Human health hazards of veterinary medications: information for emergency departments.

Background: There are over 5000 approved prescription and over-the-counter medications, as well as vaccines, with labeled indications for veterinary patients. Of these, there are several products that have significant human health hazards upon accidental or intentional exposure or ingestion in humans: carfentanil, clenbuterol (Ventipulmin), ketamine, tilmicosin (Micotil), testosterone/estradiol (Component E-H and Synovex H), dinoprost (Lutalyse/Prostamate), and cloprostenol (Estromate/EstroPlan). The hazards range from mild to life-threatening in terms of severity, and include bronchospasm, central nervous system stimulation, induction of miscarriage, and sudden death.

A lecture about pharmaceuticals used in animal patients.

Objectives: To implement a lecture on interesting and clinically relevant facts about animal patients to engage students in a veterinary therapeutics course.

Design: Active-learning methods were used to introduce students enrolled in a 2-credit-hour elective course in veterinary therapeutics to critical yet little known facts pertaining to veterinary informatics, pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, and toxicology resources.

Assessment: Precourse and postcourse learning surveys were conducted and showed that students had retained clinically relevant facts about pharmaceutical use in animal patients at the end of the course.