And this is why we don't use old meds

It annoys me when I see people (not on here!) give out bad advice about using old meds. We had a pug come in that had an eye injury that they tried to treat, on their own, with steroids. Well, putting steriods on the scratch caused a melting ulcer so not only was this dog in pain, but also will now lose his eye. Eye=GO TO THE VET.

Idiots.

Yep, yep, yep. Anything with the word "dex" in it is likely containing steroids. I am very cautious about any eye med in a dog with an injury.

Wow, anyone with kids should know not to use old meds, why wouldn't it be any different for fur-kids? Gosh!

Self-prescribing like that is just ridiculous. My vet went through many years of school and many years in practice -- why on earth would I think I know as much as she does??? Ugh.

Could not agree more. Eyes are so delicate! Why on earth would someone just decide to put a past medication in an animals eye??

Working as a vet tech, we see it ALL the time. Most common is ear meds. People just use whatever ear meds they have from past infections. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes it doesn't work but no true harm done. Sometimes it doesn't work and the infection gets resistant, much worse, or a ruptured ear drum is severely injured.

Gets worse when people just start giving their pets human medications. (Not fun telling people if they had given their dog just a half pill more they probably would have killed them). People don't think. Honestly, if you realllly want to use OTC pain meds for your dog and non prescription, go buy a bottle of doggie asprin from Petsmart. It is ironic when you get the opposite. One guy was giving his possibly allergy dog one benadryl tablet a day because his coworker does it. He literally said, "I don't know why I do it, but figured if he does it I should, too". One tab a day? That's not even the correct daily dosing for a pug sized dog, and his dog was a large breed.

The ABSOLUTE worst I've seen was a guy who tried to suture up his poor dog's wound with a needle and fishing line. He brought him to us after the wound was horribly infected and mangled, and bitched about the cost to fix it. We get a lot of people who say "I could just stitch that or remove that at home" or say "my pet doesn't need sedation or pain meds for that", but that was the first time we've actually seen someone go through with such a horrible decision.

When I was doing home health care, I had a client who would not throw away any old medications - either hers or her dog's. She had stuff that was 10 years old, no kidding, and would give the dog her stuff and vice-versa. And she threw me out once when I tried to tell her that was not a good idea. Um, Danger, Will Robinson??? Some medications lose their effectiveness over time, and some actually change, sometimes into something that isn't good for a human or a dog.

Ugh.

We do have ulcer meds on hand from the vet so we can start treating a dodgy eye immediately at signs of trouble, say during a holiday period. However in our case we have gone through it all thoroughly with the vet and the meds we have are safe for any eye condition. Plus we know how long their shelf life is.

How sad.....We never use one Pugs eye meds on another. And I refuse to use tears that have expired. Never ever take chances with eyes, just not worth it...Poor baby.

UGH. That poor dog. If only people realised.