Louise Achey - Why Dogs Cant Eat Chocolate: How Medicines Work and How YOU Can Take Them Safely

Why Dogs Cant Eat Chocolate

How Medicines Work and How YOU Can Take Them Safely

2014 Dr. Louise Achey . All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other,except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James and The Entrepreneurial Publisher are trademarks of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

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ISBN 978-1-61448-967-2 paperback

ISBN 978-1-61448-968-9 eBook

ISBN 978-1-61448-969-6 audio

ISBN 978-1-61448-970-2 hardcover

Library of Congress Control Number:

2013952367

Cover design by Alece Birnbach

Cartoons by Alece Birnbach

Notes illustration by Vince Palko

Other illustrations by the author

Quantity discounts are available to your company, educational institution or organization for educational purposes, gifts or fundraising.

Contact Dr. Louise Achey at (509) 658-2570

P.O. Box 98, Naches, WA 98937

www.AskDrLouise.com

In an effort to support local communities, raise awareness and funds, Morgan James Publishing donates a percentage of all book sales for the life of each book to Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg.

All of the information in this book is intended to supplement and support the advice of your medical care professional, not to contradict or conflict with it.

Please, please DO NOT stop any of your prescription medicines without first consulting a medical professional!

Your results and responses may vary from those of others and should be monitored by you working together with your medical care provider.

To my pharmacist colleagues,
who devote their professional lives
to helping people take medicine safely ~
Applying their knowledge, experience,
and skill to assure optimal drug therapy outcomes
for the patients we serve

and

the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP),
making the prevention of medication errors
its primary mission for over 30 years.

Thank you to Bill Hayton, Ph.D. for introducing me to and inspiring me to explore the world of pharmacodynamics (WHICH medicine) and pharmacokinetics (HOW MUCH medicine). I really appreciate your allowing me as a pharmacy student to collaborate with you in publishing your lecture notes in our campus bookstore, because there werent any textbooks written yet about those topics.

A very special thank you to Dr. Ahna Brutlag, DVM, veterinary toxicologist and Assistant Director of Veterinary Services at Pet Poison Helpline (, The Dark Side of Chocolate, for accuracy.

With deep appreciation to Linda K. Porlier who gave me idea for the book title and the guidance to get it published. Linda knew just when to push and when to back off, and her assistance with editing has been priceless.

And to my husband Charlie, whose encouragement made this all possible. Youre the greatest!

In February of 1980 I joined the pharmacy staff of Samaritan Hospital, a 50-bed hospital in Moses Lake, Washington. While there I discovered Michael Cohens bi-monthly column in the publication Hospital Pharmacy. Each of Michaels columns described a specific medication error and gave practical suggestions on how we could prevent them from happening in our own institution.

Twenty-three years later, Michael Cohen is still writing that column and continuing the vital work of reducing medication errors and their dangerous, potentially tragic consequences.

In 1990, Michael Cohen and Neil Davis founded the nonprofit Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), with its mission turning errors into education. The ISMP continues that mission today, providing impartial, timely and accurate information on how to prevent medication errors in hospitals and other medical settings.

If you have ever sought treatment at an ER or have been hospitalized, then you have benefited from the efforts of the ISMP to reduce your risk of having a medical professional give you the wrong medicine or the wrong dose.

A percentage from the sale of each book of Why Dogs Cant Eat Chocolate will be donated to the Institute for Safe Medicine Practices Foundation to support their important work in making medication prescribing, dispensing and administration safer for all of us.

This book was written to help you keep your dog safe from poisoning from chocolate AND to help you understand what your doctor and pharmacist want you to know about how to take medicine safely. According to the Institute of Medicine, at least 1.5 million preventable adverse medication events occur every year.1

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows more Americans die from accidental overdoses of prescription medicines than are killed in motor vehicle accidents.2

Using the example of how dogs can die from eating something thats quite harmless to you, Ill show you HOW and WHY medicines work, how TOO MUCH medicine and medication mishaps can happen, and how to prevent medication mishaps from happening to you or a loved one.

When you understand how TOO MUCH medicine happens and how to avoid it, you can better take advantage of all the information about how to take your medicine from your doctor, pharmacist and available on the Internet. Thats because youll see how it relates to YOU.

With 75% of all visits to a physician resulting in a prescription3, the American medical care system depends more and more on powerful medicines that are intended to help but have the potential to cause harm.

Medicines are a very powerful yet unpredictable treatment because they dont work the same in everyone. The book you hold in your hands explains WHY, and exactly WHAT you can do about it.

of Why Dogs Cant Eat Chocolate tells the story of Barney the baby Basset Hound and why chocolate is so dangerous for dogs, including the actual amount of chocolate that would kill a dog the size of Barney.