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Many pet owners would choose to skip their holiday or the purchase of a new television set if it was a choice between those things and the health of their pet. everything seems so costly these days: dinner out, movies, clothes, even water which must really be complimentary is on the shelves anywhere for sale in plastic bottles. Those of us with family pets swiftly come to realize that pet ownership is very costly under ordinary circumstances, and an unexpected health problem could easily lay spoil to the most very carefully planned out budget. shopping around to decrease some of the costs associated with healthcare is normally not a bad idea, but often I get calls from pet owners who want to cut costs in ways that are potentially harmful, such as trying to avoid bringing the pet to the veterinarian when the pet is not well. another example of a bad idea is to use medication that is past its expiration date. While having a sick pet and not bringing him or her to the veterinarian for proper assessment is undoubtedly a very bad idea, lots of might not so easily recognize other dangers such as using expired medication.
Drug makers are required to put expiration dates on drug products. These dates for a particular product are not chosen randomly, but are assigned after the maker has done stability testing. other aspects are also taken into consideration, such as chemical degradation in a particular environment or the effects a particular combination of chemicals when placed together. another thing to note is that the manufacturer’s expiration date is often different than the “beyond use” date given by the pharmacist filling the prescription. When a medication is removed from the pharmacy and stored at home, lots of times the conditions are less than ideal for maintaining drug and chemical stability. The medicine cabinet in the shower room is an example of a location that is normally bad for drug storage because of humidity and temperature extremes.
What happens to medications when they pass their expiration date? Well that depends. in some cases the medication may begin to lose its potency, and in other cases the medication can degrade in such a way as to become a lot more concentrated. Let’s look at the following example: A 100 ml bottle of liquid medication that is formulated to supply 10mg per 1ml will become 20 percent a lot more concentrated if four teaspoonfuls of the liquid evaporated over time. The original 10mg dose will now be supplying 12mg of active ingredient. Needless to say, boosting the dose of medication in such a manner for a small cat or pet dog can have potentially harmful consequences.
The flip side of that coin would be the futility of giving a medication that has lost rather than gained potency and as a result is supplying the pet with little a lot more than a “placebo” effect. A placebo is what the old-time pharmacist used to call the “sugar pill” which contained no active ingredient in any way and was often prescribed for the treatment of some psychologically based illnesses. considering that our pets, however, do not know what the original purpose of the medication was, we certainly can’t expect the placebo to exert a psychological effect on them like it does in some of us “complicated” humans.
The bottom line is that medication can and does go through chemical changes over time, and these changes are not always predictable. The expiration dates that the makers put on the bottle are there for a reason, and have in lots of cases been very carefully selected after doing chemical analysis and taking other aspects into consideration. considering that there is potential harm in keeping and using expired medication, let’s all take a few minutes and read our old medication bottles (both prescription and non-prescription) and begin doing some healthy “feel good” spring cleaning. Be sure to appropriately dispose of any expired medications.
As always, if you have any questions about dosing, expiration dates, or other medication related worries please feel complimentary to call your 1800PetMeds pharmacist who will be delighted to help answer those for you.
Pet Medications