“Human meds trigger calls to pet hotlines - Herald Tribune” plus 1 more |
| Human meds trigger calls to pet hotlines - Herald Tribune Posted: 31 Jan 2011 09:58 PM PST Published: Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 1:00 a.m. 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 in January. Over-the-counter medicines with ibuprofen and acetaminophen, antidepressants and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medicine topped the list. Janet Hardie in Groveland, Calif., knows the danger well: Earlier this year, she 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 year-old 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 a half piece of 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. The Pet Poison Helpline in Minneapolis, Minn., run by SafetyCall International, has handled more than 750,000 calls since 2004, said veterinarian Justine Lee, the helpline's associate director of veterinary services. She estimated half their calls are about human medicine. The poison centers do not track deaths because there are too many variables. 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 birth control, Viagra and Rogaine pills? "Luckily birth control pills today have very small amounts of estrogen in them. 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. Insecticides, rodenticides, people food, veterinary medications, chocolate, household toxins, plants, herbicides and outdoor toxins (like antifreeze and fertilizers) round out the top 10. Pills don't take a holiday, but some of the toxins on the list seem to. "Chocolate season" stretches from Halloween to Valentine's Day. And the darker the chocolate, the deadlier it is. Over the past few years, there has been a slight increase in the number of chocolate-caused deaths and a larger increase in the number of dogs ingesting life-threatening doses of methylxanthine, which is found in chocolate, Wismer said. "Dogs love chocolate and they are gluttons. They won't stop eating it," Wismer said. It would take about an ounce of milk chocolate per pound of dog to be deadly, but only an eighth of an ounce of really dark chocolate per pound, she said. Past Valentine's Day lurks the danger of Easter -- the time when cats come in contact with deadly lilies. If a cat bites on a leaf or bats at a lily and gets pollen on its paw, then licks it off, leave for the vet immediately, Wismer said. Researchers have only determined in the last four or five years that grapes and raisins are toxic to dogs. "They don't know what it is in them that makes this happen, but three-quarters of a pound of grapes can cause very significant toxicity in a dog," said Portland, Ore.-based veterinarian Jeffrey S. Klausner, chief medical officer of Banfield Pet Hospital, the largest animal hospital in the world with 770 clinics in 41 states. Alcohol -- especially cream-based drinks like Russian eggnog -- can make an animal very drunk very quickly. The animal will wobble, vomit, maybe inhale vomit into its lungs and become comatose, Wismer said. The majority of those calls come in on New Year's Day, she said. Bread made from scratch can also be a problem. "The reason the dough is rising is because it produces gas, but it also produces alcohol so we can get drunk dogs that way too," Wismer said. In addition, the dough will continue to expand inside the dog, she said. She also reports an increasing number of marijuana calls recently. "Dogs and cats like to chew on plants," and munching on marijuana plants can increase their blood pressure. 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 |
| Calif. ferret lovers want them legalized as pets - AZCentral.com Posted: 18 Jan 2011 10:24 AM PST by Torey Van Oot - Jan. 18, 2011 11:32 AM SACRAMENTO, Calif. - It's a new year, a new administration at the Capitol, and the ferret lobby has a new strategy. Short on cash and support in California's Legislature and stymied by procedural requirements at the Fish and Game Commission, a coalition of ferret legalization supporters is hoping a new argument on the cost of the state's ban on the pet will gain traction. "I think that there's very little doubt that the ferret ban is doing economic harm," said Pat Wright, founder of legalizeferrets.org. "But the question is how much economic harm?" California, which first prohibited ownership and transportation of the species in 1933, is now the only state in the continental United States where the slender European polecat cousins are outlawed. Despite decades of lobbying by ferret owners and enthusiasts, the state maintains its stance that legalizing the small carnivores presents environmental and safety concerns. Estimates on the state's illegal ferret population vary significantly, but pet industry experts estimate one-quarter of ferret supplies sold in the country come from California shelves. Legalization proponents say those numbers show the state is missing out on revenue from sales of ferrets, which cost more than $100 apiece, and startup food and supplies, often bought when the owner purchases the pet in Nevada or other neighboring states. "There's the cage, there's the food, there's the litter pans," said West Coast Ferrets Association member Debby Greatbanks. "It's a good $500 investment." The costs continue. One Vacaville owner estimated he spends $2,000 a year, before veterinarian bills, on supplies and toys for his six ferrets: Trouble, Ozzie, Winter, Noodles, Bugs and Gopher. "I don't think there's any doubt that there would be a positive economic impact for California, for California businesses and for revenue for California," said Michael Maddox, vice president of government relations for the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council. Sales tax revenue would be small - $450,000 from current supply sales by Wright's own estimate - in the context of the state's big budget hole. Humane Society of the United States senior state director Jennifer Fearing, whose organization is neutral on the issue, cautioned that any gains could be offset by an increase in costs for animal shelters and other local animal services in the event of a spike in ferret ownership. Still, several owners said they would welcome paying a registration fee to offset such costs if it meant they could own their pets openly. "Ferret owners feel like they are alone out there," said Greatbanks, who holds a rare permit to find rescued ferrets homes out of state. "They live in fear of having their ferret confiscated. Even the UPS guy can strike a fear in your heart if he knocks on the door." The ongoing fight to allow ferrets in California is a two-front war. Past legislation, including a ferret amnesty bill vetoed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has failed to muster enough support. "No legislator really wants to be associated with this issue when the state's going down the toilet," Wright admitted. Supporters have stepped up their search for a bill author in the Legislature, hoping their new argument will resonate with lawmakers focused on economic recovery. Meanwhile, Wright and other supporters continue to press the Fish and Game Commission to remove ferrets from a list of prohibited wild animals. Past research by the commission has deemed ferrets a predatory threat to poultry and other small animals, and raised concerns about ferret attacks. Legalization proponents say their research shows the commission's concerns are unmerited and unfounded, claiming there are no documented cases of feral ferret colonies in the United States. They argue that decades of domestication have tamed ferrets' predatory instincts and ability to survive in the wild. "Everything bites, but the idea is (that) it is outweighed by companionship," Wright told the panel in December. At that meeting, Wright presented the commission with a 177-page report by a California State University, Sacramento, professor that argues legalizing ferrets would have a minimal adverse impact on the environment or public health. But the commission said the report did not meet the content and formatting requirements to trigger a formal review. Presented with the economic arguments, commissioners appeared if anything poised to enforce the ban more strictly. Commission President Jim Kellogg said he was "alarmed" and "irritated" to see pet stores selling supplies for an illegal animal and to hear Wright's testimony that no known citations for ownership had been issued in the past year. "If it's going to be illegal, it needs to be illegal, and these people breaking the law ought to be punished for it," he said. Despite the challenges, Wright and others pledged to press on until they find a fix to legalize the animal. Part of that feat could involve winning the support of Gov. Jerry Brown, who recently said he hasn't really considered the matter. "Do they eat little dogs? I'd be worried about that," joked Brown, who himself is tending to a little dog of late. "So I think we better find out what their eating habits are." 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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