Can I get more information about medicines for my animal?
At West Bar Vets we routinely use LICENCED veterinary medicines to treat pets and other animals.
Information about a licenced medicine
– maybe on the medicine packaging
– on a leaflet inside the packaging
– can be found for most products we use by entering the drug name on the label into the search function of National Office for Animal Health (NOAH)
Additional information can be found by searching the The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) Database (click here), The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) regulate veterinary medicines in the UK.
Other ‘Unlicensed ‘ Medicines
For some cases licenced veterinary medicines are not available. For example, very few medicines are designed to treat small furry pets / exotic pets. In other cases there may not be a veterinary drug to treat a specific problem in an animal.
In these cases we follow a set of rules called the cascade that allow us to use a drug for one species to treat another e.g. a human eye medicine to treat a cat. This is called ‘OFF-LICENCE USE‘.
When we prescribe a medicine for your animal ‘OFF-LICENCE’ we will advise you and ask you for your informed consent the first time we use it. We retain a record of your consent. We will also offer you an prepared information sheet about the medication.
We take great care to use OFF LICENCE medicines as carefully and safely as possible but medicines used OFF-LICENCE are used entirely at the owners risk.
Can I Return Unused or Unwanted Medicines to the Practice?
The supply, storage and dispensing of Veterinary Medicines in the UK is highly regulated and controlled by UK Government Legislation.
This means that :-
We CANNOT take back medicines for reuse or re-supply to another animal
We CANNOT refund the cost of unwanted or unused medication
We will dispose of unneeded medication returned to us for no charge.
Please bear aware of this particularly if you are purchasing large amounts of medication for long term conditions.
If your animal reacts to a medication please speak to us immediately. This is covered by a different area of The Legislation.
