There are basically five types of medication available to treat your animals and these are: FDA-approved drugs for animals; FDA-approved drugs for people; generic drugs approved for animals, and those for people; and compounded drugs. Now this may sound confusing but basically we want to use FDA-approved drugs or generics for animals in all cases possible. If there is no FDA-approved drug, then a human FDA-approved drug or generic would be the next choice. However, many medications needed for animals are not available either as FDA-approved drugs or generics and so veterinarians have to resort to using compounded medications.

Compounded medications are very useful in certain situations because without them, veterinarians would not be able to treat certain conditions in animals. However, it is important to realize that a compounded medication is made by a pharmacist and there is no oversight by the FDA or any agency to make sure the drug is correct. You are relying entirely on the pharmacist to make the drug correct and this is always a concern, especially when you are using a drug that could be deadly if compounded incorrectly or could cause a severe problem if it is not sterile and injected into an animal. One reason veterinarians use compounded drugs is because they may be less expensive for the client. However, this is not a good reason to use a compounded drug. So it is important to know what a compounded drug is if your veterinarian recommends one, and your veterinarian should tell you if a compounded medication is being used. Many veterinarians prescribe compounded drugs but if an FDA-approved drug is available, it should be used as a first choice.