Consumer Reports has come out and said the Lexus GX460 is hazardous and could roll over so Toyota has halted sales so they could investigate.
The carmaker issued the temporary "stop sale" within hours after the popular consumer magazine raised the handling problem. It reflects Toyota's attempt to respond more quickly to safety concerns after being castigated by the federal government for dragging its feet on recalls to address faulty gas pedals.
You bet your sweet ass Toyota is going to halt sales and jump on this quickly, just to prove they really do care about their consumers.
It's a marketing ploy to put them in a good light.
Because they should already know Consumer Reports did something to make the vehicle so it would roll over or Toyota really needs to go out of business. Because safety testing should have been done throughly to already know if it will or will not roll over.
There are government tests that have to be done and signed off on to comply with regulations before this vehicle is even allowed to be sold. Those tests and regulations do consist of manuvers that would test roll over ability.
So one of two things happened, Consumer Reports handled the car and made a situation possible that any SUV/Truck type vehicle would roll over no matter what or Toyota signed off without testing (I highly doubt that) or they knew about the roll over ability and allowed it be pass because maybe the situation was so outragious they thought it would never happen.
In this case, Consumer Reports said the Lexus problem occurred during tests on its track. In a standard test, the driver approached a turn unusually fast, then released the accelerator pedal to simulate the response of an alarmed driver. This caused the rear of the vehicle to slide outward.Under normal circumstances, the electronic stability control should quickly correct the loss of control and keep the SUV on its intended path. But with the GX 460, the stability control took too long to adjust, which could cause a rollover accident if one of the sliding wheels were to strike the curb or another obstacle, said Gabriel Shenhar, Consumer Reports' senior auto test engineer, one of four testers who experienced the problem.
So we see the problem really isn't the SUV, it's the computer not reacting quickly enough.
Hmmm, where have we heard about potential computers on Toyota's not reacting quickly enough before?
Just got back from taking Maggie back to MSU, she has not improved any since last weekend when she went to MSU the 1st time.
They are putting a feeding tube in her today, they will keep her overnight (at my request, I am a little freaked out about this) and feed her a couple times to make sure everything is fine then she will come home tomorrow, feeding tube and all. They will teach me tomorrow how to feed via the tube.
They are also getting aggressive in their approach to getting her IBD under control through meds, which they hope to beable to taper off after she starts eating willingly on her own.
I am really freaked about having her here with a feeding tube, all the what ifs running through my mind. Gah ....
Maggie has had a relapse.
Wednesday and Thursday she was fine, eating some and no tummy stretches.
Friday she wouldn't eat, lots of tummy stretching and you could see the pain on her face.
Took her to the vet this morning thinking she needs something to control the pain, she won't take her tramadol pills. She doesn't like the taste of it and shakes her head violently, foams and drools until the taste is gone. So we thought how bout liquid pain meds.
Got some flavored liquid pain meds, just gave it to her and within 5 minutes she threw it up because she didn't like the taste. I hope at least a little bit was absorbed into her system.
I think if the pain is controlled, everything else will settle down and she will want to eat.
I just don't know what to do anymore, she is rejecting all the things that will make her better because it tastes bad.
She was 18 pounds just a couple weeks ago, she is down to 14.3 pounds. She really can't last much longer like this.
Just heard from the vet with all of Maggies test results and biopsy's.
Addisons came back negitive, yea!
Bone from the extraction site showed some very mild inflamation, vet said she probably had some bacterial infection. But she's been on antibiotics for her tooth so that should be almost gone now.
Biopsy's from her stomach and intestines showed some mild inflamation, diagnoising her with mild IBD and Food allergies.
They want to contiune on with the antibiotics for her stomach, pepcid twice daily and switch to the Hills z/d when she starts to eat her normal volume of food. No steroids at this time unless her food intake doesn't increase by monday.
She's eating right now but about 1/3 cup daily, she normal eats 2/3 cup daily with snacks at noon and night.
She is taking her pills easily now, before she would fight it but now a little PB and she takes them with no problem. Which is a relief.
She lost a lot of weight and it's going to take probably a good month for her to get back to normal but hopefully we are on our way. Yesterday she actually gave my hand a good tongue washing, that hasn't happened in over a week now so she must be feeling a little better (she loves to groom daddy and I).
Maggie came home wednesday.
We all are very excited!
She is dead tired, I imagine she did not sleep well since saturday night when we took her to the e-vet.
Lance was so excited when Maggie came in the door, but he was so gentle with her. And now he is just laying with her and cuddeling.
She has 3 meds for now (1 antibotic for her mouth, 1 antibiotic for her stomach and tramadol as needed)
She actually ate a little bit of food. A nice sized teaspoon of chicken and some pumpkin, I was so excited I teared up. First time she actually ate food in over a week.
The biopsy results will be available Friday, MSU said they would call.
They want me to switch Maggie to a presciption diet, Hills z/d. Not happy about that, Hills isn't exactly my favorite brand. They also said not one piece of food that isn't Hills z/d should ever pass her mouth again, going to do some research about IBD in dogs because I can't believe she can never have a piece of fruit or a veggie ever again. But for now they said give her whatever she will eat, just to get her eating.
Just heard back from the vet. Stomach scope done, good biopsy samples taken and Maggie is awake, alert and curious as to what everyone around her is doing.
While they had her under for the scope they also took some dental x-rays to see if anything was happening in the area of her extraction.
And it looks like I am going to have to go kick some dentist butt.
When she had her extraction, the dentist not only left behind bits of bone but he also left (essentially) a hole from the extraction site to her nose.
They went in and cleared away the bits on left over bone and stitched up the hole.
The dentist MSU had on site took a look at Maggies extraction site while doing the x-rays and noticed that the site wasn't healing normally, which caused them to cut her stitches and take a look, finding the bone and hole.
They are sending the bits of bone for anaylsis to see if they are infected or not.
From the scope they said her stomach wasn't terrible but found some inflamation.
Good News is that Maggie probably gets to come home tomorrow. They will make that determination first thing tomorrow and then call to set-up a time to come pick her up and go over her treatment and aftercare.
Woo Hoo!
So I took her to Michigan State Vet Hospital last night and I am happy to say Maggie is being treated like a Princess by them.
Spoke with the ER Vet after she examined Maggie and she said Maggie is a good candidate for Internal Medicine to do a case study on. Which means starting this morning she will be having a whole slew of students, techs and Vets study her case and will be getting immediate, constant care. Yea for Maggie.
They will be doing a whole bunch of stuff. A very indepth blood panel, a GI panel and a cLIp (pancrease blood panel) which both will be sent to Texas A&M because they are experts in doing and studing those. Urine analysis and some other urine test. Ultrasound, which should happen by early afternoon at the latest. And if need be a scope down the throat and up the rear end. A couple others that I am forgetting.
They were very detailed, but explained it so one could understand what was going on. Took a lot of time to make sure I understood everything and were very nice and helpful and respectful.
And I have to say it isn't going to cost as much as I thought it would, maybe because it's a teaching hospital.
But I have to say at this poiny if the puppers ever have anything remotely serious with them I will just take them to MSU, it's only 1 hour 20 minutes from us and they are not for pussyfooting around.
They are suppose to call this morning with an update on what has happened and what will be happening
Maggie is having some serious stomach problems.
2/11 - Dental, found Maggie's fracture tooth got worse
3/5 - Maggie to vet for intermidant throwing up, mostly 1- 1 1/2 hours before meals. Blood work normal. Given Cerenia, Metoclopramide & Metronidazole & Pepcid
Maggie was doing pretty good (from what I can remember, maybe an occasional throw-up but nothing regular)
3/17 - Hurt to eat, to vet for tooth got metacam
3/22 - More throwing up and much streching for stomach. Fecal normal, more M & M for longer period of time. Pancreatitis given consideration
3/26 - Screaming for painful tooth, tramadol given
3/28 - Refusing all pills, when made to swallow would throw them back upp.
3/30 - Extraction of tooth. Was abscessed with some bone loss starting. Given Clavamox, stop Metronidazole, keep using metoclopramide & pepcid. Ate small meal that night.
4/1 - Maggie to vet, refusing to eat. Had 1 1/2 club crackers since tuesday night meal. Since wouldn't take pills they gave her an injectable antibiotic
4/2 - Morning to vet for throwing up, gave cerenia injection
4/2 - Evening, coughing. Given steroids for allergies because still refusing pills so allergies are out of control.
4/3 - Morning to vet for fluids under skin
4/3 - E-vet 9pm. Hasn't eaten (except those crackers) since tuesday evening. nauseas, stomach pain (screching from pain), no energy. No fever. They assume pancreatitis, start IV fluids and stomach meds. X-ray shows fuzziness that is common with pancreatitis. Blood work for pancreatitis shows negative, blood work normal all organs on x-rays looking normal.
Called this morning, she is perking up and hydrating, no pain (on pain meds) going to try feeding at noon.
Refused food at noon, they say if still refusing food by 4pm they will seringe feed.
Called back with questions (and this is where I get freaking pissed)
Vet I spoke with says they are not assuming pancreatitis, it could be several other things also (IBD, Addisons, acid reflux) and they starts talking about ultrasounds and exploratory surgery. WTF? Nobody bothered to call me with this new information or options that need to be put into place today for tomorrow.
All they are really doing at this point is stomach meds, IV fluids and pain meds. No attempts at a true diagnoses, they say we need to talk to a internist.
They are trying to get a ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow.
Any and all opinions wanted.
Next steps
Things I should consider or should be doing?
We do have Michigan State Vet Hosptial 1 1/2 hours away.