...aaaand porn makers being quick adopters - soon we'll see bestiality vids titled "Ruff Sex: Buster's Viagra Adventures"

That's farking retarded.

First, we started medicating the hell out of the old people.

Then, the kids.

Now, the animals.

Heh, my mom had a cat that was on valium.

/mmmmmmm valium

And speaking of vicodin...I think it is time for another pill!
/broken leg sucks!

If the police visit my house they're not going to believe my dog is the one growing all the weed until I show them the videos.

Me too submitter. Me too.

bark?

Would it be a better idea for me to stop giving my dog his insulin?

/diabetic dog, seriously
//wtf

SNL comes to life...
=======
[ Jill is visiting Joy, whose dog is lying like a lox on the living room floor. Joy throws a ball at the dog, but he just stares at it as it rolls by. ]

Joy: Gee, Sparky's been acting dull and listless lately. I just don't know what's wrong with him.

Jill: My dog Skippy used to be like that.. until I found out about.. [ reaches for box and pulls out a puppy upper ] ..Puppy Uppers. Puppy Uppers pep up your pooch, plus, they help control his weight.

[ Joy feeds Puppy Upper to Sparky ]

[ ripple dissolve to Sparky rolling over, doing back flips, leaping about, and acting speedy ]

[ SUPER: "Later That Day" ]

[ close-up of Sparky jumping up on Joy ]

Joy: Maybe it's me, Jill, but I'd say Sparky's perked up a little too much.

Jill: No argument there, Joy. When my Skippy gets too frisky, what I do is give him these.. Doggie Downers.

[ Jill holds up a box of Doggie Downers, then hands it to Joy, who is still being bothered by the frisky Sparky ]

Joy: [ reading label ] Doggie Downers.. mellows out your mutt. Hmm.. I'll try them. [ feeds Sparky a Doggie Downer; he collapses ]

[ SUPER: "Later That Day" ]

[ ripple dissolve to Sparky lying like a lox on the living room floor, box of Doggie Downers in the shot ]

Jill: That's Puppy uppers for when your dog's like this. And.. [cut to replay of shot with sparky jumping on Joy, box of Puppy Uppers in the shot ] ..Doggie Downers, for when your dog's like this. From Hound-Doze.

Puppy uppers & doggy downers.

+1 subby for the ANS referrence.

I took Vicodin once. ONCE.

/best Joe Piscopo pic I could come up with...

Lenny_da_Hog:

You beat me by 6 seconds and spelled doggie better - lol

Asinine must be too tired to handle this one. This is why health care is expensive: too many people seeking treatment that nobody needs and doesn't contribute anything to society.

Dutcher: Can dogs/cats trip on magic mushrooms?

Yes, now get out there, and let your pets open their mind, man.

My cat started taking Lunesta recently.
Poor little fella had insomnia; only slept 20 hours a day.

WELL farkING DUHH.

Americans spent more on their pets last year than they did on their children.

Americans will spend money on whatever the private sector decides they will spend money. It's as simple as that. It's called psychology, and if you don't know it's possibly the best government population control tool available, then you just might want to get some ear muffs, eye patches, and nose plugs because the urge to buy buy buy buy is being injected into your living environment whenever you cook, whenever you watch tv, movies, listen to the radio, read a magazine, browse the innertubes, etc.

/Don't take that seriously.
//Just do what tastes right.
///Just have it your way.
////

Staypuft_Mushmallow_Manz Asinine must be too tired to handle this one. This is why health care is expensive: too many people seeking treatment that nobody needs and doesn't contribute anything to society.

Two questions:

1) When your pet is sick do you a) kill it, b) let it die a slow and painful death, or c) give it medicine?

2) Money circulating in the economy is a Good Thing. If pet owners want to spend their money on their pets, it's their choice. Why do liberals seem to think that they're the ones to decide how everyone else should spend their money?

This kind of reminds me of something I read a few years back explaining how human activity evolves through three stages:

1. Survival
2. Business
3. Entertainment

It can be seen in pretty much everything, from sex to news dissemination to medicine. While each activity does retain aspects of the previous stages, but their importance is diminished by the arrival of new concerns.

It's a pretty simple theory, but having read it, I see it *everywhere* now.

/ Have learned not to share the source before the theory.
// Turns people off.
/// "Just For Fun", Linux Torvalds

I've worked for a veterinarian; So I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies. Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about. But trust me.... You don't. I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you don't know what you are talking about. This is how bad info gets passed around. If you don't know about the topic....Don't make yourself sound like you do. Cos some (insert target group) believe anything they hear.

So, they're not your pets, why can't we just let people spend their money on whatever the fark they want without pretending we're better than them? If keeping their pet alive is what makes them happy, then go ahead and spend the money on that, instead of on a vacation.

I have a soft spot in my heart for sick elderly cats. It makes me feel good to adopt these cats from shelters, and take care of them through their golden years. I don't shell out thousands of dollars for them, but probably a few hundred. I would rather spend money on drugs to treat my cats arthrites, cancer, and overactive thyroid then on new shoes, and fark anyone who says I shouldn't.

I had to make a choice a few months ago no to operate on my cat with cancer. I knew that it wouldn't prolong her life very much, and it would be a painfull recovery. I instead decided to just treat her with anti-inflamatories and try and make her last month as comfortable as possible. My first vet looked at me like I was a monster, but mostly because I wasn't about to give her $5,000. I went to a new vet, who thought I made the right choice.

NEW!! Chew Boniva for Dogs!!

While each activity does retain aspects of the previous stages, but their importance is diminished by the arrival of new concerns.

Apparently my grammar slouched into the corner and shot itself.

Fun fact, Viagra is used for the 'lung condition' aka pulmonary hypertension... what it was originally intended to treat. That is until that little side effect was reported by the likes of Bob Dole.

$2/day pills are nothing--One of our cardiac drugs costs our clients at least $5/day (double that for several Great Danes who are on it!)

/Works for a Cardiologist, Internist, Dermatologist, Surgeon, & Theriogenologist.
//Happy to see people actually care for their 'property'
///you still probably spend more on your car

I have a labradoodle and she's the best dog I've ever known. If she were sick, I'd tell the vet to do everything he could.

But if she seems sad, my Weeners is to take her for a walk or give her a treat. NOT to break out the antidepressants.

And if you don't think that keeping people alive till 90 but only healthy and productive till 70 is a drag on the economy, or that people seeking drugs or medical treatment they don't need doesn't drive up health-care costs, just wait. Health care is headed for crisis, and a single-payer system or increased government intervention will only make it worse.
Also, Hat Madder, free markets and deregulation is the only issue I vote on.

Who needs meds, theres nothing that can go wrong with my dog that getting the Frisbee won't cure, seen the mutt get up and dance with a sprained paw when I picked up that lil circle of plastic.

Must be dog owners... because NO cat owner wants to give their cat a pill due to the impossibility of such a task.

Madcat, that's why the compounding pharmacies make money formulating drugs into liquid, tasty chews, or the iffy transdermal patches that don't work for every med.

;)

My puppy opened her hernia incision, they gave me a NSAID for her. First time I ever been given a painkiller for a pet.

Last year, we spent a couple thousand dollars to help save the life of our 10 year old cat after our ex-vet put her into a hypoglycemic coma. Now she's on daily insulin for diabetes which was properly diagnosed, but not properly treated initially.

We spent another thousand or so on our kitten who had an intestinal blockage after eating stuff she shouldn't have.

And we've got one cat on Paxil after going through several other anti-anxiety meds that didnt' help. She's a much better-adjusted cat today because of it and she's now not trying to kill the other cats including her own kittens.

Better living through chemicals (and occasional surgical intervention). It works for us, and if it works for others, who is anyone else to judge?

MadCat221 thanx for reminding me of that old email joke...

Hat Madder yeah... I kill the f*ing kitty... they come a dime a dozen...

/luvs me fluffy...

author, are you f*ing shiatting me?

seriously... the shelters are full of well adjusted kitties w/o health issues who would love to be in your loving home.

Also, somebody always has kittens... come on what is nicer than a new kitten?

I love my cats but when they get old and sick I let them go the nice way...

/oh yeah... I also believe in physician assisted suicide....
//worked for my terminal father...
/they called it "oxyquick"

My cat is on amitryptiline... it was either that or just putting her down. It's like 10 bucks a month, so it's ok. Before the drugs though, she would be all happy and purry one minute, then just freak the fark out, attack you, attack invisible monsters, whatever, then she would just lay down and start purring again... she'd also freak out and pee on things (totalling about 7k in damage, er go the choice between drugs and putting her down). So what if one little pill makes her a bit more stable... she's still happy, playful, and dumb as a farking post... and I didn't have to put her down. The way I figure it, I took her in, so I'm responsible for her... there's a point at which one is just prolonging the inevitable, but for some little problems like this, it would be wrong to just give up and kill something.

forget the dog, I can't wait to call my doctor tomorrow for my Vicodin.

//botched ACL replacement, chronic pain//

Er, so why the outrage? Is anyone really opposed to the development of drug therapies for animals? Not too long ago, pets used to be put down at the slightest illness since treatments for many ailments just didn't exist or weren't practical in veterinary medicine. Now there are new therapies and pets are living longer. So why the outrage?

The only boondoggle in veterinary medicine I can think of right now is Rimadyl, which like other Cox-1 inhibitors, has some serious side effects. But it's not the only NSAID out there and it's rapidly losing favor. I'm sure there are other meds that have been over-prescribed, feel free to add your own here.

\ works in veterinary medicine
\\ has a dog with two CCL repairs and a new hip
\\\ above dog also gets meloxicam instead of Rimadyl

perhaps the vicodin could be time released for dogs, hmmmm perhaps in a bone or a pig ear....

Best argument for testing drugs on animals I've heard.

Yay, an animal medicine thread! Something I actually know about! I'm a veterinary technician (so I'm getting a kick out of these replies, yada yada...), and it's amazing how much some of these drugs can improve a pet's quality of life. It can be something as simple as a daily painkiller to help old dogs with arthritis. Why would you decry something like that? If a pill can help your pet have a happier life, what's wrong with that? It's not like they need to drive or operate heavy machinery. Of course, there are always the people who will try to abuse it. Like people who just want to keep the dog sedated all the time because he's not a puppy anymore and they're sick of playing with him. But just like in human medicine, it's up to a doctor to decided if an Rx is warranted or not.
Oh, and to those who claim it's impossible to pill a cat - maybe my view is skewed since I do that almost every day, but it's really not that tough. You just have to tilt their head back and hold the mouth shut until they swallow. Failing that, there's a great product called Pill Pockets that's basically a little treat with a hole in it to insert a pill. I've never met a cat who wouldn't gobble them up.

My fifteen year old border collie mix takes Rimadyl, he's arthritic, but the pills give him enough relief that he can climb stairs and play with my other dog (a Jack Russell Terrier) like he's still a puppy. The old guy has been a good friend all this years, a dollar-a-day pill is the least I can do for him.

author1701

I'm thinking it would pay to invest in better cats.

I don't see why anyone is surprised. It's not because Americans are getting more drug happy, it's because animals are getting sicker.

Centuries of inbreeding and a slow compensation with animal medicine keeping animal traits in the gene pool which should have long died off.

Our pets are just keeping up with us evolutionarily, and it's our fault.

I had to put my dog down last year (she was nearly 16) and my dumb cat Boris went completely psycho, running around the house 24/7 howling like a halloween sound effects record, looking for the dog who was no longer there. Then he started grooming himself compulsively to the point of pulling out giant tufts of hair. I'd come home from work with clumps of fur everywhere and a bald bleeding cat. I was ready to put him down too (getting ZERO sleep from the racket) and the vet gave me some cat-prozac. He was knocked out for about 72 hours (probably exhausted) and when he emerged he was 95% better. He's off the drugs now and once in a while has the cat version of a panic attack but 5 minutes of attention calms him down.

/Glucosamine added 3 good quality years to my Yellow Lab's life; short strolls, chase the ball a little, get the morning paper up until the end.

In theory, I don't see anything wrong with this. The problem, as usual, comes from stupid people trying to medicate their pets because they aren't bright enough to care for them.

Same problem we see with over-medicated children, these days.

I work in a pharmacy so I am really getting a kick out of...

yeah, people who come in with scrips for their pets are usually a little bit out of their minds themselves.

MMmmmm...hydrocodone. Vicodin for you farkers not in the know. Please send all spare hydrocodone to me please. Ill take of it for ya :)

uuuuh---my cat's a diabetic, two shots a day....no joke. I guess I'm out of my mind...

go2pedro

I had to put my dog down last year (she was nearly 16) and my dumb cat Boris went completely psycho, running around the house 24/7 howling like a halloween sound effects record, looking for the dog who was no longer there. Then he started grooming himself compulsively to the point of pulling out giant tufts of hair. I'd come home from work with clumps of fur everywhere and a bald bleeding cat. I was ready to put him down too (getting ZERO sleep from the racket) and the vet gave me some cat-prozac. He was knocked out for about 72 hours (probably exhausted) and when he emerged he was 95% better. He's off the drugs now and once in a while has the cat version of a panic attack but 5 minutes of attention calms him down.

I heard it's best to expose animals to their dead 'friends', wether they're another critter or a human. That way they know what happened & move on.

My cat requires thyroid medication, which wouldn't be a big deal due to the fact I'd just have to rub some cream in his ear twice a day except for the fact he seems to be allergic to the stuff and it makes his ear extremely red. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Hat Madder: 1) When your pet is sick do you a) kill it, b) let it die a slow and painful death, or c) give it medicine?

A