Veterinarian Compounding
Making medication a Treat for your pet.....
The Compounding Solution
Why consider compounding as a solution for your pet's medical problems? Have you ever tried to give a cat a large pill? Ever tried to give a bird a pill of any size? How about a Ferret? An Alpaca? As any pet owner knows, giving medication to pets can be difficult at best! Even packing the medication into wet food or a cheese ball usually finds a little wet lump on the floor, where the pet ate around the medication. How about the variations in strength? Do you think the same size pill works for a 90 pound Lab and a 6 pound Chihuahua?
Humans and their animals often have variations of the same ailments, including ear & eye infections, heart problems, diabetes, cancer, etc. Each of these present unique medical dosing problems that are often best handled by compounding.
Flavored Medicine
Cats don't like pills or liquids, because they taste nasty. However; they do like Tuna, Salmon, Chicken, etc. Dog's sense of smell is unbeatable, they smell the meds as soon as you try and hide it in a hot dog or piece of cheese, they can chew right around it and out pops a slimy pill or capsule. (Does this sound familiar?). We can't even imagine the dosing problems associated with Alpacas, Ferrets (but I'll bet those little thieves will stash the meds for you to find somewhere down the road!). We currently offer over 100 different flavors for Pet Meds. We can blend them into a liquid for easy mixture into wet food, or into a treat that your pet will love. Our first patient at our new Pharmacy was a cat. He was notorious for refucing to take meds in any form. We blended a number of fish oils and the meds into a suspension. The patients owners called to thank us and say the only problem was keeping the cat from eating the bottle!
Solving Dosage Problems
Just like humans, animals are unique. Each is different in size, shape, color, weight, personality, etc. That's why we love them, they are their own little people. As a result of this, the limited options when it comes to commercial medication makes it difficult, at best, to dose the aniimal correctly (ever try to split a hard pill into 3 equal pieces? And are you sure that each piece has an equal amount of the active ingredient in it?). This is where Compounding is especially helpful. Your veterinarian can prescribe exactly the strength necessary for your pet, and into whatever dosage form desired. (tuna flavored suspension or treat, transdermal gel for rubbing it into your pets ear, etc)
Commercially Unavailable Medicine
Drug manufacturers are in it for the money. From time to time, when a drug doesn't generate the necessary level of profit, or they introduce a similar (newer and more expensive) drug they may choose to discontinue the production of any given drug, without regard to their patients. Compounding Pharmacies acquire drugs (the active ingredient(s)) in the basic chemical form. Thus allowing the Compounding Pharmacist the ability to prepare a prescription for a discontinued product, at a strength that is appropriate for your pet, as long as is necessary.
A caring Veterinarian, working closely with our Compounding Pharmacist can result in improved health and happiness of your Pet!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
