Case of the Month Dr. Jennifer Luke, DVM

This month we saw a cat case that brought to light several important points with animal care and things we see owners sometimes do without seeking medical advice. This was an 11-year-old cat that the owner felt was in pain, so they gave over-the-counter Ibuprofen to the cat. At the same time, the owner saw fleas on the cat and applied over-the-counter flea control. The cat immediately became ill, vomiting, not eating well and listless. When he did not improve after one week, the owner sought medical attention for the cat. When the history came out in the preliminary exam, the doctor was immediately alarmed by the use of Ibuprofen in a cat. Many owners do not realize how TOXIC TO CATS over-the-counter pain relief medications are. In this case, the drug caused the cat to go into severe RENAL FAILURE that was caught on labwork and suspected with the history. Renal failure ni pets leads to clinical signs of the animal drinking more than usual and urinating a lot more (for cats, the litter box is often much wetter than normal).

This case reiterates the VITAL IMPORTANCE of a PHONE CALL to your veterinarian before giving naything to pets, and overall the importance of letting us help the pet when you have a concern (i.e., in this case the cat was in pain).

The second and equally important lesson with this patient was with FLEA CONTROL. Not all topicals are safe for pets and many over-the-counter preparations are in fact TOXIC. There are many high quality veterinary flea control products available that are SAFE, EFFECTIVE AND PROVEN IN SAFETY STUDIES.

Luckily, with good diagnostics and hospital medical care, this cat is still alive and making some headway with the kidney failure. Without our help, the scenario for this cat would have been much different.

Remember, we are just a phone call away and our staff is very well-trained to help you in helping your pet.