Drug doses are really just guidelines anyway

The next 5 blog posts are all cases from the same week. It's a wonder I still have all my hair.
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I really try to come up with happy, warm and fuzzy stories to tell you all but somehow its always the A-holes that make it to the blogs, isn't it?

Today I had a new client come in with a cat having urinary problems. This is probably one of the most common presentations I see (like on a daily, sometimes twice daily basis).  I've got my spiel down pat.

This one was a little weird... since the owners decided to consult Dr. Google prior to coming in and had administered bits of a 1000 mg Amoxicilin over the past few days. Have I mentioned how much I hate Dr. Google?? That jerk doesn't even have a medical degree.

They also recently changed the food because the cat was itching and clearly that means he had a food allergy, it could not possibly be a flea problem, no sir.

After we discussed how the cat likely did not have a UTI, although now it would be near impossible to tell for sure since they had decided to self-medicate, and they agreed to some basic things like flea control, I found out that they had been using "the bigger dose" of OTC flea control and splitting it between 4 cats.

Me: "Well, that's not really how it works. And what bigger dose?"

"It has a dog and a cat on it. Dogs and cats are the same."

"No, actually they're not the same. Not only are you not giving anybody an effective dose but if you put dog medicine on a cat you could make your cats really ill."

"Well can I just split this one (holds up prescription flea control)? It has a lot of liquid in there."

"No, this is meant for one cat. It is the full dose for one cat."

"But I can just split it."

"You can, but you will actually end up spending more money in the long run because its not going to work the full month, in fact you won't even know when it stops working. Then you'll have to apply more doses."

"But only two cats go outside."

"Well fleas can hitch a ride and they are going to jump between cats. You have to medicate all of them, or its just a complete waste of money."

Finally they at least accepted my answers, and left, if not actually believing them. Why even bother coming in if you are not going to listen to the advice you are paying for?

Comments

  1. Ya know, I get this. On a weird note, one time I was working in _______ and a lady got pregnant on her birth control pills, swearing she'd taken them EVERY SINGLE DAY! And when she was traveling and left them at home by mistake, her husband took them for her. You can't make this shit up.

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