“Human medication consumption is top concern of pet poison lines - News-Leader.com” |
| Human medication consumption is top concern of pet poison lines - News-Leader.com Posted: 29 Jan 2011 12:32 AM PST Los Angeles -- Human medications including dropped pills sickened more pets in the United States last year than any other toxin. It's the third year in a row that human medications top the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' list of top 10 toxins, released Friday. Medicines with ibuprofen and acetaminophen, antidepressants and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medicine topped the list. Janet Hardie in Groveland, Calif., brought home incontinence pills and set them on a table beside her chair in the living room. A while later, she looked down and Priscilla, her Lhasa apso, was tearing into the blister pack. "She had eaten three. At least, I couldn't find them," Hardie said. She and her neighbor called the ASPCA hotline in Urbana, Ill. A veterinarian had them weigh the dog and read the prescription information, then feed the dog white bread and two teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide. Then they kept Priscilla active so the contents of her stomach would fizz and she would vomit within 15 minutes. "The doctor was on the telephone for about an hour," Hardie said. "It was like having her here, she was so precise." About a quarter of the 168,000 calls received by the hotline in 2010 were about pets who had swallowed human drugs, said veterinarian Tina Wismer, senior director of veterinary outreach and education at the center. Pet owners won't always know what their animals have gotten into -- they just know they are showing symptoms like lethargy, vomiting, depression, seizures or refusing food. A dog who has swallowed pills to treat ADHD will get agitated. What happens when a pet gets hold of pills? "We use Viagra for dogs with pulmonary hypertension and it was originally marketed to regulate blood pressure. Rogaine can be very dangerous, especially in cats, and can cause heart failure," Wismer said. One aspirin or one heart pill probably won't kill a pet, but a month's supply, a big bunch of grapes, a few bars of dark chocolate or a single lily could. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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