Adverse acute effects from developing chemicals?

[MelanieC]

Tonight I developed some film. A few hours later, my favorite dog is walking around with pupils of distinctly uneven sizes. (See attached photo.) I called the emergency vet and since he's otherwise completely normal they did not consider him emergent. I am satisfied that he is not suffering from any of the more horrible possible causes (i.e., dissected carotid, brain tumor) but I am wondering if it could have something to do with the chemicals I used this evening. The reason I'm wondering this is that this has happened once before, and it was also on an evening that I developed film.

The chemicals I used are D-76, Kodak indicator stop bath, Kodak fixer, Kodak hypo-clear, and Photo-flo. (No, I do not own stock in Kodak.)

I'm making an appointment for the vet ophthalmologist just in case, but any insights into this would be welcome.

Thanks from Melanie, and Solo the Border Collie.

 

[IGMeanwell]

As long as there is proper ventilation I wouldn't worry Mel

He probably got some sort of contact high

or

by any chance is he taking any meds? Or a flea treatment or something?

happens in human sometimes http://www.medhelp.org/forums/eyecare/archive/114.html

That being said watch him for weird behavior... because worse case scenario (I mean worse case) it has the potential for a sign of epilepsy in other words there is the slight potential for a neurological problem

or maybe he ran into something, possibly has a concussion.... could be a ton of things

 

[ebolton]

Something like this happened to one of our cats...he had got splashed by a chemical (non-photographic) containing atropine. He was OK without treatment a few days later.

Ed

 

[Ronald M]

Humans can get contact dermatitis from metol in D76. They can get so sensitive they can not even be near photochemicals with it.

Get the dog some sheep to play with while you are darkrooming!

 

[oftheherd]

Didn't know that symptom was a possibility from photo chemicals, but dogs do have more sensitive senses than we, and allergies can cause random effects.

Whatever, I hope it isn't serious nor recuring.

As an indication of how the effects can be different on different people, more than 30 years ago, I had a commander in Korea who insisted my mixed b/w developers were fire hazzards. My protestations that they would be more effective in putting out fires than causing them were to no effect and I had to store them outside our hootch. Later I learned he had a phobia of some sort about fires. I was assigned to hang out the back of a Chinook chopper and photograph the local village "in case" there was a fire there. Such is life for someone who lets it be known he likes photography. 😀 😀

Again, hope your pooch is alright.

 

[MelanieC]

Jenni, the affected pupil was actually the small one -- I took the photo inside in dim light. Both pupils were responsive to light, but the small one started smaller, and then got smaller under a penlight, and then did not dilate back out to normal size. He didn't seem bothered at all, had no problem catching thrown treats or toys, and wasn't tearing from that eye or showing any other signs of irritation. Also, he was not in the bathroom while I was developing. He did lie just outside the door. But the pupil thing didn't happen until a couple of hours later. I have a studio apartment, so my dogs are always where I can see them and I, um, talk to them a lot so I would have noticed if his pupils were asymmetric earlier. He didn't run into anything. He's a smart dog, maybe he was just playing a joke on me.

The effect went away by itself over about an hour and a half and he's fine this morning.

He would love some sheep of his own but I think my landlord would protest.

Thanks guys!

 

[Xmas]

I always wear (dedicate) rubber kitchen gloves for B&W dev and I dont use metol, lots of people become sensitive. The reason I use Rodinal is for lower toxicity. The only chemicals that a human could detect in your mix from vapour is the acetic acid, and fast fixer e.g. did you dilute the stop from the concentrate?
Do you have an extractor you could run while the stop/fix vapour is about, and could you have a dog walker, take him around the block...
Alternatively use a plain water rinse at dev temperature, this is ok with film. And if he is ok afterwards you have one less worry. If he still shows symptom is is possible (and cheaper) to use plain fixer if you are not in a water conservation area, your hypo clear will still help even with plain fix.

Noel

 

[rogue_designer]

I wonder - was that the eye closest to the bottom of the bathroom door when he was laying there? Perhaps it was an airborn irritant?

 

[fgb2]

As you say, with no other abnormalities a brain tumor (which causes a dilated pupil and coma) is an unlikely cause and the abnormally constricted pupil on the side of a carotid dissection would not reverse in an hour. The most likely cause is probably a pharmacologically active agent that got into the eye by accidental contact. Household substances that can cause this are pesticides such as the active ingredients in some flea and tick collars. Certain drugs used for myasthenia gravis, Alzheimer disease, glaucoma or in the operating room can also do it.

Typically in humans this is a painless condition. Most often the drug gets into the eye from the patient's hand, from rubbing the eye or adjusting a contact lens.

While it's hard to be sure the photographic chemicals aren't the cause, the unilateral symptoms and lapse of time before onset might be more consistent with delayed contact around the darkroom or on your hand, rather than through exposure to fumes.

 

[rncamero]

Melanie,

I'm glad to hear Solo is ok - I would recommend wearing a lab apron in addition to the rubber gloves, if you don't already do. No matter how hard I try to be careful while mixing and pouring in/out chemicals, I still manage to get stuff on the apron and on the floor. I would assume some lands on my shoes too...

 

[lex]

melanie, i am glad you BC is okay!

we just got a little cinnamon puppy with similar markings to your solo...

 

[MelanieC]

Thanks for the help, guys.

I wasn't wearing gloves. (I know, stupid. For some reason I thought these chemicals were pretty benign, because otherwise it would seem incredibly unsafe to develop film in my own bathroom. But someone pointed out a couple of web pages to me that disabused me of that idea...) I did notice that the smell of either the developer or fixer seemed to be stuck to my right hand even after I washed it a few times, and I'm right-handed, and my dog's left pupil is the one that was affected, so maybe I was picking an eye booger off of his left eye or something like that (hey, if we have dogs we all do it) and caused the reaction that way. It's one thing to put myself at risk, but I'm not willing to endanger my dogs so I am going to be much more careful about handling chemicals from now on.

Luckily my bathroom fan is practically industrial strength. In San Francisco it's so foggy and humid (cool humid, but still humid) that they don't screw around when it comes to bathroom fans. Mine is so loud and violent that you could explode ordinance in there and no one would hear you. So I don't think I'm inhaling too much. I will attempt not to lean over too far while pouring stop bath.

Thanks again!