Veterinarians guard against opioid misuse by pet owners
Boston (AP) — Dr. Virginia Sinnott has practiced veterinary medicine for 15 years, but guarding against opioid abuse by pet owners had rarely been part of her job. Until recently.
In a sign of the desperation behind the drug epidemic, Sinnott and many other veterinarians believe that more pet owners are using their cats and dogs as a ploy to obtain opioids for themselves. The warning signs are often clear and ominous.
“People become angry or enraged or belligerent far out of proportion to the level of pain their dog or cat is experiencing,” said Sinnott, senior staff veterinarian in the emergency and critical care department at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. “They're screaming and yelling and using swear words” to demand painkillers that their pets do not need.
The problem extends far beyond Angell's busy hospitals in Jamaica Plain and Waltham. In August, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to veterinarians about administering opioids, urging them to use pain-relief alternatives when possible and be vigilant for signs of misuse.
“These drugs have potentially serious risks, not just for the animal patients, but also because of their potential to lead to addiction, abuse, and overdose in humans who may divert them for their own use,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote.
Sinnott said she believes Angell stymies nearly all attempts to divert opioids from the hospital, but the experience has left her startled and saddened that the crisis has penetrated one of the largest veterinary hospitals in North America.
“That's the part that breaks your heart,” she said. “As much as this person is screaming at you, they're suffering themselves.”
Angell and its 24/7 emergency service might be more vulnerable to attempts to divert opioids than private practices, where veterinarians build close relationships with clients and their animals. But a 2016 study in Colorado, published in August by the American Journal of Public Health, showed broad concern.
The study found that 44 percent of the veterinarians surveyed were aware of opioid misuse by a client or veterinary staff member. In a striking finding, 13 percent were aware that an animal owner had intentionally injured an animal or made it sick — or made the pet seem hurt or ill — in an effort to obtain opioids.
Angell veterinarians said that they have not seen cases where animals have been intentionally injured but that three or four times a week they encounter pet owners who raise red flags for them, including knowing a suspiciously large amount of technical detail about opioids.
“It's always off-putting when someone knows more information than you would expect,” Sinnott said.
Some patients ask directly, “What do I have to do to get Dilaudid?” Sinnott said. Dilaudid, the trade name for hydromorphone, is an addictive, morphine-derived painkiller that produces a heroin-like high.
The hospital does not consider itself an arm of law enforcement, except when an animal is intentionally injured, partly because suspecting that someone wants opioids for themselves or others, instead of their pets, is far from proof.
“We mostly try to stay on the veterinary side of it,” Sinnott said. “But we don't prescribe or put ourselves in the position to help them commit a crime.”
As a result, Angell has responded with protocols designed to head off opioid abuse and diversion.
Doses of tramadol, the most commonly prescribed opioid at Angell's pharmacy, have been cut 61 percent in recent years, to 60,326 tablets dispensed in the 12 months ended in June, compared with 153,768 tablets two years before, Angell officials said.