An Overview Of Dog Medicine

This is an age of hypochondriacs, and most home medicine cabinets are filled to the rafters with every conceivable va­riety of patent dog medicine. 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 dog medicine 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 , strepto­myci n, 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 dog medicine discoveries so that the approach to their respective patients can be backed with the added confidence that accompanies more secure foundations of knowledge.

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