Penicillin Allergy Stupid Question

[Rockrose]

Ok I have to give my cats penicillin tablets but I am highly allergic- am I in any danger?

[retrocop]

Wear surgical gloves and hope you aren’t allergic to latex though there are non latex gloves.

[Rockrose]

Thanks will get some tomorrow

[Buenchico]

I can find nothing in the literature available online (e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3255391/ ) that suggests skin contact with penicillin can lead to a severe (or any) allergic reaction. [There seems to be some evidence that contact dermatitis can occur but that's not the same thing].

Further, I doubt that there's enough moisture present in a penicillin tablet (together with the natural oils on your skin) to allow the penicillin to enter your body through your skin.

As a precaution though (and as Retrocop suggests) you could use disposable vinyl gloves. (About £4 per hundred from discount stores or several times that price if you're silly enough to buy them from a pharmacy).

As someone who share his life with four cats, I reckon that the chances of you dying from multiple lacerations (due to the results of trying to get a tablet into a cat) are considerably higher than those of you dying through anaphylaxis ;-)

[Rockrose]

Lol I kno Chris I have to give her drops too

[pastafreak]

If it was me, I'd get someone else to do it. But I'm really paranoid...

[Canary42]

/// I reckon that the chances of you dying from multiple lacerations ///

Wonderful :-D

[Rockrose]

The problem is tatty dislike hubby as much as he thinks she a wimpy woose

[woofgang]

Serious answer. If you are highly allergic as in anaphyllactic shock risk then I wouldn't do it. The liklihood of trouble might be small but the outcome would be serious.

[Rockrose]

Woofgang yes that’s my allergy complete swelling of the tongue and throat difficulty breathing vomit and passing out

[Rockrose]

Guess what? It seems you can have signs of the allergy even when not actually touched the tablets!
Hubby crushed them and I mixed them into the food then wiped down the board and get the cat, covered in tingles and feeling nauseous tongue also feels funny luckily passing back to the vets tomorrow for an alternative and then a word with the GP I think

[dannyk13]

Or get someone else to dose the cats.

[Rockrose]

Danny she won’t let anyone else touch her, she actually hates hubby

[Peter Pedant]

penicillin is very well absorbed
so even if you eat cat-poo you shouuld be all right

anyway you have done the experiment havent you
fed the cats penicillin and nothing happened

[woofgang]

pP if that is the case (excdellent absorption), is the story about excess penecil.lin being recovered from soldiers' urine apocryphal?

[woofgang]

please excuse typos, my dog is helping.

[Rockrose]

Peter you have not read my post above, I did have a reaction

[Peter Pedant]

no yes
absolutely correct over collection of urine and recycling

in 1941 a german guard handed my father a newspaper report that the Lancet had published a wonder drug ....

there is a calculation somewhere of the %age efficiency
they were talking about units of penicillin

even 1 000 000 units is peanuts ( 12.5 mg I think)