What a scare!!

[xchairity_casex]

last night while i was cleaning my fish tank Cesar my dog climbed onto my couch behind me i ehard him chewing so i quick turned around and he was just looking at me so i went back to what i was doing i ehard him chewing again so i turned around again and seen him eating somthing i ran over to seee what he had he had gotten my Symbyax pills had the top perfectly open and off and pills all over the couch!! i went to open his mouth but he swolled i was so freaked out i counted all the the pills since it was a new bottle and found one capsule melted with the powder all over and one was gone i picked them all up as fast as i could grabbing my peroxide and a syringe mixed the peroxide with some water and gave him 6 ccs after a few minutes he vommited and i tried calling the Evet but no one was answering!! i got online and began looking for info on the drugs flouxatine and olanzapine found out the flouxatine was a safe dosage for him but couldnt find anything about hte olanzapine finally i found a WI phone book and called an Evet from there when i got on the phone with him and told him Cesars weight and what he got and how many MG he was silent for a minutes then said "whats that"

i explained it to him and he just said "oh" there was a long pause on hte phone before i said "what should i do??" he goes "i dont know" I DONT KNOW????!!! what do you MEAN you dont know!!! so i said "uh should i just keep an eye on him for anything unusual and bring him into a vet if somthing happens?" he goes "i suppose that makes sense"

i was just so upset i hung up without saying goodbye i tried callign the ASPCA poison helpline but they need your credit card number and i dont have a credit card.
but on a dog forum i had a few people find some studies on olanzapine used on dogs long term i was up most of last night watching him and this morning he is doing well he already ate and drank and went potty is now happily chewing on his cuz ball. im still goign to keep a close eye on him though thank Goodness this medication is safe for dogs i still have NO IDEA how he got it i always keep the bottle on a shelf by my bed the shelf is nearly touching the ceiling to reach it i have to stand on my bed theres now way he could have reached it all i can think is it fell without my noticeing becuase even my cats cant reach it.
this reallym akes me upset at our nearest Evet for not answering and the next closest one for giving me no help or information i mean ok maybe he didnt know what the drug was but he could have atleast said"get a hold of a vet if he starts acting weird" or somthing! i eman if i had not suggested it i doubt he would have said nething to me about seeign a vet!
its really sad that you can get moe info off a dog forum then you can from the veternarian especiely the one one Emergency duty

i am so thankful he is alright and i knew all about vomitt inducing in dogs that really saved me time i was able to induce vommiting within 10 minutes

 

[AinaWGSD]

Scary! I'm sorry the emergency vet wasn't more helpful, but in all fairness vets have tons of information that they need to remember about hundreds of veterinary medications, it's impossible for them to be totally knowledgeable about human medications too. I know several vets and I honestly don't think a single one of them would have known if olanzapine were toxic to dogs or not either. I do agree however that "I don't know" is never an appropriate answer from any veterinary personnel on the phone when an owner asks them what they should do. He should have at least suggested calling the ASPCA poison control hotline and keeping an eye out for common symptoms of toxicity/poisoning.

 

[justbugged]

It sounds like you handled the situation, as well as anyone could have. In fact it sounds like you were more vigilant than anyone else could have been. It doesn't sound like your dog got more than a pill or two, so I would expect that with no symptoms in 24 hours, that I would worry about it anymore. A large number of drugs that are safe for humans, are also safe for animals. Just remember that they are smaller, and will become toxic before we will. Still keeping them out of it is the best option.

If it makes you feel any better, my dogs have managed to get one my med bottles at least twice in the past two months. It freaks me out, because I know it's not safe. I have the meds on the counter, and I have remember to remove the chair every time I stand up to do anything. I must admit remembering is not one of my stronger assets.

 

[xchairity_casex]

oh im not upset that he didnt know about the drug but i am upset at his responses like you said he could have atelast given me the number to the ASPCA poison center or given me a list of possable symptoms to look for like lathargy,vomitting,siezures,dihareea, somthing heck he could have even reccomended i take him in to see a vet in the morning!
but thanlfully all seems well a person on a dog forum sent me a study done on dogs for the olanzapine long term and the toxicity levels in shown in beagles after 2 months,5 months and one year on a dosage of 35 MG he had a single disage of 6 MG

 

[welsummerchicks]

I may have misread the dates, but I think if your beagle got the pills yesterday and has had no effect on him yet, he is unlikely to show any effects going further forward into time.

I'm sorry you were upset by the response you got, but there are so many medications that many of the people you call won't be familiar with all of them. Many numbers you call, the people only have a very short list of common medications and all they do is read off to you what they have on their list. If it's not on their list they can't read it off to you. Many phone responders are not trained in a huge variety of medications.

I read a study years ago in which huge overdoses of olanzepine and medications in its same class were given to laboratory dogs to test how these drugs would affect the heart if someone accidentally took too much.

The dogs recovered well in the research. However, if I recall correctly, they were under the supervision of a veterinarian who took care of them.

With olanzepine I would think that depending on the amount the dog MIGHT be safe. I would if it was my dog, take the dog to the vet and plan on him staying there where he could be observed carefully and frequently.

All I would EXPECT from a SMALL amount of olanzepine is for the dog to fall asleep, but I am not an expert on how dogs react to olanzipine and I think it would depend an awful lot on how much the dog got and how big the dog was. Dogs are also often given various human medications by veterinarians, but these are in far smaller amounts than even one pill geared toward a human weight and size.

It is very, very important that you always keep your medication - no matter what they are - in a box that your dog cannot get into - a friend of mine has a metal box with a strong clasp and seal on it.

As dog owners, it can help us to know that dogs love to chew and play with things with our scent on them - anything we handle a lot, they may want to mouth and play with or chew.

I've seen very hard plastic boxes with good latches, but I like the metal boxes better. I have an aluminum box for my asthma medicines when I travel - and it's a bright red/pink, the only container I carry of that color so I can't open it by accident. Most pills for humans contain far more medication than a dog can safely ingest.

Another habit I've developed, is that any medications that I can take early in the morning or just before bedtime, I do not put in my purse or pocket. They all stay closed in a medicine cabinet my pets can't reach. When I have to take a medication at other times of day, I take them OUT of the prescription bottle (which is plastic and can break very easily), and put them in a metal can that's very, very hard to break - it also has a little 'leash' so no one can steal it off me. When I've had very complicated routines to follow (like after a flare up of illness), I use a pill counter (compartments for each day or even time of day), even for medications I don't need to carry with me. I count them all out and fill the compartments at the start of each week And THOSE containers stay in my medicine cabinet!

I've gotten to be awfully picky about counting and tracking medications - mostly because they're so darned expensive that I can't really afford to lose even one pill, let alone have my dog eat it!

Giving your dog peroxide to get it to vomit most medications was a good idea. You can alsouse ipecac to make a dog vomit - and it's not as hard on the stomach as peroxide.

Did you count your pills? Or maybe you don't know how many you should have had left at that point? Knowing how many pills the dog swallowed and didn't vomit back up, can help to inform poison control or the emergency vets.

 

[xchairity_casex]

Quote:
actually he is a Bull terrier and he got ino them on friday it was 6 MG yes i count my pills and he only got a single pill (6MG of olanzapine)
and i always keep my pills on a high high shelf its so high its right next to the ceiling and i have to stand on my bed to reach it so i dont know how he got them ive never elft them anywhere but there not even on accedent becuase i reach up open the bottle take out the pill close the bottle put it back then go to get a drink of water i dont take the bottle with me and becuase the pills cuase drowsiness i always only make sure to take it jsut before bed ive never taken it at any toer time of day.
and he is doing fine not even any sleepiness hes bouncing around with his toys like normal so im not so worried anymore and i took aplastic shatter proof jar with a screw on lid and put the pill bottle in there i figure if somehow it does fall again ill be able to hear the jar crack before hes able to open it

 

[welsummerchicks]

I would feel reassured if my dog showed no ill effects 12 or 24 hours after.

The half life of olanzepine is long in humans, and I assume it would be similar in dogs. I think its half life is rather longer than 24 hours.

The half life is the amount of time required for a medication to drop to half of the original amount in the blood - in other words, it tells you how long a medication takes to 'wear off'.

So say in 30 hours there's half as much, in 30 more hours there's half of THAT, in 30 more hours half of THAT, etc(so if 4 mg in blood, there's 2 mg in blood after 30 hr, then 30 hr MORE, there's 1 mg in blood, and 30 hrs MORE there's 1/2 mg...and so on). And quite often within the first half life period the medication has decreased in effect by quite a lot.

Of course I'm guessing based on what little I know, and what little I know is less than a lot...LOL!