Pets commonly ingest prescription medications, from countertops, pill minders, mail-order packages, or other sources. Veterinarians can prescribe certain human drugs in animals. Safety data for human prescription drugs in certain animal species may not be available, as most are not approved for veterinary use by the FDA. A valid client-patient-veterinarian relationship must exist for veterinarians to recommend extra-label use of human prescription medications to their clients.

Last full review/revision March 2012 by Safdar A. Khan, DVM, MS, PhD, DABVT