Saturday, August 15, 2009

First Pharmacy Visit

Thursday, August 13, 2009

This morning I went to the pharmacy to get Beetle’s new prescription filled. They informed me it would take about 45 minutes, so I milled around the store until time was up. I went up to the counter and was told it wasn’t ready yet. Waited 15 more minutes and tried again. Nope, not yet. One more time. Well over an hour I finally got the prescription.

Immediately, when I got home I marked the bottle with red marker “Not 4 Eyes.” For human use, this medication is used in glaucoma patients. In canines, it is given a drop a dose in food. It is suppose to make glands create moisture. It has several side effects, is toxic and easy to be overdosed and can cause death. The vet said to start this 2% solution one drop into food twice a day.

I carefully placed one drop into a tablespoon of cat food. Beetle gladly accepted my offering. I administered her other eye drops and cleaned out ookie from her eye. She then settled down next to me in my chair as I watched television. A few minutes later I felt the cushion of the chair being wet. Beetle was drooling heavily. Frightened, I checked to see if she was ok. The vet told me of side effects and if they occurred to immediately discontinue use for 24 hours and reduce dosage. How can you reduce one drop? I made a phone call to the clinic in Carey and left a message for the vet.

Some time later she called me and said not to use it anymore, she would call in a lower dosage to 1% solution. She said some dogs can’t tolerate this medication at all. Not to start the new medication until the following afternoon.

The rest of the day was filled with several applications of drops and gels to her eye. I tried to keep her as comfortable as possible.

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