Intoxication of dogs and cats with common stimulating, hallucinogenic and dissociative recreational drugs.
Ena Oster, Nikola Čudina, Hrvoje Pavasović, Andreja Prevendar Crnić, Frane Božić, Charbel Fadel, Mario Giorgi
Veterinary and animal science March 1, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.vas.2023.100288 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Dogs and cats |
| Keywords | Cats Dogs Illicit drugs Recreational drugs Toxicokinetics Veterinary toxicology PET Poisoning Intoxication Drug exposure Overdose Street drugs Narcotics Companion animals pets |
| Citations | 10 |
| Key findings | Exposure to illicit drugs in pets is difficult to diagnose due to owner reluctance and adulterated substances, and affordable diagnostic tests have low specificity. |
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.