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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
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