Just in case it is useful information, cats can survive accidentally consuming ambien . . .

[Ms. Toad]

AKA Christmas adventures of 2017.

Kitty-cat Toad is intensely curious about my pill collection. I have to swat his nose out of the pill bottles repeatedly when I load up my weekly cancer, diabetes, and thyroid medicine. So far I've been successful in keeping the pills out of his reach.

But last night I spaced out for about 10 seconds too long after I decided to take an ambien to get a good night's sleep last night and put it down on the counter. That little beastie is quick!

After researching frantically, the best option seemed to be to let him sleep it off. Unlike other sleep aids, it doesn't kill kitty kidneys or liver - and the advice from most sources was that unless he had an unusual reaction he would be fine. Trying to forcing him to vomit might not work - and if it did he might aspirate and cause more problems. Not to mention ambien is very rapidly absorbed, so by the time I got done resesarching most of it would have been in his system.

He was a pretty goofy, sleepy, cat for a few hours. After about 30 minutes he got very thirsty (a good thing, since encouraging him to drink was one of teh recommendations I found). But it was sort of like watching my 4 year old on Versed (for her first colonoscopy). Fur babies and real babies shouldn't be drunk (or the equivalent).

By 12 hours post-consumption, he was balancing on the 1.5" wide back on the kitchen chair. Whew!!

As for that good night's sleep - as punishment for being careless, I had to wake myself up every hour to check on him to make sure he wasn't having an abnormal reaction. I'll sleep well tonight!

Now he, and his sister, can return to their mundane adventures removing every ornament from the tree . . .

Hope you and all your fur babies have a safe and happy holiday season!

[Leith]

1. Wow, That Was Lucky

I won't even have Tylenol in my house, just in case.

Many years ago, I woke up one morning and went to the kitchen to make coffee. There on the floor in front of the sink was a dead spider - huge, solid black, big fuzzy legs, and on its back. After I swept it up, I went looking for the cats. They were fine (and lived a full decade each after this incident).

Cats really do have nine lives.

[Ms. Toad]

4. Tylenol would likely have been the end of him.

Tylenol is extremely toxic to livers - people who overdose on tylenol (and it doesn't take much) often need a liver transplant within weeks. All things considered, and aside from the odd effects it has on some humans, seems to be relatively nontoxic to cats. The biggest risk seems to be too much sedation. (In dogs, it can elevate the heart rate and make them extremely hyper).

[Raine]

2. Glad Kitty is OK

very lucky for sure..

[Ms. Toad]

5. Me too.

He's an odd duck, but I'm not ready to part with him.

[Mosby]

3. glad that all worked out.

[Ms. Toad]

6. Thanks! n/t

[Kittycow]

7. Wow...

Last edited Sun Dec 24, 2017, 11:27 PM - Edit history (1)

The anxiety of discovering it, making the frantic phone calls, and worriedly watching him as the hours crawled by must have been off the charts.

Oh, wait.. I guess I'm projecting myself into your story

I can joke cuz I'm so happy for you that the Toadster is OK. I would have been beside myself. I'm so happy that he is still here with you and now just has another story under his belt.

[Ms. Toad]

13. Yeah. I caught him mid-gulp - and nearly got the pill out of his mouth.

When I grabbed him, it bounced onto his lip - but his tongue was faster than my fingers were.

I was really torn between tossing him into the car and runnning to the emergency vet (we wouldn't have gotten there before it was absorbed), researching myself to find out how serious it was, and shelling out $65 for the 24-hour poison line.

I'm pretty good at medical research, so I once I found out that it wasn't toxic to kidney and liver I was pretty sure it was just a matter of making sure it didn't sedate him enough that he stopped breathing - or that he didn't respond ideopathically (like dogs, occasionally do). At people-dose level, it is a hypnotic (rather than a sedative), but it acts like a sedative at overdose level. I found a few case studies to confirm my 5-minute research. The worst I found at the dose he took was a cat who was already sick. It took 36 hours to work it out of his system, but ultimately kitty was fine.

It was nerve-wracking, but not as bad as it could have been had he scarfed down another pill.

[mopinko]

8. did he raid the fridge, or

make any crazy posts to your facebook page?

[KT2000]

9. I'm wondering about

driving the car into the city and causing no end of trouble there.

[Ms. Toad]

12. If he did, he managed to return it without a scratch. n/t

[Ms. Toad]

11. No, but definitely went hog wild with the food and water in the middle of the night! n/t

[bdamomma]

10. So glad your

kitty is ok.......

I will be spending my Christmas with my family and Daisy my adopted SPCA cat for her 1st Christmas with us, she is so loved.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Give Daisy lots of snuggles -

and if she is curious about pills, lock the door when you're pill sorting!

This one was rescued after cat-vehicle accident that killed his mom and siblings, then surrendered to our vet, who caught my spouse at a weak moment. He was supposed to be her cat (he reminded her, and was named after, a childhood pet). Unfortunately, the only one in the house he really likes is me.

[haele]

15. We have one that will nibble on gel caps.

Ziprasidone is not good for kitties, causes high blood pressure and erratic heart beats, as well as krazy kitty mood swings.

bad kitty daddy left his pills out when he got up to take a quick bathroom break before taking his nighttime meds.
Never again.

Haele

[Ms. Toad]

16. Ambien has a tendency to do that with dogs, apparently.

Not generally with cats, thankfully.

But I will have to be more careful - even though I never leave any pills out when I'm not present. This cat is just sneaky fast (and persistent).

[applegrove]

17. Mine got into fish oil pills. He knocked the bottle over and the lid came off.

I kept finding the gel carcasses of the fish oil pills a day later. So far he has had two. Pills are now where they cannot be knocked off and lid is on tight. Thanks god he did not have more. Critters are trouble that is for sure.

[Ms. Toad]

18. Sad thing is, when you need them to take their pills, you have to practically

force them down their little throats!

So - I guess the next time he needs pills I'll just pretend they are mine.