Help! My Pet Has Been Poisoned By My Medicine!

Medications that are safe for people or other pets aren't necessarily safe for all pets.

It happened on a Saturday afternoon. Isn’t that the way it always is — when everything is closed? I had all eight of my ferrets loose and playing in the house. They were young, active, curious and into everything. I realized something must be wrong when none of the ferrets came to bother me as I was cleaning the living room. I went upstairs to find out where the clan was, and found all of them hovering around my desk in the office. Unfortunately, they had gotten one of the drawers open and pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen. They had chewed the top off of the bottle, and the entire group was busily licking the coating off the tablets.

I knew ibuprofen was toxic to ferrets, so I had to act quickly. I snatched the remaining tablets away from the ferrets, counting them as I replaced them in the bottle. I made a mental note of who I had seen licking tablets and who seemed to be spectating. I locked the ferrets out of the room, and ran with the bottle to the phone to call the ASPCA Animal Pet Poisoning Control Center. Fortunately, the phone number was on my refrigerator. Within minutes, I had the information I needed to treat my pets and, luckily, they all survived. Ibuprofen toxicity is fatal in a very high percentage of exposed ferrets. We were all very lucky — but knowing the right steps to take in an emergency helped.

What’s Good For People Can Sometimes Hurt Pets
Human medications are the most common source of pet toxins, resulting in 25 percent of the calls to the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center. Some of these ingestions are accidental, where a pet finds tablet(s) and consumes them; but sometimes these medications are administered by well-meaning owners to their pets. The most common toxicities are associated with the medications we often take as humans — nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (acetominophen, ibuprofen, aspirin), anti-depressants, and behavioral modification medications.

Especially important is both preventing a potential poisoning situation for your pets, as well as knowing exactly what to do when one occurs.

Tips For Preventing Pet Poisoning From Human Medications
1. First and foremost, do not administer any human medication to your pet unless specifically directed to do so by your veterinarian.
2. If you are told it is safe to give an over-the-counter (OTC) medication, be sure to verify the amount to be given, the strength of the medication and the frequency. For example, giving a baby aspirin twice per day is very different than giving an extra strength aspirin — so confirm all of the details before giving anything.
3. Don’t assume that because it was safe to give to one of your other pets, it is always safe. For example, ferrets can tolerate many medications that could be fatal to a rabbit or guinea pig.
4. Topical medications are risky also without direction — the animal may ingest them and become sick, could have an allergic reaction to them, or could be overdosed by the active ingredient travelling through the skin. When in doubt, wait until you can get veterinary confirmation that what you are doing will not hurt your pet! If you believe your pet is sick enough that you need to give it something, then it is sick enough to ask for veterinary advice first.
5. Keep in mind the abilities of your pet and be sure to keep medications well out of reach. Owners of ferrets and sugar gliders will have more difficulty keeping their pets away from prescription medications than, for example, hamster and guinea pig owners.
6. Be sure to keep track of tablets when you take medications, and locate any that may have been dropped. Prevention is much easier than treatment!

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