How to Give a Pet Compounded Medications

For many pets, pill time is not fun time. This may present a problem if your pet has an ongoing illness and is required to take multiple pills and capsules every day. A solution for this problem may very well be compounding--which will make the medication more palatable for your pet. Here are ways to obtain compounded medications for your animal family member--so that pill time can be fun time.

Instructions

1. Discuss the various dosing options with your vet. For instance, a common dosing form for cats is a PLO gel that can be applied to your cat's ear and absorbed through the skin. If the medication needs to be given orally, there are various chewable flavors to choose from, including beef or liver for dogs and fish for felines. Medications can also be compounded into a flavored liquid or paste and multiple medications can be combined into one simple capsule.

2. Obtain a written prescription from the vet, which includes the exact dosage written clearly. That is normally a tall order for a regular MD, but hopefully your vet will have better handwriting!

3. Find a compounding pharmacy in your area by searching online under compounding pharmacies. You will need one that specifically caters to pets or that will compound for pets as well as humans. Not all of them do. There are also online pet pharmacies that will ship the medication to you (see Resources below).

4. Check with the pharmacy to make sure they are able to compound the exact dosage prescribed by your vet. This is necessary if the medication is only available in human dosages.

Tips & Warnings

• Pharmacists can compound into a specific shape to cater to your individual preference.