Most pet medicines carry one line on the box: store below 25C, or below 30C, away from light. In Dubai that line is not a formality. It rules out the car, the balcony, the storeroom and the window sill for about six months of the year.
Heat does not usually change how a tablet looks. It changes how much active drug is left in it. A dog on a degraded dose is a dog who appears to stop responding to treatment, and the first thing everyone blames is the medicine itself.
Where each type belongs
| Medicine | Where it goes | What ruins it |
|---|---|---|
| Tablets and capsules | An interior cupboard in an air conditioned room, in the original bottle or blister | Humidity and heat. Bathroom cabinets and kitchen cupboards above the cooker are the two worst spots |
| Liquids and syrups | Same cupboard unless the label says refrigerate | Sunlight and repeated warming. Check for cloudiness or crystals before each dose |
| Eye and ear drops | Interior cupboard, upright, cap tight | Contamination from a touched tip, and the open-bottle limit that is shorter than the printed expiry |
| Insulin | Body of the fridge, never the door and never the freezer compartment | Freezing, shaking, and being left out on the counter between doses |
| Mixed antibiotic suspensions | Fridge, with the mixing date written on the bottle | Time. Once mixed they last days, not months |
| Spot-on flea and tick pipettes | Interior cupboard, flat, in the foil sachet | Heat separating the liquid, and a sachet stored in a car until the next monthly dose |
The fridge is not one temperature
A medicine that says 2C to 8C needs the middle of the fridge, on a shelf, in a small box so nobody pushes it to the back wall. Two places fail.
The door swings between roughly 4C and 12C every time someone opens it, and in a household fridge opened 30 times a day that is most of the day above range. The back wall of a cheap fridge can drop below freezing, and a frozen and thawed insulin pen is no longer usable even though it looks identical.
Check the fridge with a simple thermometer once. It takes a minute and it settles the question for every future prescription.
The car is the most common way medicine is destroyed
A car parked in the sun in Dubai in August passes 60C inside within an hour, and the dashboard goes well past that. Medicine collected on the way to the office and left in the boot until evening has spent a working day in an oven.
Three habits fix nearly all of it.
- Make the pharmacy the last stop before home, not the first stop of the day.
- Keep a small insulated bag in the car with two gel packs in the freezer at home, and use it for anything refrigerated.
- Carry the bag inside with you if you stop somewhere on the way.
Deliveries need the same thinking. A courier who leaves a paper bag at a villa door at noon has left the medicine in the sun. Ask for a delivery slot when someone is home, or collect refrigerated items yourself from the clinic pharmacy.
Keep the original container
The bottle a tablet comes in is part of the product. Pill pots for solid medicines often hold a small desiccant capsule that absorbs moisture, and the label carries the batch number, the expiry and the dosing instructions.
Splitting a month of tablets into a plastic day organiser that sits on a bathroom shelf exposes them to steam twice a day. If you need an organiser for a cat on four medicines, fill it for two days at a time and keep it in a dry cupboard.
Write the opening date on any bottle you open. The printed expiry applies to a sealed container. Once a liquid is opened or a powder is mixed, a shorter limit applies, and it is on the label or on our dispensing sticker. Ask us to write it for you when you collect.
How to tell a medicine has gone off
- A tablet that has changed colour, crumbles, or sticks to its neighbour in the blister.
- A clear liquid that has turned cloudy, or has crystals or floating flakes.
- An insulin vial with clumps or frost inside.
- A cream or ointment that has separated into oil and solid, or runs like water.
- A spot-on pipette that has changed colour or smell.
- A smell that is sharper or different from the last bottle.
Do not give a dose from any of these to see what happens. Call the clinic and describe what you see. A photograph on WhatsApp usually answers it in one message.
When the power goes off or you travel
A fridge that loses power stays in range for a few hours if the door stays shut. Keep it shut, note the hour it went off, and call us before the next dose if the medicine is refrigerated.
For a summer drive to another emirate, pack refrigerated medicine in a cool box with gel packs and a towel between the packs and the vial. Direct contact with an ice pack freezes insulin as effectively as a freezer. Never leave the box in the car at a service stop.
If your cat is boarding with us and takes daily medication, hand it over in the original packaging with the dosing written on it. We store it in the ward fridge or cupboard and record every dose. Details are on the boarding and hospitalisation page.
What to do with what is left over
Do not keep half a course of antibiotics for the next time something similar happens. Doses are set by weight and by the infection, and a leftover course is usually the wrong drug at the wrong dose.
Do not flush medicine or drop loose tablets into a kitchen bin a dog can open. Bring unused or expired items to reception and ask us to deal with them. Bring the box of anything you are unsure about to your next consultation and we will tell you whether it is still worth keeping. Consultation fees are on the price page.
When to call
Call 055 620 4085 if a refrigerated medicine has been out of the fridge overnight, if insulin has frozen, or if your dog has stopped responding to a medicine that was working. The clinic in Ras Al Khor Industrial 3 is open 8 AM to 12 AM every day and the phone is answered 24 hours.