The Dangers of giving your pets human medication. PLEASE READ

Dear All,

After a somewhat disastrous case I had at the weekend, I would urge everyone NOT to medicate your pets with human drugs, even over the counter products which are often thought to be pretty harmless.

Without giving any specifics, I saw an injured cat at the weekend, and prior to bringing him to me, his owners had thought they were doing the right thing by giving a human drug, freely available without prescription. As such you might assume that it is harmless- NOT SO! In fact, this common human drug (not named so as to prevent malicious poisoning) is very toxic to cats, and is often fatal.

After a lengthy discussion of the cats original injury, and the massive complication of the 'self medication', this lovely, young, 6 month old cat was put to sleep.

His original injuries would have needed surgery, but that the medication had been given meant delaying this for at least 3-4 days to make sure he didnt die of poisoning from the human drug. In addition, because he had been given the human drug, he would have needed to be hospitalised on a drip, blood samples at least once daily, and various medications given to detoxify his bloodstream and prevent liver/kidney damage.

Even if everything was done to try to prevent liver/kidney damage, there is certainly no guarantee that he would have survived. As such, a family is now without their cat.

PLEASE always remember that advice is free. BEFORE contemplating using ANY medications that are not for your specific pet, please phone your vet first. Similarly, I am often told that people had considered using one dog's medication for the other dog when it was showing the same sort of illness. This is not the correct thing to do, as there are many reasons why a dog might be scratching, vomiting, diarrhoea, sore eye etc etc etc, and each cause is likely to be treated differently.

Thanks.

James.