Introduction: Human Drugs Which Can Be Harmful To Your Pet: – Keeping a pet is very beneficial. pets reduces stress and anxiety. Many of researchers documented that the people who are having pets are less susceptible for heart related diseases. Pets gives an unconditional love and loyalty towards his owner. So if we have a pet its our responsibility to take care of him. Many times pets get some kind of diseases and unknowingly we give them medications which we used but believe me it could be life threatening to your pet. Here is list of medicines which never used for the treatment pf your loving pet.
NSAIDs- NSAIDs are very common medication which are used in very popular manner in pets and humans also. The term NSAIDs stands for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. These drugs commonly used in relieving pain, inflammation, swelling and fever. Some of very common NSAIDs which are very common in humans works as poison to the pets. Ifor example commoninamesisuchiasiibuprofen i(e.g.,iMortins and Adavil)iandiNaproxeni(Aleve).ithese medicines are very popular and useful in humans but very minute amount of these drugs causes very bad and adverse effect in pets. in Dogs, Cats Parrots and some small mammals like mice, hamsters develops severe gastrointestinal ulcers and degenerative kidney disorders due to administration of these medicines.
Acetaminophene (Tylenol)- This is the one of the most common human medicine which is available in every house. It is very useful in pain fever. It shows very good results in human kids also but it is not true for the pets. Especially for cats. If unknowingly we administer this drug in to the cat then the cats shows severe allergic reactions, photosensitisation as well as severe kidney damage.
Sleeping aids and Benzodiazepenes- these drugs used in humans for reducing the anxiety and make him calm for the sake of good sleep. These drugs are very useful in humans who are suffering mental illness like depression and anxiety. Administration of these pills leads to sedation. But in case of pets these drugs showed just opposite effects. If a dog takes these medicines then he may feel excited, lethargy and slowed respiration rate. Some of the example of these drugs includes iXanax,iKlonopin,iAmbien,iLunesta.
ADHD/ADD medications- ADHD/ADD denotes attention deficit disorder/ attention deficit hyper disorders these are the problems in human beings which comes under their behavioural pattern. Some medicines like iConcerta,iAdderall,iRitalin are used for the treatment. But these drugs causes heart related problems, life-threatening seizures, tremors and elevated body temperatures if they get ingested by your beloved pet. Even though very minute amount of these drugs is very harmful for the dogs, cats and other pets.
Anti-depressants medicines- use of anti-depressants medication in pets is not so common in case pf pets. But if some times used to get rid from behavioural problems then one should take a keen eye on the dose of drug. Over dose of these types of drugs may lead to severe neurological problems like tremors, seizures, sedation and incoordination. The common drugs used as Anti-depressants are iEffexor,iCymbalta, iProzac,iLexapro. Some of pets likes cats likes the taste of Effexor and they eats whole pill and unfortunately this leads to the severe poisoining.
Birth control medicine– birth control medicines are particularly hormones. These hormones are used in humans for preventing the un wanted pregnancy. Most commonly used hormonal preparations are like estrogens, estradiol’s. Fortunately a little administration of these hormones does not cause any severe reactions in pets. Prolong use of these medications in the animals leads to the immunosuppression and bone marrow suppression of the body. Both of these conditions leads to fatal effects to our beloved pets.
ACE inhibitors- these medications used for the control of blood pressure. Mainly these drugs used for the treating the people who are having high blood pressure. Occasionally the use of these drugs also advocated in case of pets. iThoughi overdoses icani cause ilow ibloodi pressure,dizzinessiandiweakness,ithisicategoryiofimedicationiisitypicallyiquiteisafe.iPetsiingestingismalliamountsiofithisimedicationicanipotentiallyibeimonitorediatihome,iunlessitheyihaveikidneyifailureioriheartidisease.iAlliheartimedicationsishouldibeikeptioutiofireachiofipets. examples of commonly used ACE inhibitors includes iZestril,iAltace.
Betablockers- Beta blockersi are ialso iused ito itreat ihigh iblood ipressurei but, iunlikeitheiACEiinhibitor,ismalliingestionsiofitheseidrugsimayicauseiseriousipoisoningiinipets.iOverdosesicanicauseilife threatening idecreases iin ibloodi pressure iand ia iveryi slowi heartirate. iTenormin, Toprol,I Coreg are commonly used beta blockers which can induce potentially harmful effect on the pets.
Thyroid hormones- pets specially dogs have underactive thyroid hormones. If accidently a dog get human medicine related to thyroid hormone it does not cause much loss. Some time if there is ingestion of very high amount of thyroid hormonal preprations like iArmouridesiccatedithyroid,iSynthroid then this could be problematic to the pet. There may be serious muscle tremors, nervousness, panting and aggression also observed in overdosing of the thyroid hormone.
Cholesterol lowering agents- most common cholesterol lowering agents used are iLipitor, iZocor,iCrestor. A very popular term statins used for these kind of medications.iWhileipetsidoinotitypicallyigetihighicholesterol,itheyimayistilligetiintoitheipillibottle.iThankfully,imosti“statin”iingestionsionlyicauseimildivomitingioridiarrhea.iSeriousisideieffectsifromitheseidrugsicomeiwithilong-termiuse,inotione-timeiingestions.
Summary- having a pet is a very good thing. Pets provides so many benefits. As being a responsible pet parent we should be aware about little things. Your pet cannot eat every thing which we can similarly they can not be treated by drugs which we used in to our day to day routine. So there is so many human medicines which can be harmful to pets (dogs, cats, rats, mices, birds, hamesters). Common drugs like NSAIDS, Acetaminophene, Beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, birth control drugs, ADD/ADHD medications, Anti-depressants, thyroid hormones, cholesterol lowering hormones are some of the examples which could be harmful to our pets.
Read Also: Importance of Calcium in Body