Please tell me if I overreacted

[kayharley]

This afternoon I went into the bathroom and found an orange pill on the floor...a Motrin. Seems my 19 year old son took one for a headache but didn't bother to look for the one he dropped!

I was almost out of control with anger because Elliott is in and out of that bathroom constantly looking for either my nail brush or a soaking wet washcloth to play with! If he had found that pill before I did he would have eaten it.

I try with all my heart to keep my Cairns safe and when something like this happens I get upset. I won't go into my son's response (idiot!) but hubby said I was overreacting.

I took every single bottle out of the medicine cabinet (aspirin, Aleve, MOTRIN, sudafed and benadryl) and locked them in my bedroom safe! Ha....if any of them need a pill they will come to me.

I have good mind to take a long, hot shower tonite and sing all the Barbara Streisand tunes I know as loud as I can. Let them suffer.....

[alaskpat]

I understand your frustration but you may be a little overreacting. Have you ever tried giving a pill to a dog, they just spit it out. 9 out 10 times they will just spit back on the floor. The over counter drugs may make them sick for a time if swallowed but very seldom fatal. Of course keep all your prescription meds out of reach. You can also check with you vet to see what to do if they swallow any meds. My 15 year old used to get an Advil every morning for her stiff joints. I am not an expert or vet but if you are worried please call you vet and ask them what over the counter meds may make them sick.

[CathyAnn]

IMO, no, you are not overreacting.

As I was cleaning the 'guy' bathroom this afternoon, I found one of hubby's blood pressure pills on the floor.

I shiver to think what it could have possibly done to Piper. And, we also had our 20 month old grandbaby here all week.

He got a good reamin' out from me, as well. Grrrrrrr........

Cathy

[tena]

Perhaps a little....your message is important and valuable but the method of delivery was possibly a bit over the top. Folks (my own son included) tend to tune you out when you get emotional. Yes, your son should of been careful to pick up after himself, yet he may of simply not seen it, or been unaware that he dropped it.

[wheezie23]

I agree that you may have reacted a little too strongly with your son, but you had every right to be upset about his carelessness. Alaska, the coating on Ibuprofen tablets is very tasty to dogs and they've been known to eat them up. One motrin can be very dangerous to a small Cairn terrier. Less than one regular strength ibuprofen (200mg) could cause stomach ulcers in a 10lb dog, and about six could cause kidney failure. I would apologize for your behavior if necessary, and explain in a calmer voice the reason for your outburst. Then go have a glass of wine!

Thela

[Mollyrocker]

I would have reacted the same way..whether is was too much, I don't know. I too am sooo careful about drugs, chemicals and anything harmful to dogs be locked away. I have heard too many stories of dogs getting into things and dying...

[Scully'sMom]

Being upset and scared is understandable - and we weren't there so it's hard to say if it was an overreaction. I know when my mom drops one of her many pills on the floor at dinnertime and Scully is right there I've had a fit. It's a quick, panic reaction. I'll give your son the benefit of the doubt that he didn't realize he dropped one.

[Darcy's Folks]

I think it's justified. I would have reacted the same way. My husband who is diabetic takes a good number of pills. When he's dropped one (which is very rare) he's extremely quick to pick it up and if Darcy is around he panics! The only time that one of his testing strips didn't make it into the trash and instead was on the floor, I wasn't nice about it. And he understood.

Side note, I hope all of the singing of the Barbara Streisand tunes made your family nuts! I laughed so hard when you wrote that (since my mother loves B.S. and I personally can only stand about 5 minutes of her.) LOL

[wags]

Kay, I can see myself in your shoes. I do the same thing!

[Tracy A.]

I would have reacted the same way. And putting all the OTC drugs in the safe, very creative- my mother would be proud of you.

My parents are in their 60's, and my Mom's dogs are her Kids. That's all she does in her retirment now, training, dog club, teaching. She keeps all the drugs in the Kitchen in a clear rubbermaid container. That is where all meds are dispensed and taken in her house. She has hardwood floors in the Kitchen and if something is droped its easier to find. Because my parents are on a lot of RX drugs she developed this system. Her eyesite isn't as great as it once was and finding a a pill on the floor is harder. A few years ago she thought that one of the dogs ate a pain pill off the floor (this is the event that changed her way of doing things) in the wee hours of the morning. She made the dog throw up- and still wasn't sure if she had eating the pill, then feed her charcoal just in case- then rushed to emergency vet.... Dog didn't eat the pill, my dad found it later that morning.

Did you know that you can make your own charcoal in a crunch by buring toast to black-

[Kramersmom]

Kay,

I would of done the same thing. I over react but hey my pets are my babys. I know Dogs spit out pills when they need to take them. But when its found or dropped its our luck they will gulp it up knowing that its a pill they shouldn't have. A little story here. My sisters one pug needs to take meds. Well he wont take it with cheese etc... he spits out the pill. Well she said what she does now is makes off it falls on the floor. Well he crabs the pill and down it goes. He thinks it is something she is dropping. So I agree with you I would of flipped as well.

I hope you sang Barbara Streisand songs as loud as you can.

[toomanypaws]

Kay,

I probably would have exploded too, especially if it was due to carelessness. I haven't read all the posts, but maybe later you can explain to your son why you got so upset and the dangers of a little dog swallowing ibuprofen. If your son dropped the pill by accident is one thing, but being too darn lazy to look for a dropped pill would cause me to get pretty upset too. We have to be careful here. Abbey will pick anything up off the floor.

[MikeC]

Hi Kay,

For my two cents worth, if something like this had not happened before, while still being upset, I would have probably been a little more "educating" about it, letting your son, and the rest of your household know that one small tablet like this could have made Elliott seriously ill, and would he want that on his conscience, and to next time be more careful. If it had happened before, then I would have probably confiscated all of the meds and would dole them out as needed, just as you did, right after I kicked him in the backside!

Mike

[ParNone]

Whenever my Grandmother or my Mom would stay with me, I was always going behind them looking on the kitchen floor for dropped pills. Blood pressure, heart, etc. Ones that really made me nervous. There's no way I'd have yelled at my 80+ yr old Grandmother or 60+ year old Mom for that, but I'm sure I was as upset as you inside.

Dogs will indeedy eat pills. My Collie actually opened a drawer on the nightstand and took out two bottles of pills, while I was in the bathtub. One was pepto bismal and the other was a prescription. He chewed up the prescription bottle to get to the pills, so I wasn't completely sure what kind of pills, he'd eaten. I was running around the house naked, panicking, trying to figure out what to do. All I could think of was my baby was gonna die or have brain damage. I'd start to do one thing and decide I should be doing something else. Not actually accomplishing anything, since I was just basically running around the room.

I finally decided the best thing was to throw on my clothes and race him to the vet. They pumped his stomach right away and in the meantime, I calmed down enough so we could figure out what the pills were and how many he took. Turned out he was a okay. They made a point of telling me to move all the drugs up out of his reach and I went all over the house making sure I'd moved everything to safety.

Well I had forgotten I had some of Maddie's steroids for her allergies in my back pack and it happened to be sitting on the love seat. It'd been there for a couple of weeks and Oz never touched it. And wouldn't ya know it, within that very week of the first pill fiasco, I got out of the bathtub to find him yet again with a bottle of pills happily munching away. Argh! I was able to figure out what the pills were and how many he took, then calculate that based on his weight, he didn't eat enough to do any damage. But boy did he take a few more years off my life.

Les...

[Eliz222]

That must have been very scary!! I'm not sure how I would have reacted, but I don't blame you for getting upset at all!

[Logansmom]

Kay,

I'm with you 100%. I keep all of my meds in a palstic container on the top shelf in my linen closet. I started that ages ago when my son was little. Now with the little guys running around like mainiacs I guess we need to be even more careful. As a side note, off topic, I have been very sick for the last three weeks with ear and sinus infectios and pnemonia. I was taking sudafed and benadryl (to sleep). When I finally got off my high horse and asked the doctor for help my BP was 200/118. Please be so careful with sudafed and benadryl. It's great but in some folks it is lethal. Imagine what one pill would do to our 18# furballs.

I second the kick in the pants and the glass of wine!!

[hallswel]

I agree 100%. Two of my sons went to college and came back home...ugh Anyway we gave them 3 months then they had to start paying rent. It starts at 100 a month and every three months it goes up $100. So within 18 months it will be cheaper to live in an apartment. Some of friends say we are wrong and when the move out we will miss them. I love them but they have to learn nothing in life is free, they are now responsible for themselfs.

When it comes to my babies they know the rules. Never leave anything around that would hurt them! Sometimes you have to show them how to behave to get results.

[Lisad]

Kay,

When Harry was very young and when he received his puppy shots, he was feeling soooo uncomfortable. My mother in law (very wonderful woman but never had animals before) kept insisting on giving Harry an Advil. I finally printed a list of "Poisonous Foods & Medications to Dogs" and posted it on her fridge. I also asked my dh to speak with his folks. Nobody - no one - is allowed to give my pup any type of medication without going through me first. I totally understand your fear and anger. It was probably an oversight but I bet your son will remember to pick up the fallen pill next time

[maggie]

I would have reacted the same way!