Listen in as our expert panel explores the clinical challenges of veterinary pharmacology, discussing medications, supplements, and inactive ingredients that can be dangerous to pets. You’ll hear practical dispensing and safety guidance, along with evidence-based strategies to help pharmacists protect animal patients from accidental exposure to human medications.
Special guests:
- Alexandria Gochenauer, PharmD, DICVP, FSVHP, FACA
- Staff Pharmacist and Interim Pharmacy Manager, Walmart
- President-elect of the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists
- Erica Wassack, PharmD, DICVP, FSVHP, FACVP
- Associate Pharmacy Officer
- Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs, Instinct Science
- Tina Wismer, DVM, MS, DABVT, DABT
- Senior Director
- ASPCA Poison Control
None of the speakers have anything to disclose.
This podcast is an excerpt from one of TRC’s monthly live CE webinars, the full webinar originally aired in September 2025.
TRC Healthcare offers CE credit for this podcast. Log in to your Pharmacist’s Letter, Pharmacy Technician’s Letter,or Prescriber Insights account and look for the title of this podcast in the list of available CE courses.
The clinical resources mentioned during the podcast are part of a subscription to Pharmacist’s Letter, Pharmacy Technician’s Letter, and Prescriber Insights:
- FAQ: Med Considerations for Cats and Dogs
- Article: Don’t Chase Your Tail With Pet Rxs
- Podcast: Clinical Capsules – Avoiding Medication Mishaps with Pet Prescriptions
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Transcript:
This transcript is automatically generated.
00:00:09 Alexandria Gochenauer
On the human side, we use QD to signify once daily and on the veterinary side we see SID.
00:00:17 Alexandria Gochenauer
But the problem with that is if somebody were to have SID written on a script it looks very similar to the human QID, meaning four times daily.
00:00:28 Alexandria Gochenauer
And so we wouldn’t want our pets to accidentally get a medication four times daily that they were supposed to get once daily.
00:00:37 Erica Wassack
Pharmacokinetics is so different in our veterinary species compared to humans that the dosing and frequency of those medications are going to be severely different and a good example is levothyroxine.
00:00:48 Erica Wassack
That one in particular I like. I always love to harp on, especially for our pharmacists because like the frequency that we give is every 12 hours in dogs.
00:00:57 Erica Wassack
And that’s like unheard of in humans, right?
00:01:02 Narrator
Welcome to Medication Talk, an official podcast of TRC Healthcare, home of Pharmacist’s Letter, Prescriber Insights, and the most trusted clinical resources. Proud to be celebrating 40 years of unbiased evidence and recommendations.
00:01:15 Narrator
On this episode, our expert panel explores the clinical challenges of veterinary pharmacology, discussing medications, supplements, and inactive ingredients that can be dangerous to pets.
00:01:26 Narrator
You’ll hear practical dispensing and safety guidance, along with evidence-based strategies to help pharmacists protect animal patients from accidental exposure to human medications.
00:01:36 Narrator
Our guests today are… Dr. Alexandria Gochenauer, a board-certified veterinary pharmacist and an interim pharmacy manager at Walmart Pharmacy, and the president-elect of the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists.
00:01:49 Narrator
Dr. Erica Wassack, also a board-certified veterinary pharmacist and the Associate Pharmacy Officer of Plumbs Veterinary Drugs at Instinct Science.
00:01:59 Narrator
And Dr. Tina Wismer, a veterinarian and senior director of poison control at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or ASPCA.
00:02:09 Narrator
This podcast is an excerpt from one of TRC’s monthly live CE webinars.
00:02:13 Narrator
Each month, experts and frontline providers discuss and debate challenges in practice, evidence-based practice recommendations, and other topics relevant to our subscribers.
00:02:24 CE Narrator
And now the CE information.
00:02:29 Narrator
This podcast offers Continuing Education credit for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, and nurses.
00:02:35 Narrator
Please log in to your Pharmacist’s Letter, Pharmacy Technician’s Letter, or Prescriber Insights account and look for the title of this podcast in the list of available CE courses.
00:02:44 Narrator
None of the speakers have anything to disclose.
00:02:50 Narrator
Now, let’s join TRC Editors, Drs Stephen Small and Sara Klockars, and start our discussion.
00:02:58 Stephen Small
Let’s first start off with some background on differences between animals and humans when it comes to meds. So to start off with here Erica, how do cats and dogs process medications differently from humans?
00:03:14 Erica Wassack
Yeah. So what I’d love to say is that animals are not tiny humans and dogs and cats process medications very differently. And Animal Farm coconuts as a whole can be very different and confusing. But when we talk about different species, like dogs in particular, just some examples are they have a higher blood volume, which can result in lower plasma concentration when you’re using human drugs.
00:03:37 Erica Wassack
Their elimination half life is a whole lot shorter because we have about 2 1/2 * a faster glomerular filtration rate compared to humans.
00:03:45 Erica Wassack
And the even more acidic pH in the kidneys compared metabolism wise dogs can’t acetylate drugs, which is very different. And then of course cats, cats are like are fun, deficient babies like that. They have all the problems when it comes to metabolism deficiency like they lack degradation, they lack acetylation.
00:04:05 Erica Wassack
They have about two to four times the amount of hemoglobin than humans, which can increase their risk for oxidative injuries. So like there’s so many differences when it comes to our pharmacokinetics.
00:04:18 Stephen Small
And Alex, how are pet prescriptions different from human prescriptions? What are some maybe differences to highlight there for listeners?
00:04:29 Alexandria Gochenauer
Yeah, there’s quite a few ways that they’re alike, but there’s also many ways that they differ. I think the most notable for some of our customers is that human prescriptions are often covered by health insurance, where as our pet medications are usually paid out of pocket. Sometimes we do see pet insurance, but it’s more of a reimbursement type setup.
00:04:49 Alexandria Gochenauer
And then for our pharmacists. Our veterinarians don’t have NPI numbers, which are assigned to providers by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. So it’s technically fraud. If they were to have these numbers. And so we see a little bit of issue with getting some of our veterinarians.
00:05:10 Alexandria Gochenauer
Into our pharmacy systems, but luckily we do have a license information and if they prescribe controlled substances, we can utilize their DEA number.
00:05:21 Alexandria Gochenauer
Some other things are that many drugs are prescribed to animals that are human medications and are being used off label, and then our abbreviations can differ in our prescriptions. So on the human side, we use QD to signify once daily and on the veterinary side we see SID.
00:05:43 Alexandria Gochenauer
But the problem with that is if somebody were to have SID written on a script, it looks very similar to the human QID, meaning four times daily and so we wouldn’t want our pets to accidentally get a medication four times daily that they were supposed to get once daily.
00:06:02 Alexandria Gochenauer
We also have some differing brand names for our veterinary medications, so that can cause a little bit of confusion with prescribing practices.
00:06:11 Alexandria Gochenauer
And then our liquid concentrations, they’re not only stated per mil, but we often see that the drug concentration is a combination of the two active components. If there’s more than one medication in there.
00:06:24 Alexandria Gochenauer
So for clavamox on the package, it’s listed as 62.5 milligrams.
00:06:31 Alexandria Gochenauer
But it contains 50 milligrams of amoxicillin and then 12.5 milligrams of that clavulanic acid.
00:06:38 Alexandria Gochenauer
And then I would say the last difference as Erica kind of mentioned before is that we do have the species specific dosing which is very critical, which is quite different from humans where we typically have our one approved dose for adults with a few variations depending on age and kidney function. And then we have one approved dose for children.
00:07:01 Stephen Small
That’s good to have that in perspective. And Alex, we’re getting an audience question right now asking if pet meds are required to be sent electronically. We know that some states require prescriptions, even controlled substances to be electronically sent to pharmacies. If prescribers have the capability. But does that also apply to pet prescriptions here?
00:07:22 Alexandria Gochenauer
Yeah. So I actually was in Illinois before I moved to my current state in Indiana and they made a little snippet on their requirement for electronic prescriptions that if the practice was so small that they couldn’t afford electronic prescriptions or they just didn’t have the capacity to do that, that they do get a pass.
00:07:45 Alexandria Gochenauer
So I believe it would be pretty similar with other states where they do not require those electronic prescriptions for veterinary patients as long as they have everything filled out appropriately on the prescription.
00:07:59 Erica Wassack
Yeah. I will also say to like it’s being worked on like I think veterinarians realize the frustration not having electronic prescribing. So it is constantly something that veterinarians are looking into and it’s kind of exciting because it’s kind of like the frontier of veterinary medicine and like electronic prescribing.
00:08:15 Erica Wassack
But, yeah, a lot of states do have exemptions in their law. They say veterinarians are exempt from this.
00:08:21 Stephen Small
Thank you for that. It’s best to refer to your state laws and pharmacy policies, since it can vary.
00:08:28 Stephen Small
And then Tina, our question for you is, are human approved meds better than veterinary only versions?
00:08:38 Tina Wismer
So if we only use veterinary approved versions in veterinary medicine, we would probably only have a double handful of drugs available to us. We actually mostly use off label human approved medications. We occasionally get a drug on the veterinary side before we get it on the human side.
00:08:58 Tina Wismer
But most commonly it goes the other way.
00:09:03 Stephen Small
And then, Erica, what are other legal considerations with pet meds? I’m sure it can be daunting for folks since it’s a whole different species. Are there any differences to think about there or to highlight?
00:09:17 Erica Wassack
Yeah. So the big ones is making sure you identify this species on the label of the prescription.
00:09:24 Erica Wassack
You know, because a lot of our animals have human names like Felicia or, you know, dawn or something along those lines. And so making sure you can identify that particular species because that’s really important.
00:09:35 Erica Wassack
Also adding for veterinary use on your prescription labels just to help identify. That’s actually required by law to do that.
00:09:43 Erica Wassack
You want to also avoid dispensing the prescriptions under the owner’s name because again, like Alex was talking about like that could be considered fraud. But.
00:09:53 Erica Wassack
You might have the patient name, but then you also might have the owner’s name on that label, so you can get kind of confusing. So being sure you can separate those as well.
00:10:01 Sara Klockars
Now let’s talk a bit more about using human medications and our furry friends.
00:10:07 Sara Klockars
Alex, can you give us some examples of when we’d consider using human meds for pets?
00:10:15 Alexandria Gochenauer
Yeah. As Tina mentioned before, it’s actually quite common in veterinary medicine, but it does still have to be done with caution and under the guidance of a licensed veterinarian. So we refer to this as extra label drug use and there’s actually a specific act that allows this to happen.
00:10:32 Alexandria Gochenauer
So some of the times when we would consider using human medications for pets can include when there is no approved veterinary equivalent.
00:10:41 Alexandria Gochenauer
When a veterinary version is unavailable, back ordered or discontinued, and unfortunately we do see discontinuations a lot, I think just because there isn’t quite the market as there is for human medication.
00:10:56 Alexandria Gochenauer
And then often when a dose or formulation needs customization, so if.
00:11:01 Alexandria Gochenauer
Strength of the medication is inappropriate. The dosage form. So think about getting that big pill into your tiny cat’s mouth and then improving palatability or ease of administration.
00:11:14 Sara Klockars
Then now what are some human meds or supplements that are dangerous for pets that we should avoid? I’ve been told to avoid acetaminophen and ibuprofen use in our dog Tina. Are there others?
00:11:27 Tina Wismer
So you mentioned acetaminophen, right? Tylenol.
00:11:32 Tina Wismer
There is an accepted dose in dogs. It’s quite small, right? 10 MGS per kilo. We start to see methemoglobinemia act about 100 mix per kilo. There is not a safe dose in cats for acetaminophen. Even small amounts can cause death in cats. So please no acetaminophen.
00:11:53 Tina Wismer
And you’re right about the N sets, right? The over the counter ones tend to be cheaper than the veterinary versions, so owners want to know. Yeah. Can I give ibuprofen or can I give naproxen? And unfortunately, animals are really sensitive to those and it causes stomach ulcers and kidney failure. And it has to do with kinetics. 1 dose of naproxen in dogs.
00:12:12 Tina Wismer
Has a 74 hour half life right? So three days for half of this to leave the system, so it certainly can be dangerous if they’re giving it on multiple days.
00:12:24 Tina Wismer
And then pseudoephedrine, it’s like getting them speed. It really causes agitation, tachycardia, high heart rates, potentially seizures.
00:12:34 Tina Wismer
And a weird thing, I guess it’s not so weird because they tell me it happens in children too. These medications like naphazoline and oxymetazoline and tetrahydrozoline that we find in eye drops. These are alpha twos and in dogs and cats they work as sedatives.
00:12:50 Tina Wismer
So we can see dogs collapse and have really low heart rates. So not a class of drugs to use in these animals.
00:12:59 Tina Wismer
We get a lot of questions about using antidiarrheals in dogs and cats and some of our over the counter ones. Things like loperamide. We do have to be careful in certain species of dogs, and about 5% of cats because they have issues with the multi-drug resistant.
00:13:19 Tina Wismer
Protein that keeps these drugs out of the CNS at high doses. So we certainly need to ask our vet before we give those drugs.
00:13:30 Sara Klockars
Thanks, Tina. That’s a great point. And I just wanted to briefly review this multi drug resistant protein. This gene produces peak glycoprotein, which we have heard about in humans. It’s a transporter protein that pumps drugs out of the cells and it keeps drugs from passing into the brain and.
00:13:48 Sara Klockars
So there’s an animal with a multi drug resistant or MDR gene mutation. Those animals are more sensitive to those drugs and they can build up and lead to toxicity in the animals. So we must be careful with loperamide and this also impacts some cancer drugs and sedatives.
00:14:08 Sara Klockars
That veterinarians may use as well.
00:14:12 Sara Klockars
And then we also wanted to touch on any harmful herbs or supplements that you get questions about Tina.
00:14:22 Tina Wismer
So we get a lot of questions about CBD in dogs. Do have to mention that. And there is a therapeutic dose in dogs.
00:14:33 Tina Wismer
But most of these are treat formulations so you know if one is good. The dogs can eat the entire bag, and we can actually see THC signs at higher doses.
00:14:45 Tina Wismer
But essential oils are also something we get concerned about. There are products with essential oils that are labeled for use in pets, and they are safe.
00:14:54 Tina Wismer
The problems that we run into are when people take the 100% tea tree oil and put it like in a wound or in the ear, and that’s almost like giving it IV.
00:15:05 Tina Wismer
And it can cause both neurologic problems in liver and Penny Royal, which is sometimes promoted for use in flea control, also can cause severe neurologic signs, so not something to use around our pets.
00:15:21 Erica Wassack
But the big one we really do use is glucosamine chondroitin.
00:15:25 Erica Wassack
However, this is one of those where we don’t want to use the human product for glucosamine, chondroitin, and stick to the veterinary only products, usually because our human ones are too high of a dose and actually can contain ingredients or inactive ingredients that are unsuitable for dogs.
00:15:44 Sara Klockars
And then we alluded to earlier what an active ingredients should be avoided and so just wanted to touch on the pharmacist is reviewing ingredient labels. What are some ingredients that we should raise that red flag again and avoid for our furry friends?
00:16:01 Alexandria Gochenauer
I think the most well known 1 is going to be xylitol so that is going to be toxic to dogs even in small amounts. Then it can cause hypoglycemia and acute liver failure.
00:16:16 Alexandria Gochenauer
It’s often found in different tablet formulations, some liquid formulations, and then other marketed human products like gum and peanut butter. The most well known drug that this was found in that was causing problems with is Neurontin, which is a liquid gabapentin.
00:16:36 Alexandria Gochenauer
Solution and so when a prescription is received for gabapentin, we do just have to double check if that liquid product contains xylitol to make sure it’s safe for dispensing for our pets.
00:16:49 Alexandria Gochenauer
We also know that alcohol is dangerous for both dogs and cats, especially if it’s in an oral or a transdermal formulation, and we can see the hypoglycemia occur. We can see changes in blood pressure and body temperature, and it can cause some central nervous system depression.
00:17:11 Tina Wismer
Since we’re talking about alcohols, I think we should also mention benzyl alcohol. We don’t want to mix fat with cats, they can have some respiratory depression and those type of issues because the liver cannot metabolize it.
00:17:27 Erica Wassack
Yeah. Also add on like azo dyes too for cats. Like that one’s also a big one that’s in common, an active ingredient in some medications.
00:17:37 Tina Wismer
Oh yes, all of those over the counter. Treat your urinary tract infections, yes.
00:17:42
Yep.
00:17:45 Erica Wassack
Oh my god, yes, there’s propylene glycol, but you can go down like a whole list and grab a hole when it comes to inactive ingredients.
00:17:51 Erica Wassack
I do want to harp on what Alex said, though, like with the liquid gabapentin, I think it’s really important to like highlight that because there’s only one brand of liquid gabapentin that does not contain salad, all the issue with it is is also a flavor combo that like cats.
00:18:08 Erica Wassack
Your guts strawberry peppermint flavor and cats are already hard to medicate. That man. If you give them that one, they hate you even more.
00:18:18 Tina Wismer
The good news is cats are not sensitive to xylitol, but definitely keep that away from dogs. But ohh, I cannot imagine trying to give my cat that liquid.
00:18:29 Erica Wassack
Not strawberry. Peppermint. Is that wonderful?
00:18:33 Alexandria Gochenauer
I got to do it last week was not a good time. My cat was not a fan.
00:18:38 Alexandria Gochenauer
I do think there’s one inactive ingredient that we commonly forget about, especially in general veterinary practice and maybe even just like retail pharmacy. But that polysorbate 80 that is in a lot of IV medications and injectables that can cause anaphylactic reactions and cats and.
00:19:00 Alexandria Gochenauer
If we’re not practicing at that higher level of urgent and emergent care, we may not recognize it as often or as quickly as we need to.
00:19:12 Erica Wassack
OK. That’s a good one. I also think like when we, Alex was talking about all the medications that we use like human medications in animals, I think the biggest things to like reiterate is that, you know, Pharmaco connects is so different in our veterinary species compared to humans that the dosing and frequency of those medications are going to be severely different. And a good example is levothyroxine.
00:19:34 Erica Wassack
That one in particular I like. I always love to harp on, especially for our pharmacist because like the frequency that we give is every 12 hours in dogs.
00:19:43 Erica Wassack
And that’s like unheard of in humans, right? And then like, the dose is so low in humans, but like, the bioavailability is so low in dogs that we need a higher dose just to get their concentration that we need. So like.
00:19:54 Erica Wassack
Does kind of shock a lot of pharmacists when they see leave with their oxygen for our small dogs and see such a high dose and twice a day. So that’s why like I always want to reiterate that it’s, we do use it but be careful of it.
00:20:07 Tina Wismer
Yeah, your little tiny shitzus and poodles take more than people do. It’s. Yeah, it is something that I have written a prescription.
00:20:14 Narrator
Gotten a call? Are you sure? Yes. Yes, I am.
00:20:19 Alexandria Gochenauer
And just for anybody who isn’t familiar with this at home, humans are dosed in micrograms, and oftentimes we see milligram dosing for animals, so.
00:20:31 Alexandria Gochenauer
Like 75 micrograms for a human, but like 800 micrograms to a milligram for animals.
00:20:39 Erica Wassack
Well, yeah, that’s a good one.
00:20:43 Stephen Small
And then, Erica, are there recommended dosing references and resources that pharmacists should use or avoid in pets?
00:20:51 Erica Wassack
Plums Veterinary drugs has everything there for veterinarians. For pharmacists, it gives you side effects, client resources and counseling resources. There are more than just dosing. It goes in the order of like the most common like dogs, cats, furs, horses. And they get into food, animal, cattle, and then they do have exotics listed there. If it’s indicated for a particular drug.
00:21:11 Erica Wassack
So, it goes in order of like small ruminant, so you can have some camelids in there sheep, goats and then it goes into birds, ferrets, rabbits and they can even get even more detail with even more species.
00:21:26 Alexandria Gochenauer
And it’s usually based on research studies that have been completed. So as soon as those research studies come out, when that drug comes up for updating, which I believe is about annually, they will go through all of the new published research and make sure that everything is appropriate and up to date.
00:21:47 Erica Wassack
Merck Main was also a great one that ones.
00:21:50 Erica Wassack
Just if you want to get like a great synopsis of that disease date and kind of like a a small recommendation and then the biggest one I love to talk about too is the animal poison Control Center because that I mean that has been a lifesaver for a lot of our pets. I know they charged a consultation fee, but it’s so worth that money just to know that our patients are safe.
00:22:11 Tina Wismer
Have to say Plum has doses for all different species and it’s got like what happens in an overdose and those type of things. So it’s it’s a really good resource. I do have to put in a plug. If you’re in an area where you have exotic animal veterinarians that are seeing a lot of pocket pets and things like that.
00:22:32 Tina Wismer
Carpenters exotic animal formula also is a nice resource.
00:22:37 Erica Wassack
Yeah, that’s a great one.
00:22:41 Alexandria Gochenauer
And I think if we’re getting into like the weeds, the FDA’s Green book has the list of FDA approved animal drugs and then shows you those approved species indication as well as withdrawal times for food animals that can be extremely helpful. And I believe this may only be for veterinarians.
00:23:02 Alexandria Gochenauer
And people associated with the veterinary field but veterinary Information Network has really great articles and clinical information as well.
00:23:13 Erica Wassack
Well, you mentioned food, animal to Alex. I think another great resource is fair. Ad is the food animal Residue avoidance database. And so that’s something that.
00:23:21 Erica Wassack
Have like off label uses of withdrawal times and things like that, so that can also be very helpful.
00:23:29 Stephen Small
And some folks may be less familiar with the Green Book and may want to know how that compares to FDA’s orange book, which we commonly use for looking at therapeutic equivalents for human meds. How is a green book different here?
00:23:44 Alexandria Gochenauer
Yeah. Yeah, it’s similar. So we’re looking at a B approvals on the Orange Book. So what can be switched out via branded generic? The Green Book also created by the FDA, but it is going to only have those FDA approved indications. So anything that’s being used, extra label.
00:24:05 Alexandria Gochenauer
Will not be in that book, but it could be very beneficial for somebody who wants to do some type of research, study or needs information about what is actually FDA approved versus what’s being used off label.
00:24:20 Erica Wassack
Yeah. And I also want to add on to that Alex did a great job is also in veterinary for the Green Book. It includes both prescription and over the counter because all veterinary drugs are over the counter, our FDA approved.
00:24:36 Stephen Small
Excellent, great caveats there, and let’s not forget that local veterinarians can also be a helpful resource. For example, consider keeping a list of after hours phone numbers from emergency veterinary clinics in your area. This can be helpful for you in terms of pet Med questions, but it can also be important for managing possible pet poison.
00:24:53 Stephen Small
Things. And with that in mind, how can we protect pets from ingesting their owners meds at home by accident?
00:25:02 Erica Wassack
I think the biggest thing is is just like we counsel with humans, you know, storing their medications appropriately and in an area that’s not high traffic also encouraged to keep their human and pet medications.
00:25:15 Erica Wassack
For it, but I can actually like on a personal experience, talk about this because my cat’s a wonderful example. Like he got into so many cabinets. He was like Houdini, get into things. And so, you know, making sure it’s in the height enough where your dogs and cats can’t jump into an area because you see this cat wonderfully like to get into a cabinet that was mine. You can lock it. So try to, you know, just like we don’t want our kids to get into.
00:25:38 Erica Wassack
Medications like we don’t want our animals to get into medications, so we just want to keep it in an area again dry area like we do in humans, but.
00:25:47 Erica Wassack
Definitely put it high enough where our furry friends can’t reach.
00:25:53 Tina Wismer
Yeah. And baby locks, baby locks, baby gates. These are your best friend. Depending upon your dog or cat.
00:26:01 Erica Wassack
Yes, I literally had baby locks before I even had to like human children. Be hardly because of this.
00:26:07 Stephen Small
And is it worth mentioning at all about childproof containers? Are those even enough for some pets? Will they just chew through packaging that we need to think about?
00:26:20 Erica Wassack
Ohh no like you. You want to make sure it’s hard to get to. I don’t know. I just had it like a fun story where, you know, some owners like to store the medications under the bed or anything like that. Man. Some of our literary friends can definitely get into hard spaces. So like you, you want to make sure that it’s securely locked securely away from where they can get into things.
00:26:42 Tina Wismer
Yes, and especially if we’re dealing with chewable formulations of medications, we’ve had a a huge thing in vet Med recently. We’ve had aquacity nib, it’s used for allergies in dogs and it’s been out, gosh, I don’t know, seven years, 10 years and it hasn’t been a problem until October of 2023 when they released chewable.
00:27:03 Tina Wismer
Formulation and now we have animals eating entire bottles and dying from kidney failure, so it’s definitely something that we need to tell owners about when we’re sending home prescription. Keep this away from your pets.
00:27:16 Erica Wassack
Dogs are opportunistic gorgers they’ll do like if there’s an opportunity, they’ll go for it. So we just gotta be cautious.
00:27:24 Tina Wismer
I mean, and pills rattling around in a bottle is a great toy for them, right? So they chew into it. As you said, baby baby locks no or childproof caps. No, right. They just chew right through the plastic. So, yeah.
00:27:39 Stephen Small
And are there any recommendations if maybe a liquid medication is spilled or if maybe pills are dropped on the floor if you have one stray pill? Is that a common mode of intoxication? Tina, have you seen that a lot in your practice? Or maybe they didn’t clean up a spill sufficiently and just licking it a little bit can cause a major issue.
00:28:00 Tina Wismer
Yeah, depending on the drug, it can or you know an owner drops their medication and the dogs right there and eats it. So we do recommend especially for, you know, older people or people who may not have a really good dexterity in their hands to actually take their pills over the sink. So if they do drop it, it lands in the sink.
00:28:19 Tina Wismer
Because especially some of these cardiac medications can be severely dangerous to animals.
00:28:28 Stephen Small
I really like that point. Take pills over the sink since I agree it can be really hard to locate a dropped tablet or capsule on the ground, and pets are likely to find and eat them.
00:28:39 Stephen Small
This is also a good moment to highlight safety around fentanyl patch disposal. Pets have died from accessing used patches thrown in the trash because then they’ll potentially eat or chew on them, and the FDA recommends avoiding putting used fentanyl patches in the trash. Because of this. Instead, they recommend patients should fold the sticky sides together.
00:28:59 Stephen Small
And then flush that down the toilet to totally eliminate that risk.
00:29:03 Stephen Small
Similarly, topical medications can pose a risk. For example, humans using topical hormone products such as testosterone, can actually transfer the medication to their pet when holding or petting them.
00:29:15 Stephen Small
There are case reports of exposed pets having sexual or developmental side effects after exposure. Because of this and similar reports, you’ve even been seen in kids and partners who may have had skin contact with testosterone patients.
00:29:28 Stephen Small
And that’s why many topical testosterone products have box warnings about this.
00:29:33 Stephen Small
So it’s best to counsel owners taking topical hormones to wash their hands after overuse. Cover administration sites with clothing, and wash any application sites before holding or handling pets. If there might be contact there.
00:29:49 Stephen Small
That is a great segue into our next question for you, Tina. What should owners do if their pet accidentally ingest some Med? Should pet owners keep anything in the home just in case as an antidote or things like that?
00:30:02 Tina Wismer
So the first thing is don’t panic, right? And then we want to give your veterinarian a call, right. And they should be able to determine from the weight and the milligram and the number of pills ingested, whether or not this is going to be a problem if they don’t know, they can talk to one of the poison control.
00:30:22 Tina Wismer
Hunters and we sometimes induce vomiting at home in dogs. We actually use 3% hydrogen peroxide. The stuff in the brown bottle that you put on your cuts and scrapes, but you need to get an appropriate dose per weight for your animal.
00:30:38 Tina Wismer
There’s nothing safe to do that at home in cats.
00:30:42 Tina Wismer
So it’s all about determining is it a problem and do you need to see the veterinarian?
00:30:49 Stephen Small
And let’s say if we get one of these phone calls in the pharmacy, Alex is it best to then refer the pet owner to maybe the nearest veterinarian or whatever phone number they have on hand? Or is it better to have them contact Tina at at ASPCA? What is the best approach there?
00:31:09 Alexandria Gochenauer
Yeah. So they can do either or I would say whatever is going to be the quickest a lot of times we will have people call the pet poison helpline on their way to the veterinarian because they do charge that consultation fee. So the owner has to call in and at least get the pet established with the pet poison helpline as Tina.
00:31:28 Alexandria Gochenauer
Mentioned we never want to tell them to do anything to induce vomiting at home unless they’re instructed by veterinarian or poison control.
00:31:37 Alexandria Gochenauer
Because with our dogs especially, we can see that they ingest caustic or corrosive medications and bringing that back up actually causes further damage and secondary complications.
00:31:51 Stephen Small
And a good acronym to help clients know when to call a veterinarian in these cases is besties. Since veterinarians are your best friend in these circumstances, watch for behavior changes, eating less skin redness, scabs or seizures, tremors or tarry stools, nausea or vomiting, and inappropriate urination, which can be more or less frequent.
00:32:16 Narrator
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Medication Talk
