Pet poisons in your purse | Dr. Justine Lee

Posted by justinelee in Animal Safety, Blog

As an emergency critical care veterinary specialist and toxicologist, I wish more people would follow these 4 simple steps to pet-proofing their house:

• Crate training their dog appropriately (so they view it as their safe den)
• Keeping weekly pill holders out of reach of dogs (by storing them in an elevated kitchen cupboard)
• Not putting all their medications into a plastic ziploc bag when they pack their suitcase
• Hanging up your purse or backpack

By doing these simple 4 things, you can prevent accidental poisoning in your dog and cat. So in today’s blog, we’ll discuss the poisons in your purse that are dangerous to dogs and cats!

Believe it or not, your handbag is a reservoir for lots of things toxic to dogs and cats. Here, I review the five most common purse items that are toxic to pets including:

• Sugarless chewing gum containing xylitol
• Human medications
• Asthma inhalers containing albuterol
• Cigarettes or e-cigareetes
• Hand sanitizers
• The list goes on (including batteries, cell phones, coins, etc.) if you really must know!

Sugarless chewing gum and breath mints
Have sugarless gum or mints in your purse? Most sugarless gums, including some Trident™, Orbit™, and Ice Breaker™ brands, contain xylitol, a sweetener that is toxic to dogs. Some sugarless mints, flavored multi-vitamins, toothpastes, and mouthwashes may also be made with xylitol. When ingested, even small amounts of xylitol can result in a life-threatening and rapid drop in blood sugar (hypoglycemia), and if large amounts are ingested, dogs can suffer from severe acute hepatic necrosis (e.g., liver failure). Typically, it takes > 0.1 g/kg of xylitol to cause hypoglycemia in dogs; doses > 0.5 g/kg of xylitol can cause severe liver failure. As each product has various amounts of xylitol in it, contact your veterinarian, your emergency veterinarian, the gum/candy company, or ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center if you suspect your dog ingested anything containing xylitol. Signs of xylitol poisoning include vomiting, weakness, difficulty walking, collapse, tremors and seizures.

Human medications
Admit it – most people keep a small bottle of ibuprofen in their purse. These pill vials are irresistible to some dogs – they are easy to chew through, rattle when chewed, and resemble a chew toy to your dog! Each year, over 50% of the phone calls to ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center concern ingestions of human medications. Common drugs include non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs like Advil®, Aleve® and Motrin®), acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol®) and antidepressants (e.g. Effexor®, Cymbalta®, Prozac®). All of these can cause serious harm to dogs and cats when ingested. NSAIDs cause stomach and intestinal ulcers as well as kidney failure, especially in cats. What about cats? Is Tylenol poisonous to cats? Yes – in fact, just one pill can be fatal to a cat, and in dogs, a larger ingestion can lead to severe liver failure and dry eye (keratoconjunctivitis sicca). With antidepressants, poisoning in dogs and cats can result in sedation, incoordination, agitation, an elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, tremors, and seizures.

Asthma inhalers (albuterol)
Asthma inhalers are commonly stored in purses for emergency use. When accidentally chewed and punctured by dogs, asthma inhalers can cause severe, life-threatening, acute poisoning. Asthma inhalers often contain concentrated doses of beta-agonist drugs (e.g., albuterol); each inhaler often contains 200 doses in one vial. When dogs chew into them, they are exposed to massive amounts of the drugs all at once. This can lead to severe poisoning, resulting in life-threatening heart arrhythmias, agitation, vomiting, collapse and death. As an emergency veterinarian, I’ve actually seen a few dogs die from this. Check out this link here for more information.

Cigarettes
Not only are these bad for you, but they are equally bad for your pets! As few as three cigarettes can be fatal to a small dog, depending on the “strength” or “lightness” of the cigarettes. Cigarettes, chewing tobacco, e-cigarettes and even gum (Nicorette®) contain nicotine, which is toxic to dogs and cats. Nicotine poisoning causes clinical signs rapidly – in as short as 15 minutes – and can be fatal if not treated. Signs of elevated heart and respiratory rates, neurological overstimulation, uncontrolled urination/defecation, tremors, seizures, paralysis and death can be seen with accidental ingestion.

Hand Sanitizer
In our germaphobic society, most of us now carry hand sanitizer in our purses. Many hand sanitizers contain high concentrations of alcohol (ethanol) – nearly 100% alcohol! When a dog chews and ingests a small bottle of hand sanitizer, it can have the same effect as a shot of hard liquor. Signs of alcohol poisoning include a severe drop in blood sugar (hypoglycemia), incoordination, a drop in body temperature, neurological depression, coma and death.

When in doubt, avoid an expensive trip to the emergency veterinarian by hanging up your purse! When in doubt, call your veterinarian, emergency veterinarian, or ASPCA Animal Poison Control center for life-saving advice if you think your pet was poisoned!

Check out a video I created with VPI Pet Insurance titled “Handbag Hazards to Pets.” Be smart – spare your pet a poisoning and hang up your purse!

Be safe… and keep your pets safe too!