We understand your pet is part of your family. As a pet owner, you want your pet to receive the highest-quality veterinary care.
You would like them to have treatment as sophisticated and compassionate as you would expect for yourself and other family members. Why should you consider compounding as a solution for your pet’s medical problems?
That can be answered with another question: how hard is it to get your cat to swallow a pill?
Veterinary compounding – making medication a treat for your pet.
The practice of pharmacy compounding is becoming a popular solution to veterinary problems. Compounding is the art and science of preparing customised medications for patients. Animals often have variations of the same diseases humans can have, including skin rashes, ear infections, heart conditions, thyroid problems, cancer, and diabetes. Medicating pets presents unique problems that can often be solved with compounding.
The Compounding Solution
As any pet owner is well aware, animals can be extremely difficult to treat with medications. Cats are notorious for refusing to swallow pills, and usually will eat right around one disguised in food. Dosages can be very tricky with dogs – a dose of medication that works for a 35 kg golden retriever may be far too much for a 2 kg chihuahua. Large and exotic pets pose many unique medication challenges. Working with your vet we can find solutions to most issues you may have with giving medication to your pet. Animals we can compound products for include
- Cats
- Dogs
- Horses
- Rabbits
- Birds
- Ferrets
- Reptiles
- Even animals in zoos and aquariums!
Flavoured Medicine
Pets often refuse to take medication because of the taste. Cats don’t like pills, but they do like tuna. Dogs don’t appreciate a traditional solution of medication being squirted into their mouth, but they’ll take it gladly when it’s flavoured with meat or part of a tasty treat. Birds cannot take large volumes of liquid medication, but they will accept a small dose of a tasty, fruit-flavoured, concentrated solution. By working closely with your veterinarian, we can prepare medicines in easy-to-give flavoured dosage forms that animals happily devour, whether your pet is a cat, dog, bird, ferret, or snake.
Solving Dosage Problems
Just like their owners, animals are individual and unique. They come in different shapes and sizes, and may be sensitive to ingredients like lactose or xylitol. As a result, not all commercially available medicines are appropriate for every pet. In this situation, your veterinarian can prescribe a flavoured liquid, treat, or other dosage form with the amount of medication that is exactly right for your pet’s size and condition.
Commercially Unavailable Medicine
From time to time, a manufacturer may discontinue a veterinary medication. Often this is because it is not needed in the vast quantities necessary to make mass production cost-effective, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still some pets that need it. When that medication has worked well for animals, in many situations we can prepare a prescription for the discontinued product – and tailor the strength, dosage form, and flavour to that pet’s specific needs.
A caring veterinarian working closely with a compounding pharmacist can improve the health and happiness of your pet.
Ask your veterinarian or our pharmacists about compounded medications today.