From protection to poison: What went wrong

Transcript

Christopher Lee, DVM, MPH, DACVPM: Moving on to endoparasites, those that kind of live inside of our pets, the American Heartworm Society, states heartworm is considered at least regionally endemic in each of the contiguous 48 states. Thus, all dogs and cats in the lower 48 really should be on prevention. So what are the most common drugs that we use for those and are those safe?

Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT: Yeah, so the most common ones are going to be the avermectins or the macrocyclic lactone. So those are like ivermectin, Moxidectin, in those types of that class of drug usually have a wide margin of safety when they're used appropriately, as prescribed. Typically, what we see more of an issue is becoming the horse paste, the ivermectin horse paste, which is much more concentrated than the dog or cat heartworm preventative, or maybe the owner has dewormed their horse. Maybe the horse spit some of it out. The dog came in and ingested that. Because they were, of course, helping when all of that was going on. Or maybe they're using something for livestock, for cattle, and a very concentrated formula they either gave some orally or placed them along the back to help with that.

Again, thinking that 1 or 2 drops isn't going to hurt anything, but they're at extremely high concentration compared to what is given for a dog or a cat. And so these are ones that we'll start to see some significant neurologic signs as well. We'll see significant lethargy, ataxia. We can see tremors and seizures in our patients as well. For that, and with those, a lot of times pet owners, they think, you know, a 1.87% concentration for a horse paste, it sounds really low. It sounds extremely low, but we're dosing our dogs and cats in micrograms, and cattle the concentration of 1% which is 10 milligrams per mil. Again, when we're dosing micrograms for that small animal patient, 1 or 2 drops can really be potentially life-threatening.

Lee: It seems simple, but looking at the species that it's labeled for is a key thing for pet owners.

Schmid: Absolutely, if it doesn't show that your species is on the label, specifically, don't use it. Consult your veterinarian first to see if it is something that can be used, especially when we're talking about our exotic pets, our pocket pets. Most labels are going to just talk about dogs or cats or the livestock labels will talk about which, you know, which livestock it's approved for, but certainly check with your veterinarian before giving anything.

And it's always disheartening to see when somebody gave a product because they were trying to save money, and then they have thousands of dollars in medical bills because of what has happened when they had good intentions, and certainly the best of intentions, for helping that particular animal, but always ask before you before you treat.

Lee: Sometimes expensive is cheap and cheap is expensive.

Schmid: You got it.