Pharmacist intern with interest in veterinary medicine looking for resources

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haiku16

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Good morning! I'm a pharmacy student currently on my last year of rotations, and had a question for the vets out there regarding accessing veterinary-specific journals and drug information.
I have a particular interest in veterinary medicine, and I find a lot of pharmacists are way under trained in this area. My college offered a veterinary elective, which was awesome, but a one quarter elective wasn't near enough time to grasp all the knowledge I would like to have in this area.
I've also noticed pharmacy students are at a loss when it comes to efficiently searching for and accessing reputable veterinary journals. We actually had a drug information assignment were some students had veterinary related question (sadly I got stuck with a human question!), and I heard a lot of students claim that pubmed was totally lacking in animal-related journals. Most of what they found were from phase I drug trials for drugs targeted towards humans.
Getting to my ultimate question, what are the databases and secondary resources vets are taught to use? Is there any resource for animal-based trials? I feel like I have great literature evaluation skills, and would love the opportunity to apply them to animal medicine! I do have a copy of plumb's that I keep at my home pharmacy, but other than that, I'm at a total loss.
Also, as vets, what other information do you wish your local pharmacists knew when dispensing medications to your patients?
Any information is appreciated!

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A good starting point would be Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/Plumbs-Veterinary-Drug-Handbook-Desk/dp/0470959649. It has a brief overview of MOA/pharmacokinetics, contraindications, safety, and dosing by species which is a nice reference if you are getting a script from a veterinarian and want to check things out. I can't comment on any journals to peruse but I do want to add that if you have a question about a veterinary drug/usage you would do well to call that veterinarian and have a talk colleague to colleague; this has been pointed out to me by several vets who have complained about lack of professionalism on the part of pharmacists (i.e. telling the client that their vet prescribed the wrong dose/a fatal dose based on their understanding of human pharmacy).

Hope that helps.
 
Also, as vets, what other information do you wish your local pharmacists knew when dispensing medications to your patients?
Any information is appreciated!

Bismarck was spot on. Having a client call you to say that you are incompetent and nearly killed their dog because the pharmacist told them that you were overdosing the dog, when you really where not is annoying. Then we have to attempt to fix the situation and still get the client to go and get the proper medication/dose for their dog. If you think something seems off and you notice it is a medication for a pet, call the vet clinic and ask to speak to the vet so that you can double check it. The vet would much rather you double check (there is always a chance a mistake was made), but don't just tell the client it is wrong. Veterinary drugs and dosages are often different than human drugs and dosages, so just double check and don't bad mouth the vet until you have talked to them. It is hard to then get the client to do the right thing afterwards.
 
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Plumb's is the go-to book for veterinary drugs, and includes references of where the listed information came from. In fact, some times it offers too many options.

Thank you for wanting to learn more about the use of prescription meds in veterinary drugs! I wish more pharmacists even at least kept a copy of Plumb's nearby and didn't tell pet owners that their vet is crazy or plain stupid for prescribing what we did. And whatever you (and your collegues do) DO NOT make a substitution without discussing it with a vet - even changing insulin types can have a large effect.

I'm not sure what you're asking for regarding "....databases and secondary resources vets are taught to use?". Do you mean regarding drug selection, dose information, or clinical trials reported in journals?
 
There is a a Pubmed-Vet version that was my first go-to during school for that type of thing.
I would also encourage you to schedule a rotation at a veterinary teaching hospital with a pharmacist on staff (Penn has this, not sure how common that is). I think our fields have a lot to learn from each other!
 
I am going in to my second year of pharmacy school and just took an elective over the summer of vet pharmacy. Wow, was it helpful and educational. I work in a community pharmacy and we dispense A LOT of pet meds. We covered disease states, DX, pharmacotherapy, and also legal and regulatory issues today.

If I have any questions I won't hesitate to call the vets office. There is a disconnect though with older pharmacists who see a RX for levothyroxine at a total dose of 700mcg but they don't realize the short half life and poor drug availability in dogs. ( then they say what is this vet doing?) so I think the gap needs to be filled between vets and pharmacists in the future. Hopefully we can work on that in the future.

Plumb's handbook is great.
 
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