Just like their human owners, pets sometimes require medications to treat health conditions and improve their quality of life. If pet owners aren’t fully knowledgeable about certain medications or understand the risks associated with keeping pet medications around the house, both humans and pets can suffer dire consequences.
The good news is that there are some simple steps pet owners can take to ensure the safety of pets and children around pet medications. In addition, there are innovations in pet medications and dosing that are worth knowing.
Here are three things pet owners should know about pet medication:
Improved Medications
There are several over-the-counter pet supplements that help with pets’ muscles, joints, bones and coats such as omega- 3’s, glucosamine and chondroitin, and general vitamins. It’s important to have a veterinarian recommend which brand and dosage is best to address particular pet health issues.
When over-the-counter or prescribed medications are not feasible to use with particular pets, compounded medications from an accredited compounding pharmacy can be customized to meet pets’ needs. Pharmacists can collaborate with veterinarians to provide these medications.
Compounded medications have formulated flavors that match an animal’s taste. Chicken, fish or strawberry are but a few of the flavors now available for pets. When palliative care is necessary, compounded medications are available in treats, capsules and creams to help with pain management and improve quality of life at the final stage of a pet’s life.
Medication Administration
Many pet owners have learned how hard it can be to administer medication to a pet. Think of dogs that won’t open their mouths for medication or pet owners that try to disguise pills in dog food only to have the dog eat around it. Compounding pharmacists have heard pet owners’ pleas and routinely create new drug forms to help pet owners administer medications.