Is Your Cat Safe In Your Own Home?

The most common toxicity we see at the clinic is the inadvertent application of a dog flea and tick product on to a cat. It is the accidental poisoning of the Spring and Summer season.

It happens by accident in most of the cases, as a neglectful oversight of an owner who shares their home with both a dog and a cat. Or, the simple doubtful advice of a product manufacturer who the owner believes is just trying to sell a smaller size for a wider profit margin.

Turns out those warning labels are real warnings.

Those big red letters that state "DO NOT USE ON CATS" doesn't seem to be enough to dissuade people from using it.

Granted, in many cases the drugs and products that we use for people are also used in veterinary medicine. Unfortunately there are a few very very important exceptions.

I get the phone call routinely, it always starts something like this, "Hey Doc, I think that Fluffy is _____,(fill in the blank, truly, the blank isn't the important part), and I gave her some ______, (again fill in the blank, also probably not important I specify the product). Do you think she will be alright?I can't come in until tomorrow."

To which I almost always have to gasp and roll my eyes silently as I try to muffle the screaming "NO!" into a more calm and less threatening voice of, "No, that is not safe for cats."

Unfortunately, in the huge number of cases the cat was given the drug hours, or even days, ago and my heeded warning is too late. 

In the hopes of saving another cat I am going to violate one of the covenants of medicine. I am going to provide broad sweeping generalization guidelines. (Disclaimer provided; Always ask your vet before giving your pets anything! Please?).

1. Charlatans: If it didn't come from your vet don't give it. This includes drugs of any and every type, supplements, vitamins, food, treats, chews, toys, etc. etc. Sound too broad, and slightly paranoid? OK, it might be, but I have seen cats die from every crazy thing imaginable. Like, a supplement recommended by a feed store, a drug store, a big box store, the list goes on. I have seen cats be injured by toys, treats, chews, leashes and clothing. Not to mention urinary tract infections, calculi, strictures, and inflammation from over zealous supplements and inappropriate diets. 
2. Accessories: When you are purchasing something for your cat ask your vet. Collars, although cute, can be functional in alerting an unsuspecting bird of your cats presence and providing a name should they wander. But they can also get stuck around a leg and become a tourniquet or a noose around their neck should your cat get caught in something. Use a microchip, it is far safer.
3. Drugs. If it didn't come from your vet for that specific pet don't give it. This includes every pain reliever, antibiotic, cream of every type. Did  I ever tell you about the client who used hemorrhoid cream for a rectal mass? No, in  fact the cat did not have a hemorrhoid..and  boy did that stuff burn his butt bad!. (People are obsessed with laxatives and hemorrhoid cream. I guess its a big human problem?)
4. Cats and Drugs: I cannot over emphasize how fragile cats are when it comes to drugs. One human sized pain reliever can kill your cat! Don't give them anything without your vets blessing. And, if the box says to "Not Use On Cats" they really do mean it. We had a client  who almost killed both of her cats last year because she thought it was a "suggestion." After spending almost $500 she was angry at us for having to pay for three days of hospitalization, emergency supportive care and all of the numerous drugs it took to save their lives. She was lucky to have been able to walk out with two cats. It was an expensive lesson to learn.

This is a good time to remind us all about the Top Ten Toxins for dogs and cats in 2013, from the Pet Poison Helpline;

Cats: Top 10 Toxins of 2013

1. Lilies: Plants in the Lilium species, such as Easter, Tiger, and Asiatic lilies, cause kidney failure in cats. All cat owners must be aware of these highly toxic plants!
2. Household cleaners: Most general purpose cleaners (e.g., Windex, Formula 409) are fairly safe, but concentrated products like toilet bowl or drain cleaners can cause chemical burns.
3. Flea and tick spot-on products for dogs: Those that are pyrethroid based (e.g., Zodiac, K9 Advantix, Sergeant’s, etc.) cause tremors and seizures and can be deadly to cats.
4. Antidepressants: Cymbalta and Effexor topped our antidepressant list in 2013. Cats seem strangely drawn to these medications. Beware – ingestion can cause severe neurologic and cardiac effects.
5. NSAIDs: Cats are even more sensitive than dogs to drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen. Even veterinary specific NSAIDs like Rimadyl and Meloxicam should be used with caution.
6. Prescription ADD/ADHD medications: These amphetamines such as Adderall, Concerta, Dexedrine, and Vyvanse can cause tremors, seizures, cardiac problems and death.
7. Over the counter cough, cold and allergy medications: Those that contain acetaminophen (e.g., Tylenol) are particularly toxic, as they damage red blood cells and cause liver failure.
8. Plants containing insoluble calcium oxalate crystals: Common houseplants like the peace lily, philodendron, and pothos can cause oral/upper GI irritation, foaming at the mouth, and inflammation when ingested, but severe symptoms are uncommon.
9. Household insecticides: Thankfully, most household sprays and powders are fairly safe, but it’s best to keep curious kitties away until the products have dried or settled.
10. Glow sticks and glow jewelry: These irresistible “toys” contain a chemical called dibutyl phthalate. When it contacts the mouth, pain and excessive foaming occurs, but the signs quickly resolve when the cat eats food or drinks water.

“Every January, we examine our records to see what toxins contributed to the most emergency calls from pet owners and veterinarians the previous 12 months,” said Ahna Brutlag, DVM, MS, DABT, DABVT and associate director of veterinary services at Pet Poison Helpline. “We hope that by sharing these lists, more pet owners will become educated about how to avoid problems and protect their pets in 2014.”

The best thing concerned pet owners can do is get educated on the most common pet toxins, which are listed above, and then pet-proof their homes. However, accidents happen and if a pet may have ingested something toxic, Pet Poison Helpline recommends taking action immediately. Contact a veterinarian or Pet Poison Helpline at 1-800-213-6680. Pet Poison Helpline also has a helpful iPhone application with an extensive database of over 200 poisons dangerous to cats and dogs. “Pet Poison Help” is available on iTunes for $1.99.

Pet Poison Helpline

If you have a pet question or want to share any of your cat photos, antics, or even a cute little story about how precious your cat is to your life you can find me and a bunch of other cat-enthusiasts at Pawbly.com. Pawbly is dedicated to the love of pets and provides free help to any pet in need. Please join us today. Maybe you can save a pet's life with your knowledge and lifetime experience?

Or you can find me on Twitter @FreePetAdvice. Or at the clinic Jarrettsville Vet, in Jarrettsville Maryland.

The Top Ten Toxins in the Kitchen

I found this sticker at the CVC DC conference on the Pet Poison Helpline desk.

I thought it was a good reminder about all of the pet hazards that lie about our homes. Many of which most of us don't realize are toxic to our pets.

These top ten are based on the number of reported cases to the Pet Poison Helpline.

Here they are;

1. Chocolate.
Most people (I think?) know that chocolate isn't good for dogs. Luckily, the most toxic chocolate is the dark Bakers chocolate. And luckily, most of us have the milk chocolate kind in our house. Most dogs will eat only a small amount of chocolate, although I have had a few cases where the dog ate a whole tray of brownies, or absconded and devoured the whole Easter basket. I have dealt with many, many chocolate cases, and thankfully never lost a pup to this..But please keep your chocolate out of reach anyway. AND, if you do need to have the dark chocolate used for baking around put it in a sealed sturdy container way up high on the shelf..And I know everyone out there with siblings already knows that it's always a good idea to to hide your Easter candy!

 

2. Grapes, Raisins, Currants
These are toxic to pets because they can cause kidney damage. I remind my clients to not offer them. I have had many clients admit to feeding frozen grapes, ( a popular summer snack) to their dogs. They had no idea they were dangerous. I once had to hospitalize a small mixed breed dog because she ate a pound of grapes. Thankfully her kidneys were fine. We pulled her blood as soon as she came in for a baseline, then put her on i.v. fluids and hospitalization for 3 days. We also calculated "toxic" dose for her on arrival. Her owners elected to hospitalize her because she was dangerously close to the toxic dose. At the end of the three days we re-checked her blood work and none of her kidney values were any different. So she went home with a lesson well learned by everyone.

My favorite morning cereal.
Granola with raisins!

3. Xylitol/Sugar-Free Gum & Candy
These have become a very big problem. We had never heard of these products 5 years ago, but due to the rise in adult onset diabetes more and more products are coming out with "sugar-free" alternatives. Dogs are very sensitive to xylitol. Whenever anyone calls with a candy ingestion concern we have them read the ingredient list, (or run to the store to get the ingredient list if it to is swimming in the belly of their pet) to see if xylitol is listed. Most of the dogs that we see at our practice has obtained the gum from the owners purse, or from finding it in the car. It's odd to think of a gum as toxic, but it absolutely is.

4. Fatty table scraps
The days after Thanksgiving and Christmas are known as "pancreatitis party-time." Guests and family members alike, in an effort to try to spread the cheer" to the entire family share the high fat festival foods with their pets. Sometimes this is in the form of under the table turkey legs, or letting them lick the grease laden platter clean, or a special holiday meal for the pets too that is a far cry from their normal, healthy, nutritionally complete pet food. For as often as I say "pets and humans share much of the same biology and diseases" we do not share the same diet plan. Humans are able to tolerate a very varied food intake. We can tolerate high fiber cereals, drinks, and foods, and then have a high fat fried dough dessert and be fine the next day. But give your pet one sampling of any one of these and you can easily have acute life threatening vomiting, diarrhea, or pancreatitis. The best advice is to do what we have been forced to do here at our house, and just not invite your pets to the party. I almost lost Savannah to a massive sweet Italian sausage smorgasbord at one of our 4th of July parties. She was taken off the gust list forever at that near fatal episode.

BAD! BAD husband!

5. Onions & Garlic
I think that sometimes I just like to hear myself talk on this topic. It is seemingly impossible for me to try to educate some of my farming clients into believing me about these two veggies. I have many clients who started using garlic decades ago for flea and tick prevention and will tell me every time I see them, "Well Doc, it works, and none of the dogs are dead yet." Another experimental tolerance test decided to be "harmless" because the test subject "is not dead yet."
We had a Shih Tzu puppy a few years ago that was fed minced onion in her food, (for some reason I can no longer recollect). She was brought to us lifeless and sheet white. A blood transfusion and three nail-biting days later she survived, but when I first saw her I wasn't too hopeful.
Here is reason number 4 and 5 to not feed table scraps. Therefore avoiding the inadvertent raisin, chocolate, fatty, onion or garlic in your left-overs.

6. Compost
If it smells bad, (or dead, dying, rotting, decaying, or repulsive), your dog will eat it. (Let me remind you of the tampon eating lab, the underwear eating pit bull, and the millions of feces eating other dogs). (Collective "Yuck!" and "Bleck!" from everyone reading this now). So if your dog has access to your compost they may eat it. Don't try to reason your way out of thinking to yourself, "it is rotting food, he won't want to eat that." Because I promise you if you deliver your vomiting, diarrhea caked pup to us we will all nod our heads and say, "If it smells bad, your dog will eat it." Then hand you an estimate for $500 - $1500 worth of diagnostics and treatment options.

Wren guards the compost pile.
Lots of bugs to terrorize.

7. Human Medications
Over the last two decades the stock of pharmaceutical companies has sky rocketed. We are a country of baby boomers aging, and many of us are on daily medications for all sorts of ailments. We also keep those medications handy because we take them daily, (or even more frequently). As a course of convenience and habit we have gotten a little careless with putting them out of harms way, or making them inaccessible. There are also some dogs who just love to chew to the point of picking up and gnawing on anything hard enough to present a few minute challenge to the palate. Dogs like moderately hard plastic with pills in it. It's the chew toy with maraca like charm.
When these calls come to us at the clinic we most often hear one of the following; "I dropped a pill on the floor and the dog ate it before I could pick it up." Or, "I came home and the bottle was chewed and pills were everywhere and I am not sure how many were in there, or if my pet ate any."
Best to keep your medications away in a pet-proof container, and do not drop them..(that happens to all of us. It's like piranah infested waters in our kitchen everyday of the year).

8. Macadamia Nuts
I was a little surprised to see this on the list. I knew they were toxic but I have never seen one in my practice. Maybe it is more common in macadamia native areas? Macadamias are expensive, so I don't imagine too many people are feeding them as treats to their pups? Maybe they are chocolate covered macadamia nuts (a wonderful gift to anyone returning from Hawaii who wants to give something absolutely mouth watering and yummy to their friends they vacationed without! Or perhaps to the veterinary staff that watched your pets while you were there? Just a small suggestion). Maybe its the irresistable choclate covered macadamia nuts that have placed macadamia nut below chocolate? I bet its the combo that got macadamia nuts on the list..Anyone else have any ideas?

9. Household Cleaners
Dogs are not stupid, but they are creatures of habit, and their sniffers operate on a magnitude of sensitivity that we cannot even begin to comprehend. Most of the household toxicities that we see are dogs who have ingested a cleaner after drinking from a recently cleaned toilet. My best piece of advice is to scrutinize every square inch of your home and property (garage's are chock full of toxins) like you are a mischievous child. Look around your home and ask yourself, "What could your child (or pet) possibly get into that would be dangerous?"
My hope is that you will try to avoid even bringing these products into your home. For us at my home that means the following are banned; rat poisons, chemicals, waste car products (oil, gasoline, anti freeze), and no harmful household items, ( I do use bleach but it is away from pet access). There are many safer products to chose from. And really in many cases things like good old soap, water, vinegar, baking soda, etc, do the job and leave you worry free.
For those products we use that are harmful designate an area your pet would not have access to and place the products in a container your pet could not get into even if by some fluke it gained access to it.

10. Unbaked Bread Dough/Alcohol
Smells yummy, but think about your stomach becoming the bowl to hold the rising the bread? All that fermenting space expanding dough in your stomach is one major cause for severe indigestion and nausea. Alcohol also ferments, and is toxic to liver and kidneys.

Another important reminder to keep all foods out of reach.
I have had many clients tell me that their pet got up on the table/counter and stole food that they thought was seemingly out of their reach. Reminds me of the old Garfield cartoons. That cat, or his dim witted accomplice Odie, maneuvered whole dining room sets to figure out ways to abscond that apparently out of reach lasagna.

Lasagna is to both myself and Garfield a food worthy of manipulation, scheming, and deviousness. I cannot pass it up and I eat it in dangerous amounts. But I know it is made of onion, garlic, high fat, lots of carbs, and everything that is good and holy in the world of vegetarians. I will keep my serving for me, eat every last morsel, and spare my pets the dangers of its deliciousness.
Bon Apetit!

For more information on foods that are dangerous to your pet, please see;
 http://www.petmd.com/blogs/thedailyvet/jlee/2011/aug/foods_poisonous_to_cats_dogs


The Pet Poison Helpline can be reached at 1-800-213-6680
It is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A $35 fee is billed for their services.
Pet Poison Helpline

The stickers were made available by VPI, Veterinary Pet Insurance. 1-866-VET-PETS.

If you are ever unsure what you can and cannot give to your pet you can always call your vet. Or go to our website, Pawbly.com and ask one of us. We are veterinary professionals available to you at no cost. You can submit a question or chat with other people who share your interests. We are here to educate and help you keep your pet healthy and happy for the rest of your lives.

Or visit me on Twitter @FreePet Advice.