Can My Pets Take My Medication?

We use medication every day. Whether it’s a vitamin, supplement, or headache remedy, medications are part of our everyday lifestyle. It isn’t shocking, then, to question what medications we can give our pets. It’s a question I get on a daily basis. The answer is…it depends.
Let’s start with vitamins and supplements. Most pets fed a balanced, commercial diet receive all the vitamins and nutrients needed. Vitamin supplements are just not needed. However, some animals benefit from fish oil supplements, which are great for the skin and haircoat. Other animals benefit from joint supplements that contain glucosamine and chondroitin. Finally, I use a lot of probiotics for my patients with gastrointestinal disorders. Those are the most common supplements we use. You can use human supplements, but each of these comes in a pet-specific form that may be more palatable or more effective.
That leaves us with all the other medications out there. That’s a lot. There are medications made specifically for dogs and cats. There are cat-specific pain medications, antibiotics, and antifungals. There are feline flea and heartworm preventatives. There are even more medications made specifically for dogs. Canines have their flea, tick and heartworm preventatives, but they also have thyroid medications, pain medications, and even a heart medication made and flavored for dogs.
Despite these flavored medications made for animals, we use a lot of human medication. In fact, the vast majority of medications used are made for humans. Does that mean they are safe for all species? In a word, no. We have to be very careful about dosing these medications for our furry friends. So even though we use different human medication, we have to know which are safe to use and what the side effects can be. Think of ibuprofen. I’ll bet almost everyone at some point in time has taken ibuprofen. But ibuprofen is toxic to dogs and cats and can cause kidney failure.
What should you do? Before you give any medication to your pet that was not prescribed to that pet, especially if that medications is human or over-the-counter, call your veterinarian. We can help!
Stevenson Ranch Veterinary Center is located at 25832 Hemingway Ave. in Santa Clarita. For more information, please call 661-799-0655 and visit www.srvc.com.