It is an expired albuterol inhaler dangerous?

brigittekey

New member

Hi all. I have a question please. I am pretty scared right now. my girlfriend uses albuterol and I just have noticed that my hers albuterol inhaler that he she taken as a preventer prior to exercise has expired now. in fact, I have noticed that 2 bottle of her has expired. One of the bottles has expired 5 months ago and another one has expired 3 months ago. please, I am being very and very worried about her situation now. I am worried that something might happen to her. please. I do know that we should have called her doctor, however she in on vacation for the next one or 2 weeks (not sure, but whatever) that is why we are not able now to ask for any further refills until her doctor is going to get back home. So, is there somebody who has some more ideas about how albuterol inhaler works and especially the expired one? I would really like to know whether it is dangerous or it is not. if yes, then could you tell me what kind of danger is being involved when using it? but if there are none, could you tell me whether it is still going to work or not?

 

wooker

New member

Oh well, look, mainly and the biggest problem it is that it really might not be as effective (and most likely it won’t) as it should be and this can be pretty dangerous for your girlfriend in case she really needs that medication and she finds that it won’t work and even if it works then it won’t work the same as it should. So, gasping for air and finding out that your medication does not work then I assume that the answer to your question: yeah. It is dangerous. In terms of side effects of an expired albuterol. I am not sure. I guess there are none.

 

Anyway, there’s something very important for you to know those things like for example prescription refills, and especially for the repeat medications, very usually (in fact, always) can be filled out by another alternative doctor. It doesn’t mean that in case your doc left out of town then your gf need to gasp out for air, isn’t it? all of what the doctor has to do then there should be another doc that it is covering all the patients of the absent doctor, this is why you should be better contact the place where the doc. works and let them know about it and to get prescribed a new albuterol.

 

Workman

New member

Agree with wooker saying that the very big danger of using it is that if your gr needs it – she might find that it does not work as well as it should and she could be left with no air. But, I am not sure whether she needs it just for exercising or not. if she needs it for asthma condition then it is dangerous. However she needs it only for exercising then she either might not exercise for the period of the time that she does not have a new albuterol or even if she would then she would might experience lack of air and therefore she would stop her exercises even if she wouldn’t want to. of course I would be more concerned about that one that have expired a long time ago, generally if I would be you then I would throw that one away while the second one might still work a bit. Other than the fact that they won’t work, nothing else would happen. Indeed, there are meds that are becoming toxic after their expiration date, however albuterol inhaler is not one of them, it is a drug that simply loses its potency (like most of the meds since there are very few of them who are toxic after the expiration and generally, docs are warning about them). I know for sure that albuterol inhaler or nebulizer with albuterol it is not dangerous because all of my 3 daughters are using either one of them. plus me. my wife is the only one who’s not using albuterol in this family. But we are a big family, having this said – we are having a lot of them on hand and it does happen when they are getting expired so I am not throwing them right away but I use them and they are still fine. though I haven’t used expired albuterol half a year ago. only a few days/weeks ago.

 

I remember that the first time I have done it – by accident. I have not noticed that I gave one expired albuterol to one of my daughter as a treatment and of course I have got scared so I have called our doctor immediately asking him what I need to do now. anyway, his answer calmed me down as he told me that there is nothing really to be worried about since medications, sometimes are getting weaker after they are expired for a long time (but he didn’t mentioned what a “long time” exactly is). but I assume that it must be a few months because they are not expiring the exact same day written on the bottle. Companies just guarantee that their product would save 100% of their potency if stored properly and used until the expiration date. But if the product is stored properly I am pretty sure that it still has 100% of the potency even few days after the expiration date. There are friends of mine claiming that they used aspirin and ibuprofen more than half a year after their exp. date and they worked exactly the same as they should work. I doubt that albuterol would work after so much time after the exp. date but still – sure won’t stop working the same day as I know it from personal experience.

 

Anyway, about the albuterol itself, since we are having so much of it on hand, I am trying to keep track of when everything is expiring so it won’t happen, however if I do find a dose or maybe 2 that it is expired a few days ago, I am still using it myself and I have never had a problem with that. everything I’m trying to say is that you (or your gf) need to use the one that expired not so long ago and see how it works – if it’s good to go, then it’s fine :)

 

LaRocca1

New member

So well, I am not a big expert but I have tried to learn about this things a little bit and from as much as I can remember reading and from what I can understand – these medicines are losing their effectiveness after the expiration date, so the members above said it all right. besides, as it has been mentioned there, I also believe that this asthma inhaler Albuterol it is still going to be 100% fine for 2 more weeks after the date, if there is albuterol that have expired a few months ago then I am pretty sure your girlfriend would find them useless. That is why, in case your gf is having asthma for a while then you need to contact her doctor and to talk with a physician that it is covering that practice. You need to know that if the physician left out of the town it doesn’t mean that all his patients would suffer there waiting for him. There’s an alternative doctor (and in fact, the doc should have told you that). good luck.

 
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