Intoxication of dogs and cats with common stimulating, hallucinogenic and dissociative recreational drugs.

Exposure of pets to illicit drugs is a growing concern, often going undiagnosed because owners may not know about the exposure or may be reluctant to admit possession of recreational drugs due to legal consequences. Illicit drugs sold on the black market are frequently adulterated, leading to non-specific symptoms and worsened outcomes. Affordable onsite diagnostic tests exist but produce many false positives. This paper reviews the toxicokinetics, mechanisms of toxicity, clinical signs, and treatment for common recreational drugs—amphetamines, methamphetamine, MDMA, PCP, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and cocaine—in dogs and cats.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Pets can have accidental, intentional, or malicious exposure to illicit drugs. It is a growing concern over the last decade because there is an increase in usage of illicit drugs in humans and diagnosis is difficult. Owners are often not aware of exposure, or they are reluctant to admit possession of recreational drugs in the household due to potential legal consequences. In addition, illicit drugs sold on the black market are often adulterated with other substances resulting in non-specific clinical presentation and aggravation of symptoms. There are affordable onsite diagnostic tests on the market which could facilitate diagnosis of intoxication with illicit drugs, but they give a lot of false positive results due to low specificity of the tests. In this paper we gathered information about the most common recreational drugs such as amphetamines, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), phencyclidine (PCP), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin mushrooms and cocaine in terms of toxicokinetic properties, mechanism of toxic action, clinical presentation and treatment in dogs and cats.