Investigates

Olympia veterinarian says opioid crisis puts pets at risk

By Alison Grande
By Alison Grande

Local veterinarians say the opioid crisis is affecting pets.

At Olympia Veterinary Cancer Center, Dr. Lisa Parshley knows the importance of pain medicine for sick pets. Her own dog has cancer.

Parshley can easily recognize if an opioid addict brings in a pet, hoping to score pain medication for themselves.

"If someone is asking inappropriately for pain management before an assessment, or after we've assessed, and they're vomiting, we're like, 'No, this is not painful.' It's an easy red flag. They're asking. They're drug seeking," said Dr. Parshley. She's seen it a few times. "They run out of that prescription too quickly. Most of the staff’s keyed in, 'Wait a minute. We sent home 60 tabs of Tramadol and they've run out after three days.'"

Parshley said it is most common for addicts to try to obtain pet painkillers at emergency pet clinics.

"I don't believe we're a target for drug seekers or people that are purposely hurting their animals, however there are dramatic examples of that," said Parshley.

KIRO-7 has reported on the problem before.

In 2009, a case in Kirkland helped expose the problem. Police say Danelle Marie Shay took her dog to 17 different pet clinics, from Seattle to Bellevue to Renton and Kent. She got Tramadol at every one.

Shay pleaded guilty to six counts of violating the Uniform Controlled Substances Act and was sentenced to six months of drug treatment, according to court records.

In November 2016,  Portland police raided a house and found more than 100,000 Tramadol pills. Officers rescued a dozen pets from horrid conditions.

And in Kentucky, police arrested Heather Pereira for actually hurting her dog in an attempt to get Tramadol at animal hospitals.

Investigators said an alert vet noticed the injury was identical to two other wounds the dog had suffered weeks earlier and called police.

In August, a study from the Center for Health, Work and Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health surveyed 189 veterinarians. Researchers found 13 percent had seen a case in which they thought a pet owner had injured a pet or made the pet appear sick to obtain pain medication.

Nearly 45 percent said they knew a pet owner or member of their team who was abusing opioids.

In Olympia, Parshley is on the board of directors for the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association and chairs the opioid task force.

"We understand at a gut level and compassionate level that we have to do something about the human opioid crisis but we're also worried about the impact on our patients," she said.

Dr. Parshely pointed out a study by The American Veterinary Medical Association that found veterinarians only prescribed .34 percent of all opioids that were dispensed from commercial retail pharmacies in 2017.

As the DEA restricts the sale of opioids, Dr. Parshley says when drug manufacturers are close to reaching their limits for the year, veterinarians,  and the pets they care for, will be cut off first.

"That means we're going to see potentially like we did last year starting in November, earlier this year in October, no access to the medicines that provide pain management for our pets." said Dr. Parshley.

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