Apoquel overdose
EDIT: Please be kind in the comments. I already feel an overwhelming amount of guilt over what happened. I’m human, and this was a terrible mistake. I’m sharing this only to spread awareness in hopes that no one else has to go through something this traumatic with their pet.
My dog is a 3 year old male neutered mix breed canine, 42 pounds. On Sunday (5/10) he ingested an entire bottle of 16mg apoquel chewable tablets, and we think the bottle had around 50 tabs. Sunday I left the house around 3:30pm and I found the empty pill bottle when I returned home around 9:30pm. I immediately took him to the ER and they had me call poison control. In the car on the way to the ER he vomited. Because of the amount of tablets he ate they were very concerned. He had a very high heart rate. They told me at this point the medication was already in his blood stream and his best chance was to go to a specialty hospital an hour away where they can perform hemodialysis. This procedure would be life saving and I had no other choice but to agree to the treatment. They said he was stable for transport so we drove to the specialty hospital and arrived at 12:30am. While waiting for the criticalist to arrive, they administered activated charcoal. They started the hemodialysis treatment around 1:30am and it lasted until 9:30am. They repeated bloodwork after the hemodialysis procedure and his liver and kidney values were normal. Only abnormality was low potassium levels. I was able to visit him yesterday evening (5/11) and they repeated bloodwork which also came back normal. He is still being hospitalized and they are going to be repeating bloodwork again this afternoon (5/12).
I was told by the veterinarian that there is not many studies regarding this type of toxicity. I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience, how their pet was treated, and what recovery looked like. I am concerned about lasting effects to his kidneys and want to make sure I’m doing everything possible to give him the best chance. I would appreciate any feedback.
Also, does anyone have advice on how this could be prevented in other pets? I saw on google that there has been an increasing number of overdoses of this specific chewable tablet since the dog views it like a treat. I had no idea how toxic this medication could be if he got into it, and there is no warning on the bottle. I order the meds through chewy and have already filed a complaint with them that they are going to take to the pill bottle manufacturer.
If your dog is taking the chewable version of apoquel, please learn from my mistake and make sure the tablets are locked away somewhere your pet will not be able to get into. I have so much guilt and never in a million years expected this to happen.
UPDATE: My dogs bloodwork this afternoon came back normal and they are planning on discharging him this evening!