September 20, 2011 Responsible Pet Ownership

A Compounding Pet Pharmacy Can Be a Lifesaver

A cat with medications

A Compounding Pet Pharmacy Can Be a Lifesaver

Tracey required eye drops in a special bottle. Sapphire refused pills she desperately needed. Bailey turned from a fluffy, gray kitty into a man-eating lion every time he needed a thyroid pill. The medication list for Rufus was so long, I was worried about a dosing mistake.

Fortunately for the veterinarians and our patients at The Animal Medical Center, there is a creative group of pharmacists just up the street from us — Best Pet Rx. This week alone, the group solved the medication problems of all four pets above and more.

Not the typical chain drug store you see on every corner or in every strip mall, a compounding pharmacy has specialized equipment to take an existing medication and formulate it into a patient-friendly “compound.”

Tracey has a water fetish, and at one time drank eight liters a day. In humans, this problem is treated with a nasal spray that comes from a special bottle. Dogs do not think nasal sprays are fun. With a water guzzler like Tracey, we take the human nasal spray and use it as an eye drop, except the bottle doesn’t drop, it sprays. The compounding pharmacy has a special sterile area where the medicine can be removed from its spray bottle and be put in an eye drop bottle to facilitate administration. Two drops a day has brought Tracey down to three liters of water a day, which is 50 percent less than she was drinking.

Sapphire is very smart, very beautiful and avoids pills like the plague. The solution to her medication problem was quite simple: Turn the pills into a beef-flavored liquid, easily squirted into the side of her mouth and readily swallowed because of the tasty beef flavor.

Bailey needed a different solution to his medication problem. Lucky for him, his prescription was for thyroid pills. These pills can be compounded into a gel and applied to the inside of the ear, transporting the medication across the skin and into the bloodstream. Not all medications can be compounded into a transdermal gel, but when they can it is a life saver.

The solution to Rufus’ multi-pill problem is my favorite. The pharmacists took his morning and evening pill allotments and placed them into a gelatin capsule. Each capsule delivered an entire morning or evening dose of all medications. Clearly this was much simpler than giving four pills at a time.

If you are having trouble medicating your pet, ask your veterinarian to work with a compounding pharmacy to develop a custom solution to your pet’s medication problem. No veterinary clinic should be without one.

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This may also be found in the “Tales from the Pet Clinic” blog on WebMD.com.

For over a century, The Animal Medical Center has been a national leader in animal health care, known for its expertise, innovation and success in providing routine, specialty and emergency medical care for companion animals. Thanks in part to the enduring generosity of donors, The AMC is also known for its outstanding teaching, research and compassionate community funds. Please help us to continue these efforts. Send your contribution to: The Animal Medical Center, 510 East 62nd Street, New York, NY 10065. For more information, visit www.amcny.org. To make an appointment, please call 212.838.7053.

Tags: AMC, best pet rx, cat, medication, medication animal medical center, pet friendly, pet health, pets, pill pocket, pills, veterinarian,

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