and connectors.

 

I understand Teflon is only apparently a danger when it's heated to a very high level, OR if it's damaged in any way but as it's invisible and impossible for us to detect, how will I ever know?

 

Has anyone else had any experience with this? Could this tape be to blame?

 

They use the tape much like a putty, to seal pipes.

 

Any insight on this would be appreciated, thanks.

[Ray P]

I think the first thing you should do is wait for the test results to come back so you will know for sure.

You may have done nothing wrong and this could happened no mater what.

Teflon tape is used by plumbers in the US also.

I am not going into the operation of steam boilers or hot water boilers at this time because you don`t know what he died from, but the Teflon tape is unlikely.

[monkey]

I know what you're saying Ray and I am awaiting the results, but in the meantime it's human nature to look for possible causes. Also I'd like to know for the future whether or not it can pose a risk

 

A radiator is a heater, the pipes and valves around it are sealed with PTFE.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

monkey... my heart goes out to you! The odds are your bird most likely died from a congenital defect, or a virus.If you and family have not experienced any ill effects with your enviroment, the odds are, your bird didn't suffer from the same. Nancy

[Dave007]

Hello guys.

 

I recently joined this forum and posted in the Memorial section after losing a 6 month old Grey. I am awaiting his necropsy results.

 

I did SO much research on Greys before I bought one, months and months of reading articles, lists, forums, books I was super careful. I threw out my smellies, stopped wearing perfume, stopped using air fresheners, even the tumble drier. I knew how dangerous Teflon is to birds, and I thought I knew every appliance Teflon was hidden in, until today.

 

My sweet bird Elwood passed away. I won't go into it again as I've posted in the Memorials, but I have been racking my brain as to what I did wrong.

 

I live in the UK, and it's just turned cold enough to warrant using my heating. My place is heated using radiators. Last year I had a new radiator installed, and my desk is situated right next to this radiator. Elwood was out, he'd had breakfast, he flew to me, played, had headrubs then died. No warning. It was very fast and I am devastated.

 

The radiator had been on prior to him being out, so it was in the cooldown stage.

 

At 1st I wondered if radiators were covered in a paint that could be toxic to birds, but after some research I've found they're powder coated, much like bird cages.

 

Then I found out after lots of searching, that plumbers primarily use PTFE Tape (aka Teflon Tape) on valves, pipes, and connectors.

 

I understand Teflon is only apparently a danger when it's heated to a very high level, OR if it's damaged in any way but as it's invisible and impossible for us to detect, how will I ever know?

 

Has anyone else had any experience with this? Could this tape be to blame?

 

They use the tape much like a putty, to seal pipes.

 

Any insight on this would be appreciated, thanks.

 

I'm very sorry that you had to go thru this. I can't tell you what actually happened other than to say that perfectly healthy birds sometimes die for no reason at all. This also applies to other animals. Many times, vets can't really tell what happened because it has to do with unknown organ failure.

Teflon poisoning can only occur through inhalation. The chemical needs to be heated over a certain temperature and gasses occur and spread thru the air. Many other items that contain teflon don't need to be discarded if they aren't used for cooking, heating. Plus a bird won't eat teflon tape or teflon glues and the type you're talking about was already far away from your bird. Even broken teflon won't cause problems.

Some of the other things you mention here won't cause problems either. At it's worst cold temperatures serious colds or coughs could occur but those illnesses would need to work their way into a bird's organs in order to kill the bird. Those illnesses would be visible for weeks and weeks before any serious damage was done. Usually when people start seeing those things they go to a vet quickly.

According to what you describe It sounds like your bird was happy to the very end. Maybe it was a heart attack. It's hard to say but if it was heart trouble, there wouldn't be anything you could do. It also would cause instant death.

As far as cold weather, greys and other animals can put up with temperature exrtremes. It wouldn't cause instant death.

 

I know tht you feel terrible but unfortunately, these things can happen to animals. This type of thing happens frequently to wild birds in the woods. Sadly, all the reading material that's available can't cover unknown death. The same thing applies to human babies---Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Dave007

[aerial.2000]

my heart goes out to you so sorry to hear of the loss of your beloved baby!

[John moore]

I no this post is years old but has op ever posted the results? Was it the teflon tape ?

[Timbersmom]

I don't think the results were ever posted.

[Greytness]

Having lost 2 birds within 30 minutes of each other, I can attest that high heat exposure will release teflon vapors and kill birds. My husband had returned home after living in another state for work and brought back his kitchen pots, etc. Unbeknownst to me, one of the pans contained teflon. My son used that pan to cook bacon over very high heat, suddenly killing 2 of my babies. Luckily our other 11 birds survived the exposure.

My thoughts are that if his radiator reached high temperatures, it could have activated the teflon tape. It's quite unusual for such a young bird to quickly die like that, unless he had an undiagnosed medical condition.

[John moore]

Right but every radiator in the world uses Teflon tape and many people with birds have steam/hot water heat and I can’t find anything about it you would think if it could happen we would know about it like we do the pans , I’m not an expert but I think they get up to about 300 degrees and it’s not direct heat like a flame , wish I could find more , I really need to install a new radiator, 

[Greytness]

I do understand your concern. I wonder if there's any literature from the teflon tape manufacturer that mentions the maximum heat it can withstand before breaking down. 

It's unfortunate that we don't have a necropsy report follow-up on Monkey's bird. a

[Timbersmom]

From everything I've read, when I was researching safe cookware, I wouldn't think teflon would offgas at 300 degrees. The problem comes when the temps are high, like 400 to 500 if I recall. I'm not sure what happens if the tape becomes degraded though.