Drug labels contain important information. Over the counter drugs can be purchased without a prescription Prescription drugs can only be dispensed by a veterinarian or pharmacist. The veterinarian must have a relationship with the pet for the condition that me medication is being prescribed for.

Some medications can be both over the counter and prescription. Tagamet is over the counter for humans, but is prescription in animals.

All medications should have a label describing what the medication is, the concentration and what it’s used for. Some products need to be refrigerated, others come in amber containers to protect them from light. Any expired medications should be discarded. Any products that must be reconstituted should be used right away.

Medications are measured depending on the animals weight. 2.2 pounds (lbs) = 1 kilogram (kg) To convert pounds to kilograms divide by 2.2 To convert kilograms to pounds multiply by 2.2 Eg: We have a dog the weighs 14 lbs. If we divide 14 by 2.2 we get 6.4 kg We have a dog that weighs 27 kg. If we multiply 27 by 2.2 we get 59.4 lbs

Let’s try a problem…. A medication concentration is 25 mg per ml (cc) The dose is 5 mg per kg of body weight. We have an animal that weighs 44 lbs… What do we do first???

We must calculate the weight from lbs to kg. 44 divided by 2.2 equals 20 kg. The doseage is 5 mg per kg of body weight. 5 x 20 = 100mg The medication is 25 mg per ml. I need 100 mg…. How many ml am I going to draw up?

Let’s try another one…. The medication is 20 mg per tablet The doseage is 5 mg per kg of body weight I have an animal that weighs 35 lbs What do I do first?

First I must convert the weight into kg. 35 divided by 2.2 = 16 kg. The drug dosage is 5 mg per kg 5 x 16 = 80 mg The drug is 20 mg per tablet. How many tablets am I going to give?

Here’s a tough one…. I have a 32 lb animal. The medication is 100 mg per tablet I need to give 10 mg per kg twice a day for 10 days. What do I do first??

Always convert your weight first… 32 lb divided by 2.2 = 14.5 kg We need to give 10 mg per kg twice a day x 10 = 145 mg The tablets are 100 mg each. How many tablets am I going to give? If I’m going to give it twice a day for 10 days… how many tablets will I send home?

If each tablet is 100mg… and we need to give 150 mg.. We will give 1 ½ tablets. We want to do that twice a day.. So we will be giving 3 tablets per day. We want to do that for 10 days.. 3 x 10 = 30 tablets..

Drugs can be given orally (by mouth) or injected. We use a syringe and needle to inject medications into different areas of the body. Syringes range in size from 1 ml to 60 ml. Needles also have different sizes. The larger the number on the needle… the smaller the size of the needle.

A drench gun is a large syringe without a needle. It’s used to give liquid medication to large animals. A balling gun is used to give pills to large animals.

The common routes to inject medication is: Under the skin (SC or subcutaneously) Into a muscle (IM or intramuscular) Into a vein (IV or intravenous) These are know as parenteral routes as they bypass the digestive system.