Pet Exchange Corner

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Several times a month we get a request in the pharmacy from one of our customers to “Please place my dog’s heartworm preventative or other medication in non-childproof containers.” The main reason for this request usually stems from the human caretaker having a difficult time opening the container that holds the pet medication. many times a client may have arthritis or other joint disease and, in at least one case that I’m aware of, the pet owner had lost the use of one of his hands in an overseas operation. generally the pharmacist taking the call will have no problem honoring that request.

There are other times however when the caller begins the conversation with a general question about our safety enclosure policy: “Why do you put this medication in a bottle with safety caps? I can assure you that my dog is not going to get into the bottle and the days of us having young children around the house are long behind us.” this week I decided to address this topic so that I can hopefully shed a little light on the subject so that people can better understand the reason behind the use of safety enclosures.

In 1970 Congress enacted the Poison Prevention Packaging Act which gave the consumer product safety commission some authority to begin regulating safety Enclosures. These enclosures were tested to discover how long it would take children and adults of various ages to open the bottle and get at the contents. Enclosures had to provide a certain level of safety without making it impossible to get to the contents of the bottle. These enclosures are designed to slow the child down from getting into the medication; however, children are quite resourceful and given enough time most will eventually get inside the bottle. child safety Caps are designed to be one of the many measures employed inside the home, including vigilant supervision, that are supposed to increase the level of child safety.

In a perfect world a prescription bottle would remain in the possession of the adult responsible for administering the medication. In the current world we live in, however, I have been amazed at how far a bottle travels and how many people that one bottle has the potential of reaching. For example, one time a nurse in the ICU of a large teaching hospital called me inquiring about medication that we had dispensed several months earlier. My immediate thought was that the patient who was admitted into the unit was the one who had the medication with them. The reality was actually a little different. At that hospital, “therapy dogs” visit once a week to provide some cheer to the patients. The owner of the therapy dog had the bottle in her coat pocket and it fell out, ending up under the patient’s bed. This kind of event makes a person wonder for example, what if this did not happen in the adult unit but rather on a pediatric floor?

The bottom line is that these child safety enclosures, although inconvenient at times, have most likely saved the lives of many children since their invention and implementation some forty years ago. If you have arthritis or cannot open the bottle for whatever reason and you have nobody who can help, we would be happy to use easy-open tops for your medication if you call us with this request. In general, however, I truly believe that it’s a far better policy to err on the side of caution and use safety enclosures unless requested otherwise.

Remember, if you have any medication related questions your 1800PetMeds pharmacist is available to answer those for you.