Abstract
Acetaminophen causes serious problems as toxication in cats in spite of being an effective and reliable analgesic and antipyretic in humans. A six months-old female cat suffering from cough was presented to examination to International Pet Hospital/Tirana/Albania when no result was obtained after one acetaminophen tablet had been administered in order to heal the disease. Depression, grey and cyanotic mucous membranes and tongue, tachypnea, tachycardia, hypothermia were primary clinical signs. The color of blood and urine were darkened. On the basis of anamnesis and clinical findings, a definitive diagnosis of acetaminophen toxicosis was made. Therapeutic protocol contained blood transfusion, N-Acetylcysteine, ascorbic acid, cimeditine and IV fluid therapy. Patient's blood samples were collected for haemogram and serum analyses with regular intervals was cured with appropriate treatment.
Highlights
Acetaminophen known as paracetamol is an effective and reliable analgesic and antipyretic for human use
Both of these processes produce inactive metabolites eliminated by the kidneys (Richardson, 2000). In case these pathways become saturated, there is an alternative one breaking down the acetaminophen to a toxic metabolite (Allen, 2003) called “N-Acetylparabenzequinoneimine (NAPQUI)”
Cats are extremely sensitives to acetaminophen toxication due to the lack of glucoronyl transferase and glutathion stores, they form glucoronides with a lot of compounds slowly or not at all (Allen, 2003; Ettinger and Feldman, 2010). The absence of this biochemical step causes more drug to be conjugated to sulfates since the sulfation pathway has a finite capacity, lower than the other species. This is why acetaminophen is allowed to persist in the blood and to be metabolized to NAPQUI once the sulfation pathway reaches its capacity
Summary
Acetaminophen known as paracetamol is an effective and reliable analgesic and antipyretic for human use. It is strongly associated with serious problems in companion animals and toxication have been commonly reported. Acetaminophen in animal species (cats, dogs, ferrets, birds, pigs, primates, and many others) is associated with hepatotoxicity because of the metabolite N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine (McConkey et al, 2009). It is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Clinical signs of acute toxicity are usually not seen unless the dosage of acetaminophen exceeds 100 mg/kg in dogs.
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