Every day vets and vet nurses prescribe and dispense medications for hundreds of pets. They provide treatments for parasite prevention, pain relief, antibiotics, specific medications for long term health conditions or behaviour management, and many many more.
As the number of drugs used in veterinary medicine has increased, so have the regulations surrounding their use. Rules and regulations for providing veterinary products are set out in the government’s Veterinary Medicines Regulations legislation. These guidelines must be followed in order for a clinic to be allowed to provide care. Veterinary practices are regularly inspected by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to ensure that we are storing and prescribing medicines in accordance with legislation.
The Veterinary Medicines Legislation divides veterinary medications into different categories according to who is authorised to dispense them:
POM-V: These medications can only be prescribed by a veterinary surgeon following a clinical
exam of an animal under their care (see below for more on this).
POM-VPS: Medications in this category can be prescribed by any Registered Qualified Person
(RQP: veterinary surgeon, pharmacist, or suitably qualified person). Regulations do not require
that the animal is seen or examined, but enough information should be gathered to ensure that
the treatment is appropriate for the animal.
NFA-VPS: These medications do not require a prescription and can be supplied by any
RQP. Drugs in this category include some flea and worm treatments.
AVM-GSL: The Veterinary Medicines Regulations place no restrictions on products in this
category and they are usually available for general sale, i.e. “over the counter”.
Why do I have to bring my pet into the practice?
The short answer to this is, it’s the law!
But more importantly, seeing you and your pet in practice allows vets to provide the best and safest personalised care. Most of the medications that we use in practice are either POM-V or POM-VPS, including flea and worm treatments, ear drops, and skin creams. This means that, according to the legislation, for vets to supply medication your pet needs to have had a recent clinical exam and be under the care of the practice.
The Veterinary Medicines Regulations do not define what it means for an animal to be under the care of a veterinary surgeon, but the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) have provided guidance for practices to use.
The RCVS guidelines state that for a POM-V medication to be prescribed the animal must have been seen immediately before, or recently enough for the veterinary surgeon to have personal knowledge of the condition of the animal.
Prescribing medications can be tricky. There is a lot to consider, including your pet’s age, other health conditions, interactions with other medication, clinical history, risk of side effects, other people and pets in the home, cost, how easy is it to give…the list is long!
If we get it wrong then we put your pet’s health at risk. Seeing you and your pet in the practice helps ensure that we don’t miss something important and allows us to choose the most appropriate and effective treatment to help your pet.
Even if your pet has been on a medication for a long time, things can change. Seeing you and your pet in person allows the vets to decide whether things are working as they should, and make sure that nothing else is going on. When vets see your pet and do a clinical exam they may pick up changes or symptoms that you haven’t noticed at home. We are trained to identify even subtle changes to your pet’s health, but we can’t do that over the phone or in an email.
Every medication and treatment has potential side effects. Sometimes this is obvious (upset tummy or itchy skin) but not always. Many drugs require regular blood tests or urine tests to make sure that the dose is not too high or too low or that organ function (like the kidney or liver) is not affected. Coming into the practice regularly ensures that these tests can be done and that your pet is looked after in the best way possible.
So how often should my pet see the vet?
There isn’t always an easy answer to this. In general, for routine flea and worm treatments we can prescribe
medication if we’ve seen your pet in the last TWELVE MONTHS. If your pet is on long term medication and stable then we can provide repeat prescriptions as long as your pet has been seen in the past THREE MONTHS. However, if your pet has just started a new treatment, or if he has been unstable recently then we may need to see him more regularly.
If we are prescribing treatment for an acute illness (vomiting, ear infections, sore eyes, wounds, limping) we will usually need to see your pet before we can provide medication, even if we have seen him very recently. This is to ensure that we know what we are treating and allow us to choose the safest and most effective medication.
We’re here to help
We completely understand that it’s not always convenient to come into the practice. It takes time out of your busy week, your pet may get really stressed or scared, or you may be worried about costs. If you are struggling to get in to see us then don’t put it off or let your pet go without treatment. Give your vet a ring (or if your already a client of ours, send us a PetsApp and let us know what’s going on). Our VIP plan includes the cost of consultations. We can find an appointment time to suit you and we can take extra steps to make sure your pet feels safe. Your vets are here to give you peace of mind.
