Keep Pets Out Of Your Medicine Cabinet.

In last week's column and many previous columns I've relied on advice and information from Dr. Patricia Talcott, the toxicologist for the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory and Associate Professor at the Washington State Veterinary Teaching Hospital. We talked last week about pets that get poisoned by consuming medications or other substances that are commonly used or abused by their human caregivers. Dr. Talcott handled about 1300 poisoning cases last year so she has a pretty good idea of what is happening "out on the street."

She said the most common human drugs that are accidentally ingested by pets are antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. In my hospital last week we treated a couple of canine "siblings" that had ingested some "wake-up" pills that contained caffeine. Birth control pills, and thyroid medication, drugs to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and iron tablets are a few of the others she mentioned.

In most cases, dogs or cats are likely to ingest small amounts of these drugs and life threatening symptoms or side effects are not common. But one blood pressure pill for a small dog or cat would be like a human taking ten or twenty pills so the potential danger is great. It is always important to call your veterinarian, or the ASPCA poison control center (1-800-426-4435) for advice. The ASPCA service is available 24/7 and costs $55, billed to your credit card. That fee includes, if needed, further consultation between your veterinarian and the toxicology specialists regarding treatment of your pet.

Ibuprofen (Advil, others) and acetaminophen (Tylenol) are likely to cause serious problems in dogs and cats. Ibuprofen in dogs and cats is very unpredictable and can cause life threatening gastrointestinal bleeding and inflammation. Virtually any dose of Tylenol in a cat is likely fatal unless promptly and aggressively treated. Other human non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs ("NSAID's") may also be toxic to pets.

Nicotine is very toxic to pets but is not commonly ingested. The greatest danger probably comes when someone dumps an ashtray full of cigarette butts into the garbage with meat scraps and other things that are tasty to dogs. A dog will greedily wolf down the whole pile of garbage, including the cigarette butts. A total equivalent of one to five cigarettes can be lethal. (Speaking of lethal, human cigarette smokers typically maintain a serum nicotine concentration of 30 ng/ml, and the toxic blood level is about 50 ng/ml. A drug that had that kind of safety margin would never get FDA approval.)

Marijuana seems to have a wider safety margin than nicotine. Between 1998 and 2002 the ASPCA Poison Control Center had 250 cases of accidental marijuana ingestion in animals. There were only two deaths - one in a cat that had probably ingested other drugs as well, and probably died from a pre-existing heart disease, and one in a horse that had symptoms of colic. (However, I would still recommend taking care to avoid marijuana ingestion by your pets.)

Poisoning by Cocaine, "Ecstasy" and other methamphetamines, and other illegal drugs is not as commonly reported in pets. They may be "under-reported" due to fear of legal consequences by owners. Much of the treatment of apparent intoxication in pets is based on symptoms rather than exactly what the poison was. However, there are specific antidotes to some poisons and some treatments, like inducing vomiting, should not be done if certain poisons have been ingested.

If you have to, I guess you could always make up a little fib, such as "My neighbors look like druggies and I think they may have given my dog some Cocaine."