Other than auction sites, how are rectal thermometers purchased?

I remember playing with mercury in school. Smash it and it goes everywhere in little balls and the sccoop it and it rejoins. Great stuff!!! Don't remember where or how we got it. Brought it to school in little vials.

Elemental mercury isn't really dangerous. I know there are worry worts who dill disagree but I don't care.

Elemental mercury is toxic primarily through inhalation of mercury VAPORS. Mercury evaporation is EXTREMELY slow so you won'r be inhaling much even if you have broken mercury thermometers lying around or if you played with it.

It is only slowly absorbed through the skin, although it may cause skin and eye irritation. Ingestion is not an important route of acute exposure as almost no elemental mercury is absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract.

Organometallic and inorganic salts of mercury are dangerous because they bind with proteins in the body.

Ethyl Mercury (aka, thimerosa)l has been used as a preservative in vaccines since their existence. The medical community has never had a concern about injecting this chemical into infants, toddlers etc.

I am not sure how mercury thermometers can be bought other than auction websites. This is a real good topic to talk about.

I remember playing with mercury in school. Smash it and it goes everywhere in little balls and the sccoop it and it rejoins. Great stuff!!! Don't remember where or how we got it. Brought it to school in little vials.

We played with it in school where they had it in a bottle in the chemistry supply closet. Of course that led to me collecting it wherever I could find it to have my own stash at home. It was fun to rub it onto pennies to make them look like dimes. I'm not nuts yet ----- but how would I know? 😮

I think the hysteria comes from what the government's minister of the environment tells us. When they have accomplished their first goal of making the world safe by removing 98% of something/anything and they need another 5 years before retirement they have to come up with something to promote their job security and they decide the next 1% must be eliminated or we will all die.

I think the mercury thing comes from the hatters of old who used mercury in the process. Most of them were nuts before they died which gave us the saying "Mad as a hatter". So we would likely have to play with mercury for a verrry long time to be affected. That denizen of the swivel chair who needs another five years to retirement postulates that if removing 98% of something, another 1% must be better and dictates that we must accommodate him.

A little tidbit on mercury: if you break a mercury thermometer, as Susie rightly says, it's not really dangerous. However, it's darn annoying. Picking up the mercury from the ground is very tedious since mercury tends to break into smaller and smaller droplets. And then, what do you do with the collected liquid mercury?

Peacan nutijob, when I was little; my dad had a fever and he was going to get an oral temperature and I was standing in the kitchen with my mom and I was age 4 and the mercury thermometer that my mom was going to use for my dad's oral temperature fell off the kitchen counter and broke. My mom was not too happy when that happened but, she went and bought a new one on the next day. I did not see how my mom cleaned up everything. My rectal temperature days ended near the end of 1983. I was already learning how to do an oral temperature in 1984 by using the oral mercury thermometer.

A little tidbit on mercury: if you break a mercury thermometer, as Susie rightly says, it's not really dangerous. However, it's darn annoying. Picking up the mercury from the ground is very tedious since mercury tends to break into smaller and smaller droplets. And then, what do you do with the collected liquid mercury?

If you do it right you can get those tiny little beads to meld into one larger bead to add to your stash bottle. Of course today you have to hide that well in case the mercury police come calling. Shades of the great pot scourge of the 60s which is now working it's way to becoming legal again after 50+ years or prohibition but it took alcohol only 10+ years to make a comeback.

By the way, non electronic glass thermometers containing compounds other than mercury are on sale... look on Amazon and other sites!

My mother had one in addition to the old mercury one.

I saw some of the old thermometers on Ebay a few times.

This topic sounded like a good topic to talk about.

Farm / ranch supply stores often carry rectal thermometers and other fun veterinary tools and supplies. You can also get K-Y in quart size tubes!

You can find old type rectal thermometer by searching for prysmatic rectal thermometer on ebay or on site like Alibaba

My wife broke our thermometer so I was looking for a new one a few weeks ago. They had rectal ones at Walgreens.

Other than Ebay, I'm not aware of any other auction sites or venues, outside of possibly finding them at flea markets or antique stores. There's an obvious demand for them. Each and every Ebay sale ends with a major bidding war, and that 60 year old glass rod, that originally cost $1.50, is now fetching $50.00!! If I had enough money to buy out a large stash of rectal thermometers, I could have been retired and sitting on some tropical island. The returns outweigh any investment available at any bank or brokerage house.

I think they are available outside the US . I've bought 3 or 4 over the years on eBay and never paid more than 10 dollars. I also seen hypothermia thermometers which are all rectal. You just have to be patient.

There are so many different stories over the years about mercury poisoning. Mercury has been used in different industrial applications over decades, in everything from vaccines to electronics. I used to play around with it when I was a kid. I've seen these scary accounts of damage to the nervous system, including paralysis. Some claim that ingesting elemental mercury is harmless, but if you went to the E.R. after swallowing mercury, would they just shrug their shoulders, and tell you to go home, or would they pump your stomach ?

A quick search on ebay reveals some good candidates:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/B-D-Rectal-Thermometer/173923694565?hash=item287ea8f7e5:g:Sj8AAOSw7SxcmQF3

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-10-OLD-RECTAL-CLINICAL-THERMOMETERS-A0A-MICH1-FAICHNEY-CO-UNUSED-IN-FOIL/223506203854?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140131123730%26meid%3D9115889aa7da430aa5ff8c8dfadbf03e%26pid%3D100167%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dlo%26sd%3D173923694565%26itm%3D223506203854%26pg%3D5411&_trksid=p5411.c100167.m2940

These are NOT MINE, however, I did just place an order from the first link. Although I keep digital in my bag, nothing beats administering an old-fashioned glass rectal thermometer to check a patient's temp IMO.

Cheers

We found one at an antique mall and at a flea market. You just have to look for them in other places.

Apart from a few I retain from earlier days, we bought all of ours on e-Bay.

I get my rectal thermometers through online veterinary supply houses. You can get about 7 for $10.

I get my rectal thermometers through online veterinary supply houses. You can get about 7 for $10.

LOL. What do you need 7 for? I want to be at that party!

What do you need 7 for?

One for each day of the week. Just like ladies panties are, were, labeled with the day of the week. Are they available any more? I haven't seen or heard anything about day of the week panties in a long time.

I get my rectal thermometers through online veterinary supply houses. You can get about 7 for $10.

One for each day of the week. Just like ladies panties are, were, labeled with the day of the week. Are they available any more? I haven't seen or heard anything about day of the week panties in a long time.

I've had day of the week socks but never seen day of the week ladies panties...Hmm there is something slightly erotic about that but can't put my finger on it, well yes of course I would like to put my finger on it 😜

Rectal thermometers from veterinary supply houses...Are they supersize equine ones? 😮

I remember edible panties 😄

I remember edible panties 😄

Damn you're old!

I grew up on a ranch and I can say equine, bovine live stock thermometers are 5in (12.7cm) long vs medical thermometers which are 4in (10.16cm) long the medical ones are usually triangular in cross section and the animal ones are more rounded, and just a small amount larger in diameter and usually have ring on the none business end for a string and tail clip. It's also much harder to keep it in a horse's, or cow's butt for 3 minutes.

Also live stock thermometers usually have a range of 90f to 110f (32c to 43c) vs medical that are usually not past 108f (42c) [c values are rounded down to remove decimals.]