Anyone with a pet knows it can be challenging to medicate a sick animal. Sometimes the traditional, off the shelf, over the counter drugs are not always the best choice.

Compounding pharmacies have solutions for difficulties that can arise when it comes to your pet’s medicine. Here are a few:

1. Better Taste
Customizing drugs is essential to humans and pets, but for pets, one primary reason is due to the difficulty that pet owners have administering their medications. Animals are smart—they often eat the food or treat around the pill and leave the pill behind. If you’ve ever tasted a bitter or metallic drug, you’d agree that you’d rather not chew and taste your medication. Compounding pharmacists like Gerry Letendre, RPh, MBA, CHt of Sarasota Compounding Pharmacy can flavor and change the texture of any drug. They can create soft chewable treats, harder cookies, transdermal gels that can be rubbed onto the animal’s skin, injectables, or liquid formulas that you can mix into your pet’s food with flavor to appeal to your pet’s tastebuds. Many flavors include tuna oil, beef, chicken, and fruit.

2. Helps to Avoid Adverse Reactions or Allergies
Another issue is that many pets are allergic or have adverse reactions to certain fillers that are commonly used in prescription medications. Veterinarian Dr. Stephanie Lantry and her team of dedicated veterinary experts and support staff at the Animal Medical Clinic of Gulf Gate are constantly focused on providing the best possible care for pets and the best possible service for their owners. Dr. Lantry says pets most commonly require medication for itchy skin and ears, as well as digestive issues. Attempting to give pets pills, especially cats and smaller dogs, often cause problems and result in the pets not receiving the medicine they need. Compounding pharmacists can create pure drugs that do not contain any additives, dyes, or fillers.

3. Unique Dosages for Pets of Any Size
Some animals are more sensitive to the standard dose of medications which can cause them to become lethargic or have GI issues. If you have an issue with the dose being too large or too small, a compounding pharmacist can create any dose that a veterinarian recommends for your pet. For smaller dogs, standard doses simply may be too large for them but with compounding, medication can be made into any strength.

4. Customized Treatment
Compounding pharmacists can create unique combinations of medications to help your pet. For example, an animal with diabetes might also suffer from hypertension, and a pill can be combined to help alleviate multiple symptoms in one dose. Transdermal medications work particularly well for finicky cats. “Even if the absorption rate is lower than it would be with a pill, it’s better than none at all,” Dr. Lantry says. In fact, she says one of her feline patients’ lives was saved thanks to a cream version of her thyroid medication. After trying and failing to feed her cat special food and give her pills for her overactive thyroid condition, the owner thought she would have to put her cat to sleep. Dr. Lantry prescribed transdermal medication that the owner rubs on the cat’s ears every day. “The cat is still alive after three years,” Dr. Lantry says. “It really made a difference between life and death.”

5. Ability to Create “Hard to Find” or Discontinued Medication
Another main reason compounded medications are prescribed for pets is lack of availability, either because they’re off the market entirely or on backorder. If you are having trouble finding a new drug that is flying off the veterinarians’ pharmaceutical manufacturers shelves, or if a drug has been discontinued that your pet needs, a compounding pharmacist can create those for your pet.

6. A Compounding Pharmacist can Probably Help You Too!
Compounding pharmacies that specialize in human and animal health can help both you and your pet. They work directly with your physician or your pet’s veterinarian to create personalized medications that are custom-tailored for each patient’s needs.

Sarasota Compounding Pharmacy is an independent, family-owned pharmacy serving the Sarasota community for over 40 years. Their compounding pharmacists work with veterinarians, pediatricians, dentists, dermatologists, and other health care professionals to prepare patient-specific medications. They specialize in meeting patient needs through innovative compounding formulations.

Sarasota Compounding Pharmacy
2075 Siesta Dr, Sarasota, FL 34239
sarasotarx.com
(941) 366-0880