Beware of pills and potions
Every year at the hospital we see several cases of drug toxicity in cats and dogs as a result of well meaning owners giving the wrong medications.
Parents all know what Pamol is, ‘‘the magic cure-all’’, and used in conjunction with a magical plaster, almost any injury or illness is sure to be cured.
Our furry friends are also mammals but sometimes when we try to help them things can go wrong. Some years ago, ‘‘Struth’’ makes me laugh every time! - came in to see me in the hospital where I was working in Townsville, Australia.
Struth was a hyperactive threeyear-old short-haired pointer dog who would escape and disappear for hours if given the chance.
Tom said that he had been vomiting, what looked like, coffee grains persistently for several hours. This last thing was a big clue for us, as these coffee grains are actually small bits of digested blood probably from an area of bleeding ulceration in the stomach or bowel.
A bit more of a chat with Tom revealed that he had given ‘‘Struth’’ a couple of neurofen tablets for a sore leg the previous day.
Some interesting points about medications: Surprisingly, most of the medications that I use every day for my patients are very similar and sometimes the active drug is exactly the same as human medicines. But there are many human medicines that I cannot use for my patients as they would be toxic and others are not licensed for use in my patients.
And there are differences between the medicines I can use safely for cats versus dogs. Then there are the rabbits and guinea pigs who could die if given the wrong antibiotic.
Importantly, my patients are usually very much smaller than the average 60-80kg human. So to medicate an 8kg pooch would need a tiny piece of a normal human tablet. And the average cat is only 3-4kg. So accurate doses are very important.
Struth had almost certainly suffered a nasty effect of the Neurofen on his stomach lining and possibly his kidneys. We immediately placed him on intravenous fluids while we waited for his blood results to come through. These showed that luckily his liver and kidneys were OK and after lots of oral gut protective medicines and two days of IV fluids we had him feeling a lot better.
Every year at the hospital we see several cases of drug toxicity in cats and dogs as a result of well meaning owners giving the wrong medications, especially when they are away from home on holiday.
With dogs it is usually the giving of pain killers. If you have ever taken Voltaren like products on an empty stomach then that will give you some idea of how a dog would feel times three if given the same tablet.
Cats are lean and light (well some of them) and their metabolism is different to dogs and ours in many ways. They can’t tolerate some medicines at all and their kidneys are especially sensitive to some drugs. The most common genuine mistakes are usually made with flea products.
This week one little feline hunter was very lucky. ‘‘Jarah’’ was rushed in on Sunday morning with saliva pouring from her mouth and in an almost seizure like state.
Susan had mistakenly put her dog’s flea product on little Jarah by mistake. We immediately placed an IV catheter in to Jarah’s moving arm and managed to give her some Diazepam to relax her tremors.
The next most important thing to do is to bath them with detergent and rinse them thoroughly with warm water to remove the rest of the flea product. It was a tense first few hours but luckily Jarah started to recover in the early afternoon and the next day was back home to a very happy mother.
Eye medications are another problem. If an eye drop worked the first time it doesn’t mean that it will the next time. The problem may not be the same and if the wrong type of drop is used it could make the eye problem a lot worse.
So don’t be tempted to open your medicine box for your furry friend without asking us first.
And keep the sticky plasters stocked up for the kids.
From all the crew here we want to thank-you for all your support and friendship and hope you had a great Christmas and wish you all a very Happy New Year - from all the crew at your pet hospital.