Animal Prescriptions in a Human World – Handling Veterinary Prescriptions in the Community-Practice Setting

Veterinary prescriptions are becoming more common in the community-practice setting due to a variety of factors, including cost, availability, convenience and legislation changes. However, veterinary patients are not simply small humans with regards to drug use, and this can be seen in dosages that drastically differ from those used in humans, beyond adjustment for size differences. Therefore, it is important for a pharmacist filling these prescriptions to have an understanding of basic differences regarding drug disposition in veterinary patients as well as factors that may influence toxicity and/or adverse effects. This article also reviews commonly used veterinary drug references that a pharmacist can use in the community-practice setting to aid in review of veterinary prescriptions.