medication Archives | Towne Center Animal Hospital | Veterinarian in Sanford, FL

Dangerous substances: What to avoid giving your dogs and cats.

Towne Center Blogger — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 04:19:40 +0000

As pet owners, we’re responsible for keeping our companions happy, healthy, and safe. There are many common household items that can pose a danger to your pet’s health, so we’ve compiled a list of substances that can be dangerous for your pets to ingest. This isn’t a complete list, so if you’re ever unsure about whether something your pet ingested is potentially harmful, please contact us and we’ll let you know!

Food and drink

Alcohol can cause vomiting, diarrhea, decreased coordination, central nervous system depression, difficulty breathing, tremors, blood acidity, coma and even death. Under no circumstances should your pet be given any alcohol.
Bones, both cooked and raw, can splinter, leading to dangerous injuries in a pet’s digestive tract. Store-bought treats made for chewing are a safer alternative.
Chocolate, coffee, and coffee beans all contain substances known as methylxanthines. When ingested by dogs and cats, these substances can cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death. The darker the chocolate, the more methylxanthines it contains–white chocolate contains the smallest amount of methylxanthines, while baker’s chocolate contains the highest concentration. Cocoa bean mulch also contains methylxanthines. Avoid giving any type of chocolate to your pets.
Citrus fruits, like oranges, lemons, and limes, contain citric acid and essential oils. While small doses will only result in irritation and an upset stomach, larger doses may result in central nervous system depression.
Coconut products contain coconut oil, which can cause an upset stomach and diarrhea, due to the high fat content. Coconut water is high in potassium, which may harm your pet.
Grapes, raisins, and currants can cause kidney failure in dogs. Even grape juice is dangerous for dogs to ingest.
Onions, garlic and leeks are toxic to dogs and cats. They contain a substance called thiosulphate that damages the red blood cells in your pet’s body and causes them to burst. Ingredients like onion powder and garlic powder also contain this substance. This is one of the many reasons why you should not feed your pet table scraps.
Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs and cause symptoms like lethargy, vomiting, and difficulty walking.
Milk and dairy products should not be fed to dogs or cats. Contrary to popular belief, dogs and cats are lactose-intolerant, which means that eating or drinking dairy products can cause upset stomach, gas, and diarrhea.
Nuts, such as almonds and walnuts, are high in fat, which can cause stomach upset, diarrhea, and even pancreatitis in some cases.
Raw bread dough is very dangerous for animals to ingest, because it expands in the stomach, which blocks blood circulation in the digestive tract. This requires emergency surgery. The yeast in the dough can also produce alcohol in the stomach, leading to severe intoxication and death.
Raw meat and eggs may contain dangerous bacteria like salmonella and E. coli. Raw eggs contain an enzyme that reduces the absorption of biotin, resulting in coat and skin problems. Although animals in the wild have no problem eating raw food, your pets have been domesticated over thousands of years and their digestive systems are now adapted to eating cooked foods.
Salty foods can cause excessive thirst, dehydration and even sodium poisoning in pets. Symptoms of sodium poisoning include vomiting, diarrhea, depression, tremors, high body temperature, seizures and even death. It’s best to avoid giving your pet salty foods like potato chips and pretzels.
Xylitol is a sugar-free sweetener commonly found in gum, sugar-free candies, toothpaste, and mints. This substance is toxic to dogs and even small amounts can lead to dangerous drops in blood sugar and liver failure.

Drugs

Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and other painkillers, is highly toxic for dogs and cats. Even a single tablet can lead to liver damage in dogs and a fatal reaction in cats.
Prescription drugs, like antidepressants, ADHD medication, and sleep aids, can cause serious harm to your pet. These drugs are often eaten by pets after they’ve been accidentally dropped on the ground.
Tobacco is toxic to both dogs and cats due to the nicotine content. This also means that e-cigarette juice, nicotine gum, and nicotine patches are also dangerous for dogs and cats. When ingested, it can cause vomiting, tremors, collapse and death.
Veterinary medicine, such as heart medication, is usually made to be flavorful for your pets. That’s why pets may sometimes get into their medication and eat a large dosage of it. This can be extremely dangerous, so be sure to store your pet’s medication in a safe place where they cannot reach it.

Household products

Batteries contain caustic substances that can lead to ulcers when chewed on or ingested by dogs and cats.
Detergents can cause ulcers when ingested by dogs and cats.
Fabric softener sheets can cause ulcers when ingested or chewed on by dogs and cats.
Household cleaners, like bleach, ammonia, and clog removers, can cause ulcers and severe poisoning in dogs and cats. Be sure to store your household cleaners in a safe location that your pets can’t access.
Mothballs are toxic to dogs and cats. They can cause vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, and death, especially when they are treated with naphthalene.
Mouse and rat poison can also cause toxic effects in cats and dogs when ingested. Some of the common ingredients in these poisons will cause internal bleeding when ingested by cats and dogs.

Outdoor products and plants

Antifreeze contains ethylene glycol, which tastes sweet to dogs and cats. As little as a teaspoon can cause irreversible kidney failure in dogs and cats.
Fertilizers may contain poisonous substances like pesticides and herbicides, as well as dangerous amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, and zinc. When treating your lawn, make sure that the fertilizer has dried before letting your dogs and cats outside. Some fertilizers require rinsing before your lawn is safe to walk on—check your product packaging to make sure.
Insecticides can cause vomiting, seizures and difficulty breathing when ingested. Even insecticides found in flea and tick products can cause poisoning when they are not used correctly.
Jimson weed, also known as datura, stinkweed, and devil’s trumpet, is a plant in the nightshade family that can cause restlessness, stumbling and respiratory failure in cats and dogs.
Kerosene and gasoline can cause drooling, stumbling, and difficulty breathing in dogs and cats. Be sure to keep lighters and tiki torch fluid in a safe place away from your pets.
Lilies cause kidney failure in cats. Lily of the valley causes heart failure and death in both dogs and cats.
Sago palms are poisonous to dogs and cats. They can cause liver failure, vomiting, diarrhea, and seizures.
Windshield wiper fluid is poisonous to dogs and cats. It can cause low blood sugar and stumbling.

Other

Zinc is toxic to dogs and cats and can lead to anemia, kidney failure, liver failure and heart failure. Even consuming a single zinc penny can result in health problems.

The post Dangerous substances: What to avoid giving your dogs and cats. appeared first on Towne Center Animal Hospital | Veterinarian in Sanford, FL.

Intestinal parasites in dogs and cats.

Towne Center Blogger — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 21:51:00 +0000

Dogs and cats can fall victim to many different types of parasites. Because many of these parasites live in their intestines, veterinarians will take stool samples during your pet’s annual wellness exam to check for signs of intestinal parasites. Intestinal parasites are not uncommon, especially in young animals, which is why wellness exams are so important for maintaining your pet’s good health.

Symptoms

The most common symptoms of these parasites are diarrhea, weight loss, a dull coat, coughing, and fatigue. With some parasites, you may be able to see worms in your pet’s stool, bedding, or under their tail. Puppies and kittens are especially at risk for health complications from intestinal parasites and, in serious cases, these parasites can be fatal. Another risk is caused by some parasitic infections being “zoonotic,” which means that they can be transmitted to humans. These parasites can cause serious health issues in adults and children, including scarring inflammation.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Your veterinarian will take a stool sample to test for the presence of microscopic eggs laid by adult worms. The veterinarian will then mix the sample with a solution that makes the eggs more visible underneath the microscope.

In some cases, a routine stool sample test may be insufficient to diagnose a parasite. For example, detecting the single-celled parasite giardia requires a special solution to be added to the sample. In another case, testing for tapeworm eggs can sometimes cause false negatives. And if the intestinal worms infecting a dog or cat are not mature enough to be producing eggs, the fecal sample test will give negative results–which is why multiple fecal tests over a period of time are sometimes needed to successfully diagnose infection by an intestinal parasite.

After a diagnosis has been made, intestinal worms can be treated by using a dewormer solution. Other types of parasites have require different types of medications to treat. There are some over-the-counter treatments for intestinal worms, but these don’t work very well. Veterinarians have the most powerful and effective dewormers available for treating your pet.

Prevention

Preventing infection by intestinal parasites is highly dependent on good sanitation practices.

Clean up your pet’s droppings as quickly as possible to prevent the spread of infection.
Make sure your pet has a source of fresh, clean water, because these parasites can often be found in contaminated water.
Prevent your pet from eating soil or grass, which can contain parasitic eggs.
Remember that droppings from other dogs might be infested–be sure that your dog doesn’t interact with these while out on walks.
Use a monthly heartworm preventative medicine for your pet.
Use a monthly flea prevention treatment to prevent parasite transmission to your pets from infected fleas.
Don’t allow yourself or your family become infected–wash your hands after playing with your pet and make sure that outdoor play areas for your children, like sandboxes, do not contain any animal droppings.

Types of Intestinal Parasites

Roundworm

The most common type of intestinal parasite, roundworms infect dogs and cats through contact with fecal matter, where the roundworms hatch their larvae. Pets can become infected by roundworms through ingestion of infected soil, licking fur and paws that have come into contact with a contaminated source, drinking contaminated water or coming into contact with cockroaches that carry roundworm eggs.

Roundworms are the most dangerous for young puppies and kittens, because the parasite will drain nutrients away from the pet’s body, which can lead to malnutrition, respiratory issues, and intestinal blockage. Infected female dogs and cats can pass an infection to their young through nursing, but only dogs can pass on their infection in the womb.

Roundworms can also infect humans through ingestion or skin contact. This can cause serious health problems, including organ damage as the larvae enter organs and travel through the body.

Roundworms can lay over 200,000 eggs every day, which makes it very important to catch the infection early before any health complications occur. Symptoms in your pet can include a potbellied appearance, lack of growth, coughing, and vomiting. You may be able to see roundworms in your pet’s stool–they are thin, long and pale.

Hookworm

The second most common intestinal parasite, hookworms are found in dogs and cats, but most commonly in dogs. A pet can become infected by coming into contact with hookworm larvae that enters their body through either their skin or the lining of their mouth. Puppies can become infected by drinking contaminated milk from their mother, but this does not occur in cats.

Hookworms bite into the intestinal lining and drain the blood of their host. This can cause blood loss, weakness and malnutrition, which is especially dangerous for kittens, puppies, and elderly pets.

Like roundworms, hookworms can infect humans through ingestion or skin contact. Ingestion can cause intestinal symptoms, while infection via skin contact can create itching and redness as the hookworm larvae moves through the skin.

Tapeworm

Dogs and cats can become infected with tapeworms when they eat fleas, lice or rodents that are already infected by tapeworms.

Tapeworms live in the small intestine and take nutrients away from the food being digested there. This can cause malnutrition in the pet. You may be able to spot tapeworm’s segments in your pet’s stool or backside. They look like grains of rice.

Whipworm

Whipworms are more commonly found infecting dogs than cats. A whipworm infection results from contact with whipworm larvae found in feces, which can occur by eating infected soil or licking contaminated fur and paws.

Whipworms bite into the lining of the large intestine and drain the body of blood. However, they are much less harmful than hookworms and generally do not cause serious health problems. Usually, the only symptoms are weight loss, diarrhea, and blood loss. Whipworms also rarely infect humans. Whipworms look like tiny pieces of thread when found in the stool.

Coccidia

Coccidia is a single-celled organism that can infect cats and dogs through contact with fecal matter containing the parasite. A pet can become infected by eating contaminated soil, drinking contaminated water, or licking paws and fur that has come into contact with infected feces.

After infection, coccidia travels to the intestines and destroys the intestinal lining, which prevents absorption of nutrients. This causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. In some cases, infection can even lead to death.

Coccidia is very contagious to puppies and kittens, so frequently cleaning up feces and frequent changes of water to prevent contamination is especially important around young pets.

Giardia

Giardia is another single-celled intestinal parasite that can infect dogs, cats, and humans. Infection is caused by ingesting giardia through contact with contaminated food, water, soil, or fur.

Like coccidia, giardia travels to the intestines and damages the lining of the intestinal wall, reducing the absorption of nutrients. Unlike coccidia, infections often have no symptoms. If there is diarrhea, there is usually no blood in the stool.

Diagnosing giardia can sometimes be difficult due to the lack of symptoms and multiple stool samples are needed to confirm the infection because of the specialized tests of giardia.

The post Intestinal parasites in dogs and cats. appeared first on Towne Center Animal Hospital | Veterinarian in Sanford, FL.

Acetaminophen toxicity in cats and dogs.

Towne Center Blogger — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 10:26:16 +0000

Acetaminophen is an over-the-counter medicine used for pain and fever relief. It’s the active ingredient in a number of medications–you can find it sold alone as Tylenol or in combination with other drugs for multi-symptom relief, like Nyquil or Excedrin. It’s very likely that you have several medications containing acetaminophen in your home, which is why being aware of acetaminophen toxicity is so important.

Most animals don’t metabolize or break down drugs in the same way that humans do. As a result, something that’s safe for humans to ingest can lead to toxicity or death in animals. Acetaminophen is one of those cases. For dogs, a toxic dose is 45 milligrams of acetaminophen per pound of body weight, while the toxic dose for cats is smaller at 22 milligrams per pound of body weight. This means that consuming a single tablet of Tylenol, which contains 325 milligrams of acetaminophen, would be fatal for the average cat or small dog if medical attention is not sought immediately.

A single dose of acetaminophen can be toxic or deadly to any animal species, including dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, ferrets, pigs, and other animals.

Once swallowed, acetaminophen reaches the blood stream within thirty minutes. Signs of acetaminophen toxicity include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, depression, blue gums, weakness, rapid or difficulty breathing, collapse, coma, swelling of the face and paws (especially in cats), dry eyes in dogs, dark urine and blood, and pale, dark or muddy mucous membranes. Additional symptoms like tremors, seizures, and disorientation might occur if the drug contained other active ingredients like anti-histamines or caffeine.

If you think your pet may have ingested acetaminophen, please seek veterinary attention immediately.

The most effective way to keep your dogs and cats safe from acetaminophen toxicity is by making sure that all medications in your home are stored in a safe place away from curious paws. Remember, cats and dogs can easily knock over bottles on counters and coffee tables and rummage through purses and backpacks, so it’s best to keep medications somewhere secure like a drawer or cabinet that cannot be accessed by your pets. If you’ve accidentally dropped a pill and can’t find it, temporarily block off the area so your pets don’t eat the medication while you’re busy searching.

And remember, never give your pets medication intended for humans unless instructed to do so by your veterinarian. If your pet swallows human medication and you’re unsure whether it’s toxic, contact us immediately and we’ll help you from there.

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