Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Pet medication is sending kids to the emergency unit.
The flea medications and heartworm pills that millions of pet lovers give to their beloved pets pose poisoning risks to any children in the home, new research warns.The report was published online in the journal Pediatrics. The study authors said just one poison center in Ohio received more than 1,400 calls for poisoning from pet medications over the course of 15 years, with 87 percent of those calls involving children under the age of 5. Poisoning occurs in several ways, the researchers explained. Toddlers can pick up pills spit out by a pet or eat food containing medications left uneaten in a food bowl. Also, kids who pet an animal being treated with a lotion or cream can get it on their hands and then put their hands into their mouths. The drugs associated with poisoning included veterinary products that have no human equivalent (17 percent), antimicrobials to kill germs (15 percent), antiparasitics to kill parasites (15 percent) and analgesics to relieve pain (11 percent). Although most poisonings were among toddlers, teenagers were also exposed to medications intended for pets, many teens mistakenly took pet medication instead of human medication. Pet medications can be very dangerous,as some pets are on chemotherapy and other drugs that can be toxic to a child.