Human meds for cats

[Gingerkittykat]

My gorgeous wee old man kitty was diagnosed with a massive tumour inside his belly and has gone onto palliative care.

One of the medications the vet gave him was ranitidine, he hates the liquid so I had a look online at the pet med sites and one said this was a human med. The liquid tastes exactly like the human ranitidine he had before.

I was wondering if it is safe to buy ranitidine tablets to give to him? Are there any fillers that would be bad for him?

One thing to consider is the cost. I was charged around £14 for a tiny bottle, and I know the human equivalent costs a fraction of this.

No, of course you can't give human medicine to your cat. Perhaps you could speak to your vet and ask them if there is a feline tablet.

If you genuinely can't afford it, contact the PDSA. Otherwise, perhaps it might be time to start thinking about what would be the kindest thing to do in this situation. Sorry.

I don't know about that medicine but my vet put my cat on Gaviscon for a few days once!

A lot of medicines for animals cross over from the human side. But having said that I'd ask the vet.

A pharmacy can’t legally sell you medicines intended for animal use. Contact your vet.

Sometimes human medication can be given to pets (Piriton for dogs for instance) but never ever do this without seeking advice from the vet first, seriously don't even think about it. I'm sure you've tried all sorts of things to get him to have his medication but have you tried mixing it in with Weebox Lick-e-lix. Works every time with ours.

My vet told me to use certain human eye drops from the chemist before when my cat had an infection

@cometothinkofit A bit cruel, we can give him the palliative care he needs however keeping the costs down is a sensible thing to do.

It was the vetmed site that said it was a human drug being used off license. In the past when my kitty had an allergic reaction to a bee sting they told me to go and buy piriton from the chemist.

Vet reception called back and said I would need a prescription for the chemist, so it sounds like it is actually safe. They are going to prescribe a different tablet though.

You can check with your vet or maybe even the pharmacy.
My dad's cat was given out of date meds by the vet and when they took them back to swap they didn't have any more. They wrote a prescription out for the human version and advised a quarter tablet.
The cost difference was immense and my dad continued to get it from the pharmacy for the rest of the cat's life. This was heart meds so pretty important to get right!

Ranitidine has had a worldwide recall, there is no ranitidine in any pharmacy. If the vet can supply it all well and good.

Troy was on furosemide for his heart condition as his lungs kept filling up with fluid.

He was also on clopidogrel to prevent blood clots.

Hi OP,
I’m a vet student currently and I’ve just popped on to say I totally understand why you’d like to keep costs down whilst also giving him the best care you can.

I can’t advise on that specific medicine but I’d recommend you speak to your vet as they should be happy to advise you as they’ll know medications can be really costly. They only want what’s best for your lovely cat so if there are alternatives they’ll be able to advise you.

As a PP stated though, pharmacies aren’t allowed to sell medications for animals but you might be able to buy your cats prescription and order the medication online.

Just give your vet a call and see what they say . You sound like a lovely, caring owner

Sorry, started to answer and then got distracted! Just seen your update

A girl I work with got her dogs prescription from Boots. The vet wrote the prescription. My old cat was on a variety of medication that was all human meds but i always got them via the vets.

Snorg has human chloramphenicol, after the vet prescribed the exact brand that we use at work. (Peadiatric nurse)
It was very surreal when she was on Morphine and ketamine infusions. We also use them all the time. There is a lot of cross over as a PP said.

All of Maia's cardiac drugs were human ones. Just in much smaller doses.

Kitty is also on prednisolone, a human drug which costs the NHS pennies but costs a lot for an animal. In that case the cost of the vet prescription and dispensing fees means it would probably not be worth buying it this way.