It's actually a violation of Federal law to "hold, sell or transfer" to another, expired (misbranded) drugs for use. Giving the drugs away to a rescue group or homeless shelter would not be permissible.

Check your personal email for addy!

will do thanks on the health dept!

gift? we love gifts!

jojo: Pics on their way. I was waiting 'till the next ultrasound which comes on Tuesday. She's got 2 baby bumps--so cool! I've also found a brand of mineral mix (with selenium) she'll eat in her grain. And she still doesn't like Tums but she IS eating another flavored calcium supplement (grape is apparently an acceptable flavor). 

btw, I need your home address to send you a gift. ;-)

OK now onto your Q's. The simple answer: Call your local health department for disposal opps. 

As to the color change: I don't know whether oxidation (the presumed chemical reaction responsible for the color change) would make an injection more painful. Never had the issue raised before. There is one good way to find out and that's to try it on yourself––not that I'm recommending you do so. ;-)

La 200.... I have a brand new bottle. and i have an older 2 year old bottle. When i pulled contents from both the older bottle was darker. I hear that once it starts that change in color its much more painful of a shot! True? Needless i never used the older one. BUT what does one do with old antibiotics? Can you toss in the trash?

Which leads me to another vet question... *sorry* what is the most correct way to dispose of spent needles? i've got 2 years here worth that i've yet to toss as i've never asked that question, but i know i should just toss them in the trash.

How's Tulip? where's my pictures?

We keep our expired drugs on hand for employee pet use because corporate does not allow clinic employees to pay for products/services "at cost"...we have to pay what clients pay, and it's hard for most of us to afford that given our meager salaries. The "goodie box" at work has certainly helped out my pets from time to time, and I've got no qualms using meds that are only recently expired.

Grr... I put KateH in as my name, not @KateH as the first part of my message.  It's been a long week.  ^^ That's me.

Nope, micrograms, not millograms, I promise, so .125mg :)  I had to beg too /grumble grumble/  I'm definitely in the market for a new doctor (I figured out she'd approved my dosage increased because Walgreens sent me a notification, not because she or a nurse called me... who'd be crazy enough to do a thing like that?).  The thyroid.about.com forums are great for resource when you're advocating for yourself with a doctor.  Not that it's easy to get in to see one, but once you do the folks over there can help you make your case.

Dr. K, this is why we're so interested in veterinary medicine.  Interactions with our overworked primary care physicians are horrible.  Taking pets to the vet is fantastic in comparison.

AnneT - I'm in no way trying to be nosey, but I wonder if I'm reading something correctly.  You say you had a dosage change of 12.5mg.  I've never heard of any human getting more than .3mg, and I'm blown away by that dosage, and that it's a change (up or down) from your previous one.  I begged and pleaded for an increase, and my doc, extremely grudgingly, after much argument, increased mine from .075, to .1, and then after an even more protracted pita 'discussion' increased it to .125 and said she'd never give me more, because even though I still felt like crap and had no energy, and skin and hair problems, my blood levels were 'normal' as far as she was concerned.  Two other docs also refused to go past .125mg.  Not going to go further into this, but, wow, who's your doc?  (just kidding) 

I'll add one thing, you might not want to do this with thyroid meds.  I take them for me and have read in several places that the expiration dates should be respected.  The meds break down and most people (and animals?) need a very specific dose to feel well.  I just had a dosage change of 12.5 mcg and the difference is not insignificant.  If you can't be sure of the potency of the synthetic hormones they probably won't do much good.

That's the one medication I do plan to send to my county's bi-annual "drug drop" because I have a bunch of half-bottles left from dosing changes.

Regarding disposal, check with your town or city's board of health.  In my town, the board of health attends a bi-annual hazardous waste recycling day sponsored by the dept. of public works expressly to collect medical waste, including medications.

As to tetracyclines, I've read the same thing. But I happen to have also read some soothing comments by a veterinary toxicologist I respect: He notes that nephrotoxicity is a distinct possibility with these drugs but that the risk is overstated with respect to the number of years it takes for well-stored antibiotics of this class to "turn toxic." Still, I'd personally never risk a bottle more than a year old. 

I am on a local dog list serve.  Sometimes when people have meds for their dogs they don't need anymore (if the dog died, or simply doesn't need the meds) they will post them on the list.  I have gotten some of Zack's heart and thyroid medicine this way.  I'm sure it is not legal (I know you can't do it on freecycle), but a good way to not waste good medicine.  When Zack goes, I plan to do this with his meds as well.

I worked with a vet who had a stash of expired meds.  He would give them to people who needed them.  When my bunny got pododermatitis, I told him, and he pulled a bottle out of his "stash" and gave it to me.  Bunny got better.

I treated a soft tissue injury in Dublin's leg with gifted meds from a family friend whose arthridic dog had passed a few months before. A free sample from the vet + gift = $0 med cost.  Simple economics will tell you that anyone like me would be more likely to seek out medical advice if some of the cost can be brought to $0 to offset the consulting fee.  For many, is suspect that the savings is enough to change a "let's wait and see" or "assume it's nothing, I don't want to pay a vet" to "let's go get that checked out now."

$$ savings = more consumption of medical services = improved health = happyness.

Patrick Burn's information on cheap drugs + cheap vaccinations + overly safe expiration dates have saved me a lot of money with no detriment to my dogs. This is easy, unless the medical product has an expiration date that is based on safety, i.e. evidence that the compound goes bad, then it's just a scam to artificially keep the market flowing and increase profits.

I wouldn't give an expired liquid vaccine or liquid medicine, but powders or pressed pills... really low chance that they're "bad" if they haven't been exposed to moisture and don't require refrigeration.

I was worried about keeping leftover prescription pain meds around the house when we had a number of people coming and going.  A pharmacy told me I could bring old meds there for disposal.

My vet once gave me the leftovers from a rather expensive prescription used by a client after the client's pet died.  The client gave her the bottle to dispense to someone else whose pet used the same meds.  Very thoughtful of them, very useful for us, and it prevented waste too.  I wished I could write the other client a thank-you note, but the vet said it would probably not be a good idea (still hurting too much from the loss).

I've wished I could do the same with a lot of meds I get.  I have a lot of sensitivities, and sometimes after trying one dose I'm left with a useless 29-day supply...but no legal way to pass them to anyone else.  Frustrating.

Just be careful with tetracyclines: according to my pharmacist, drugs in that class can deteriorate into toxic substances if they are too far past expiration.  Also, check with your hospital on really expired drugs - ours does an "incineration day" twice a year.

I have major issues with trying to dispose of expired meds.. I send them out with hazardous waste.. Our county will  dispose of small quantities.. I also try to donate almost expired drugs to the Dispensary Of Hope, which distributes meds  to people in need..

I'm not opposed to taking expired meds, but I can't dispense them in the office.. I do have a concern about some meds.. I'm not thrilled about using some of the expired antibiotics, and cardiac meds.. It's probably my own irrational fear..

Think if I go though my closet in the house, I'll find some that would be classified as antiques..

But does it foster resistance? That's the note I just received from a source who asked to remain nameless. Are our free-wheeling ways with expired drugs a gateway to more loosey-goosey behavior that helps lead us down the path to the superbugs of tomorrow?

Um...maybe...but not if they continue to be applied by educated (and usually licensed) persons who simply refuse to let a good thing go to waste. 

Like "uncxray" above, I work in a hospital (ER nurse). I also am a shelter volunteer who works closely with our vet as an assistant in surgery and the clinic, so expired hospital supplies (and yes, meds) often end up at the shelter. Un-reconstituted IV meds like ampicillin, cefazolin, and clindamycin; un-reconstituted oral meds like Augmentin (clavamox), amoxicillin, cephalexin, and trimethaprim/sulfamethoxazole all get re-routed. And as PBurns above has noted, these meds are pretty sure to be fully potent. In the one study I read, some drugs from 50's/60's-era bomb shelters were still potent after more than 30 years storage. Waste of any type is anathema to me, so better to use these for a nonprofit, or for those who couldn't otherwise afford to treat their pets than to simply incinerate or flush them.

The pharm I usually use won't take them back. Guess I gotta look elsewhere.

I took them to our MD's office at the next visit and tossed them in the hazardous waste can that's in every examining room.  I'm hoping, possibly naively, that the biohazard symbol on the can means that stuff doesn't end up in Santa Monica Bay or the bottled water the cats drink.  We don't end up with much unused meds, though.  A statin with unpleasant side-effects and two BP meds I hated is all, antibiotics are always used to the last pill.

[Disclaimer: I am a veterinary student with access to plenty of information but few financial resources and I in NO WAY advise doing this...]

I'm guilty of the opposite... my own dog is getting MY own unused prescription of omeprazole. At 30 cents a pill, it's way cheaper for her to get my dose (which happens to be the same) than for me to a) buy it at the pharmacy otc, or b) get it from my vet school at a ridiculous mark-up (on top of the 5 other meds she's taking). Funny how it works.

Dr. K,

Since it appears that you are doing your best to be a conscientious vet, . . .

Please be sure that what you are publicly announcing that you do here is OK with the vet board.  I am not shaking a finger, just observing that the Board's are sometimes ridiculous in what they choose to notice and do something about.

As you know, I FOIA disciplinary records every year from vet boards.  As pissed off as it makes me (when I know they let much more egregious violations go unaddressed), "expired drugs in stock" and things such as re-gifting expired drugs are exactly the kind of things they take action on (as opposed to say, repeatedly killing patients with anesthetic overdoses or innapropriate use of anesthetics, punching dogs, etc.)

I can't fathom why vet boards often seem to discipline in INVERSE proportion to the apparent severity of the actions, but it often seems so.

I will make it clear that I personally have no problem, moral or otherwise, with you "gifting" newly expired drugs (not wayyyy expired, but I assume that's not what we are talking about) to a shelter, etc.  Seems like a good thing to do when everyone is pretty sure they still work, and I routinely keep drugs past date in my house.  Just in case. (Hey, is 6-month expired amoxicillin probably still good?).  And then when they are waaaaay past date, they hang around simply because I can't figure out what to do with them. Flush and throw away seem socially irresponsible.  The pharm I usually use won't take them back. Guess I gotta look elsewhere.

Nonetheless, this is the TYPE and genre of thing that vet boards, in their infinite wisdom, see fit to discipline -- because they've got to do something, since they aren't doing anything about the REAL problems out there.   I can't think of specific instances having to do with re-gifting to shelters, but I can think of lots of records I've seen dealing with giving drugs without a VCPR, and expired drugs in stock.   Dunno about FLA specifically or the shelter issue specifically so I"m not sure, just wary.  I'd be interested in clarification if you find something out.

I work in the medical field and of course everything has an expiration date.  When we had to pull catheters, bandages, etc off the shelf due to expiration date, the radiologist at our hospital took them to animal rescues.  It is a shame that perfectly good supplies are so often disposed of when they could be put to good use.

Thank you, Meghan. I, too, have been shuddering at the thought of all those opiates in the water supply. 

Just a note to your readers.  The best way to dispose of old meds (if you can't find another use for them) is to take them to your pharmacy.  They will be incinerated.  That way no more meds, hormones and chemicals enter our water supply.

Years ago, after my dad died, I was cleaning out his pharmacy shoe box...   I bet there was at LEAST a thousand morphine tablets...  I called every agency I could- elderly, aids, etc...and NO ONE would take them.  Finally one of the deputies at work clued me in that it was a felony for me to even HAVe the pills....    they got flushed that day...

There SHOULD be a way to help people and pets who need meds but haven't got the money....

I do the same. I only throw them away when they're reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaally old, like some I found at the back of a shelf the other day that were in excess of 5 years expired. That was part of the meds from Cyrano's CRF treatement that I was unable to give away after he died. I found homes for most of the (expensive) meds through the CRF email list. I figured it was going to cats who needed the fighting chance he didn't have any more.

Guilty here.  In my case it's eye drops for a cat with either a herpes or chlamydia eye infection.  The smallest eye drop bottle size barely got used up when I gave them to her under the vet's direction.  So I kept it and re-follow those directions every time her eye gets slightly inflamed.  It tends to stop the inflamation before the dreaded green goo appears and save us a vet visit where she says, once again, "Yup.  Same as last time.  Drops and try lysine."

The good news is that for several of the most common antibiotics, you do not have to vouch for their accuracy -- the U.S. military has done the research for you. 

 See >>  http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-worms-and-germs-blogger-incompetent.html

and

 http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/08/high-cost-of-veterinary-ignorance.html

and

http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/08/antibiotics-past-expiration-proving.html

Laws are written by politicians who are paid to write those laws by pharmacy companies anxious to see people toss money down the drain.  For the rest of us, there's common sense and simple research.

P

**applause**

Good for you!  I throw out almost Nothing.  Perhaps the drugs won't work  as quickly, but hey, they're paid for.  In the future perhaps I can donate to a rescue as well.

I once had a serious stomach bug, you see, the one that make you worship the white porcelain and wish to die. I was unable to go and see a doctor so I took my pups medications for their own bellyaches: worked a treat!

I also sometimes give away to the homeless of my city some of the deworming pills or fleas treatments I buy in big batches: it is cheaper for me and help them keep their pets healthy.

In the past, I've donated leftover meds (and vax - my preferred brand is not the same as that of my current vet and there is that 25-dose packaging thing) to rescuers that I know personally, but I think that people often run into the same thing that H. Houlahan did where not everyone will take donations of meds. I'm not sure of the legalities myself.

Our vet takes them back to use on pets dropped in their laps or those in rescues (like mine) who need extra supplies ...  no reason to waste them!

Good for you Dr K for making better use of our limited resources!

Lilly was briefly on stilbestrol for spay incontinence.

When I needed to dispose of the leftover pills, I was in a quandry -- I couldn't find anyone to take them, and you don't want to be flushing estrogens down the toilet.  I disposed of them with medical waste.  They weren't even expired.

I wish someone was serving as a clearinghouse for pet meds.  Someone else could have used those.

One of my dog's needed a certain anti-biotic, and for a 2-3 week period, so I ended up with 84 of them.  Although I normally have no trouble giving pills, this was a new-to-me dog, and went nuts when I tried to pill.  After two days, and the infection decreasing from the other treatment that was received, I gave up trying to use the pills. 

Two months later, I have pneumonia and I have no insurance.  I'm given a prescription - for the same drug but smaller number of pills, because a higher mg. - and to fill it will cost me $32 (when from the vet it cost $18).  This isn't even a no-brainer for me.

After readjusting the number of pills upwards for my dosage, three days later, I'm able to notice improvement in my ability to breathe.  After 10 days, I can walk up stairs without sitting down halfway to catch my breathe.

Smartest use of my dog's meds, ever.