Working with Veterinary Drugs
Dispense and administer pet medications using the best legal and veterinary practices
Carrying a pharmacy full of veterinary drugs can help your practice realize a significant profit, but also requires adherence to legal and professional requirements. Veterinarians must use their best judgment when prescribing veterinary medications to ensure patient safety, drug efficacy and client compliance.Vets also must safeguard themselves and their clinics from drug theft and prescription labeling errors. When working with veterinary drugs, keep in mind that with great profit potential comes great responsibility to all stakeholders.
1. Clinic employees need proper training in dog treatment techniques and tricks to help the medicine go down.
2. Clients and regulators will require proof that your hospital is adhering to all state and federal controlled pet drugs regulations.
3. Patients of all species depend on vets to prescribe the right veterinary drugs to maximize benefit and minimize risk to the patient.
Send home pet medicines that are easy for clients to administer to their pets
Veterinary pharmaceutical manufacturers do their best to make medication for dogs and cats chewable whenever possible to make them easier to administer. However, some drugs for cat or dog treatments come in a liquid form, non-chewable pill or capsule form. Anyone can use the standard trick of putting pills inside a "meatball" of canned pet food, a slice of frankfurter, a piece of cheese, or opt for an alternative with treats that have a pocket for hiding pills. Vets can also custom-order new flavors of pet medications through veterinary compounding companies, or use vet drugs technologies that take the "bite" out of medicating pets.
Try: Direct your clients to buy Greenies Pill Pockets through discount pet drugs distributor Discount Pet Medicines, or carry them in your clinic inventory to help your staff administer medication for dogs and cats. Buy wholesale from PetEdge, and choose from two sizes depending on the size of the pills you'll be dispensing. Order sample flavored chewables from Golden Gate Pharmacy's compounding service to determine which flavors work best for your patients, or bypass the pills altogether by using a topical, transdermal gel so pets can absorb their medication through their skin.
Follow all regulations for dispensing controlled veterinary pharmaceuticals
Maintaining a pharmacy full of vet drugs takes dedication to loss prevention and pharmaceutical regulatory compliance, especially when it comes to controlled drugs. By law, vets must keep certain meds under lock and key. Clinic staff with access to the drugs need extensive training on their use, security and record-keeping requirements. Audit your controlled substances logs at least monthly, and conduct irregular inventory checks to spot problems and investigate them early -- before your bottom line suffers.
Try: If you're not yet registered to administer controlled dog medication, visit the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Office of Diversion Control Drug Registration. Also, check with your state's branch of the American Association of Veterinary State Boards determine state registration requirements. In Texas, for example, you'll need to register with the Texas Department of Public Safety. View drugs by schedule -- so that you know what measures you need to take to safeguard the drugs you carry -- through the U.S. DEA Controlled Substances alphabetical list.
Send the right meds home when working with veterinary drugs
Pharmaceutical companies haven't invented all of the veterinary medications that vets need to most effectively treat animals, and some of the available meds are prohibitively expensive. Lots of vets take matters, and their licenses, into their own hands by dispensing generic human drugs in an off-label manner to reduce client costs. Vets should carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of replacing approved pet drugs with bioequivalent formulas meant for humans, and dispense with extreme care.
Try: Use approved pet medications with the help of the most current list of U.S. Food and Drug Administration Approved Animal Drugs. Double-check your dosage calculations using the University of Minnesota Veterinary Drug Formulary.
- Learn about your practice management software's module for managing pet drugs, and use the features to safeguard your practice against liability, encourage client compliance and schedule patient rechecks within a few weeks of prescribing new medications.
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