|
Dog Medicines In General
This is an age of hypochondriacs,
and most home medicine cabinets are
filled to the rafters with every conceivable variety of patent
medication. To an even greater degree will the conscientious dog owner
often fall into this same routine, and for almost every symptom that
the pet may acquire he will find a gaily colored bottle of tablets
which promises to counteract it. While the nationally advertised
brands of pet medicines generally are perfectly legitimate, are
scientifically prepared under competent veterinary supervision, and
will give effective results when properly used, there are also
manufactured many quack remedies with strange, high-sounding,
technical names that call forth a tremendous response from a gullible
public.
Many people have peculiar ideas about the drugs administered to their
pets. They often entertain the notion that there is something
extra-special in the way these drugs are compounded and that they are
adapted only to use in the dog. This may be true in the treatment of
certain specific diseases, as in the use of canine distemper serum and
vaccine in dog distemper, vermifuges in the elimination of worm
infestations, flea powders for the elimination of fleas, and many other
drugs of the same type. In addition, many vitamin tablets and mineral
mixtures are prepared especially for animal use. Generally, when the
cost of refined products would be prohibitive, the vitamin and mineral
preparations for animals are in an unrefined form. None the less, the
additional benefit derived from refined forms is not sufficient to
warrant their
general use among animals.
But, by and large, the drugs used in the treatment of pets are the same
ones used in medicine for humans. For the most part, veterinarians
purchase their drugs from the same ethical medical supply houses as do
physicians. It is only natural that this should be so since the
efficacy of many drugs for humans was first established on those
animals with whom the veterinarian has to deal. Thus physicians and
veterinarians use the same drugs for similar disease conditions.
It is to the decided advantage of animal welfare that such a state of
affairs exists. The epoch-making discoveries in life-saving drugs that
have been derived from medical research in recent years have been used
with similar sensational results on animals and man. Thus the modern
veterinary pharmacy contains such drugs as penicillin, tyrothricin,
streptomycin, streptothricin, aureomycin, terramycin, chloromy-tin,
the whole battery of sulfa preparations, and many others. While it is
true that the use of some of these drugs is limited because the cost is
often prohibitive, the fact remains that constantly improving
production methods are causing steady price reductions, and many
already have reached a point where their general use among pets is now
a matter of routine.
Through mutual assistance, both physician and veterinarian will
continue to lay the groundwork for new medical discoveries so that the
approach to their respective patients can be backed with the added
confidence that accompanies more secure foundations of knowledge.
|
