Will vicodin harm a dog?
In a 12 lbs toy breed can they die?

m
SF

Vicodin and most other human painkillers should never be administered to pets.

In fact, unless your veterinarian specifies otherwise, never give any sort of human medication to your pet. Also, don’t give canine medicines to cats. And don’t give feline medicines to dogs.

Dogs and cats react to and metabolize medicines in unique ways. Medications that are generally safe for people can be toxic to pets. The acetaminophen (also known as Tylenol or paracetamol) in Vicodin is especially dangerous to cats. In dogs it has a low margin of safety.

Cats and small dogs are especially vulnerable to adverse effects from human medicines. Small pets easily can be over dosed with medicines that might otherwise not cause problems. Severe complications, including death, are possible.

The take-home message is very simple. Do not ever give any medication to your pet without first consulting your vet.

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Is it possible my dog can develop an allergic
reaction to Tagamet? Since we started giving it
to her she has developed a red coloring to her
skin. I asked the vet and she said no but I
thought I would get a second opinion.

Erika
Mebane, NC

Tagamet, also known as cimetidine, is a medicine that is prescribed for gastrointestinal problems in cats and dogs.

Cimetidine is very popular among veterinarians in part due to its exceptionally low rate of side effects. It is among the safest medicines ever invented.

But it is a medicine. And any medicine can cause side effects. Red, irritated, or inflamed skin is not listed in literature as a side effect of cimetidine. However, a general rule of pharmacology is that skin problems can be a side effect of any medicine.

In my opinion it is not very likely that the cimetidine is playing a role in your dog’s skin problem. But it is not entirely impossible either.

An allergic reaction to pollen, food, fleas or an environmental agent is the most likely cause of your dog’s issues. Nonetheless, I’d recommend that you discontinue the cimetidine if the gastrointestinal problems for which it was prescribed have resolved.

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When I diagnose an infection in a patient, I must prescribe antibiotics. For the person who lives with the pet, that can mean a week or more of giving pills (or a liquid formulation) at home. Under the best circumstances, giving medicine to pets is inconvenient. In the worst cases, it is impossible.

However, a new antibiotic has been approved for use in cats and dogs. It may eliminate the need to give pills at home when pets are diagnosed with certain types of infections.

The antibiotic, called Convenia, was released earlier this year by Pfizer. It is given by injection at the vet’s office. Each injection is effective for up to two weeks. Pets that receive Convenia do not need to take antibiotics at home.

Convenia has two other advantages over conventional antibiotics. First, studies have shown that side effects occur less often with Convenia than with comparable oral antibiotics.

Second, antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria may be less likely to develop when pets are treated with Convenia. Improper dosing (skipping doses or stopping the medication too soon) is a leading factor in the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Pets that receive Convenia are virtually assured of proper dosing.

So, are vets going to stop stocking other types of antibiotics now that Convenia has hit the market? No. There are two sides to every coin, and I can see a few potential disadvantages to the new medicine.

First, Convenia is not effective against all types of infections. It is labeled for skin infections, wounds and abscesses only.

Also, when a pet develops side effects from oral antibiotics, the medicine can be stopped. Side effects from Convenia are rare. However, if they develop there is no way to discontinue treatment or remove the drug from the pet’s body.

Finally, as a veterinarian I am wary of giving too many injections to cats. This stems from the link between some vaccines and certain types of tumors. Convenia has not been linked to tumors in cats. Nonetheless, I plan to be cautious until the drug has been on the market for a while longer.

The bottom line is that Convenia isn’t perfect. But no medicine is. Convenia may prove to be very useful indeed.

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I’d like to thank Ryan of West Hollywood, California for drawing my attention to the cover story (free registration at nytimes.com is required) of this week’s New York Times Magazine. The article discusses the controversy surrounding the increasing use of medications such as Prozac in pets.

The article is lengthy, but it is worth reading if you have time. One section of the article was particularly interesting to me. It discussed the historical (and still, to a certain extent, ongoing) debate over whether animals experience emotions and thoughts. Here is a quote from the section.

The debate about animal minds is at least as old as Aristotle, who posited that men alone possess reason. The 17th-century French philosopher Nicolas Malebranche wrote that animals “desire nothing, fear nothing, know nothing,” while Voltaire asked, “Answer me, mechanist, has Nature arranged all the springs of feeling in this animal to the end that he might not feel?” Darwin’s view was, Of course not. In “The Descent of Man” he wrote, “We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various emotions and faculties . . . of which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower animals.” The staggering assertion of Darwin’s theory is that evolutionary continuity applies not just to bodies but to brains. “The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind,” he wrote.

I am going to side with Darwin on this one. I have spent a lot of time studying canine and feline anatomy and physiology. It turns out that the livers, kidneys, stomachs, intestines and yes, brains, of cats and dogs are very similar to those of humans. It is clear to me that pets have rich emotional lives. And it is also obvious that they can suffer from mental illness.

I have seen syndromes in pets that are remarkably similar to human psychiatric conditions. I know cats with trichotillomania (in veterinary medicine we call it psychogenic alopecia), dogs with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and members of both species with anxiety disorders. I receive at least a dozen questions each week from people whose dogs suffer from separation anxiety–a clear-cut anxiety disorder.

Behavioral modification is the cornerstone of treatment for these sorts of conditions in pets (behavioral modification is the closest thing veterinary medicine has to therapy). But I have seen some pets benefit dramatically when psychoactive medications were used in combination with behavior modification.

Our current understanding of pet psychiatric conditions is crude, to say the least. But I suspect that as we learn more about behavioral (or emotional) disorders in pets, we will be surprised by the similarities between their problems and ours.

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I have heard from several cat folks who felt that my recent post on common poisons in pets didn’t really apply to them. I see their point. The poisons mentioned in the post (chocolate, rodenticides and xylitol) most often affect dogs.

It is no secret that cats are quite selective about what they consume. That makes them less likely to suffer adverse effects from the poisons in the previous post. But there are plenty of hazards out there for cats. So let’s give cats their due.

Here are some hazardous items that, in my experience, commonly cause trouble for feline companions.

Please remember that the above list is not comprehensive. However, if more people take care to protect their cats from the hazards in this post, fewer cats will end up in emergency rooms.

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Most medicines prescribed by vets are safe. This means that they are not likely to cause serious adverse effects or toxicity.

Nonetheless, any time a pet takes a medicine there is a chance that side effects can occur, even if the side effects are not common.

Because of the risk of side effects, I try not to prescribe medications unless I have a solid reason to believe that they will help my patient. When I diagnose a condition that will resolve rapidly on its own without treatment, I prefer not to prescribe any medicine at all.

That sounds straightforward. But believe it or not, sometimes it upsets clients. Some people feel that they have wasted their time and money if they come home from the vet without some sort of medicine.

When a beloved pet is not feeling well, it is natural to want to do something about the problem. When people give medicine to their pet, they feel that they are helping their pet. However, if the medicine is not appropriate for the condition it may cause more harm than good.

Consider the following letter from a reader.

Hi, My baby Ginger just turned 8 this past
week and lately she has been coughing quite a
bit. It almost sounds croupey. She has an over-the-
counter allergy medicine that I give her and I’m
guessing she might have allergies. What do you
think I should do? (I’m planning to take her to
our vet this week, but I’d like your opinion.)

Allergies rarely cause coughing in 8-year-old dogs. Syndromes such as collapsing trachea, bronchitis, and heart disease are more likely culprits. It is unlikely that an over-the-counter allergy medicine will help much. (A trip to the vet, on the other hand, is exactly what I’d recommend.)

Over-the-counter allergy medicines (antihistamines) may cause sedation, agitation, or upset stomach. What’s more, they have been linked to some scary side effects in people. A number of studies have correlated the use of antihistamines (many of which fall into a class of medications known as anticholinergics) with cognitive decline (dementia) in elderly people. For an article that describes these effects in more detail, click here (warning: the article is somewhat technical in nature).

Some experts now recommend that people with familial histories of Alzheimer’s disease avoid over-the-counter antihistamines.

Animals do not suffer from Alzheimer’s disease per se. However, cognitive dysfunction and dementia appear to be common in elderly cats and dogs.

No link has yet been made between antihistamines and cognitive dysfunction in pets. Nonetheless, the brains and bodies of our pets are very similar to our own. In time a correlation may (or may not) be discovered.

Antihistamines have many valid uses in veterinary medicine. However, unless a pet has been diagnosed with a condition for which antihistamines are the appropriate treatment, I see no reason to give them.

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• New Antibiotic May Prove to be Convenient for Pets and Their People
• Article Discusses the Increasing Use of Psychoactive Drugs in Pets
• Ear Cropping and Tail Docking Create Ethical Dilemmas for Vets