Dog Medicine: What Every Pet Owner Should Know

If your pup requires medication, it’s important to know what you should – and should not – do during this time. Here’s what every pet owner should know about dog medicine.

There may be times when your beloved pet dog needs medical attention. In fact, more than 130 million dogs visit a veterinarian in a single year. While many of those visits are for annual check-ups, many others are due to illness or injury.

Reports show the top reasons for emergency vet care include:

• Vomiting and diarrhea
• Gastrointestinal issues
• Hit by a car
• Consuming toxins like antifreeze, household chemicals, or human prescriptions

During these visits to the vet, your dog may be prescribed medicine.

Dog Medicine and Prescriptions

Some of the top medications prescribed for dogs include:

• Metronidazole for giardia infection, an intestinal infection that causes digestive problems.
• Famotidine is prescribed for upset stomach and may sometimes be prescribed along with metronidazole or sucralfate.
• Diphenhydramine helps treat dogs who suffer from acute allergy symptoms. For dogs who have chronic allergies, your vet may prescribe doxepin.
• Tramadol is usually prescribed if your dog is in pain.
• Prednisone is prescribed to fight inflammation.
• Doxycycline is the most commonly prescribed antibiotic for dogs.

Before giving your dog these medicines or any other drugs prescribed, there are things you should know as a pet owner. We’ve created a list of essential factors below.

Antibiotics

There are things you should understand about antibiotics. Your vet will likely explain why your dog is prescribed antibiotics, but we want to provide you with an overview here.

Antibiotics are prescribed to treat bacterial infections. Vets can use a culture and sensitivity test at the site of infection to determine the best antibiotics for your dog. However, antibiotics have side effects, even in dogs. Your vet should explain side effects like gastrointestinal problems and the potential for allergic reactions.

Also, make sure you stick with the recommended dose schedule. Finally, don’t be afraid to get a second opinion if you don’t feel comfortable with the diagnosis and treatment of your dog.

Pain Relievers

Pain relievers are serious drugs for both humans and pets. That means prescription pain relievers can have side effects and can cause damage to vital organs, like the liver, digestive tract, and kidneys. Side effects can include lethargy, diarrhea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.

It’s important to check with the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to see if the medications prescribed for your dog are approved in both brand and generic forms.

Pain relievers, antibiotics, and all other dog medicines may be prescribed in pill form.

If your vet prescribes medicine in pill form, your first thought may be about how you will get your dog to take oral dog pain medication. Unfortunately, this is a common problem. However, there are many reports with tips on how to do this the easy way.

Tips on Getting Your Dog To Take a Pill

Tips include wrapping the pill in food or hiding inside foods your dog enjoys. Pill devices exist so you can administer the medicine and get the pill far enough back in your dog’s throat that all of the medication is consumed.

You can also follow pill taking with a reward and get help restraining your dog if you find it challenging to keep them still or get them to cooperate. Finally, talk to your local pharmacist about compounding your dog’s prescription medicine.

A pet compounding pharmacy takes all your dog’s needs and preferences into consideration to create a version that is easier to consume.

Never Share Your Medicine With Your Pet

Depending on why your pet needs medicine, you may learn that the drugs prescribed are the same types prescribed to humans. For example, anti-anxiety, antibiotics, and even pain medicines are the same.

However, do not share your medications with your dog. You may want to save time and money; you could harm your dog by giving them your medicine, even when you break it in half or reduce the dose.

Dogs are not human. Their metabolic processes are different, weight should be a factor, and there may be inactive ingredients that don’t bother you, but will upset your dog.

Also, avoid sharing over-the-counter medications with your pet for the same reasons.

Properly Store Dog Medicine

Just like medications created for humans, dog medicines require proper storage to maintain effectiveness and, for some, to keep them from spoiling. The FDA sets guidelines for adequately storing pet medicines. Some of the policies include keeping dog medicine in its original container with the original label.

Keep your dog’s medicine in a secure location, safe from pets and children. If you have multiple pets on medication, make sure you keep them separate. For example, you don’t want to give horse medicine to a cat, or cat medicine to a dog, etc.

Get rid of the expired medication safely and properly, including used needles. Work with your local pharmacist to determine the best way to get rid of medication. Also, if there are any problems you’re your dog’s medicine, report them to your pharmacist and vet right away.

More Benefits of Using a Compounding Pharmacy

Compounding is when your pharmacist uses specific ingredients to create the medicine in a way that benefits you and your dog. For example, your pharmacist can make a liquid medicine instead of a pill. In addition, they can add flavoring, scents and can eliminate ingredients that may cause side effects.

Picture this; your dog gets excited when it sees the liquid medicine that tastes and smells like peanut butter. Or, your dog wags its tail when you feed it the chewy, beef-flavored medicine bite.

Compounding pharmacists can turn a prescription pill into a topical cream that can be applied directly to your dog’s area of pain. They can also go over the entire medicine label with you to ensure you understand it completely.

Finally, working with your local compounding pharmacist ensures you get the correct medicine for your dog in the proper dosage. You are not guaranteed this when you order pet medicine online or from other sources. Pharmacists can help your dog live a happy, healthy life.