Animal Pharmacy | Veterinary Compounding Pharmacy, Veterinary Medical Supply

By Linda S. Burnett

The practice of preparing medications dates back to the origins of pharmacy. Compounding, however, which is using raw ingredients, often in powder form, to formulate specific medications, has changed over the years. In the 1930s and '40s, approximately 60 percent of all medications were compounded. During the 1950s and '60s, with the advent of manufacturing, compounding declined. The pharmacist's role as a "preparer" of medications quickly changed to that of a "dispenser" of manufactured dosage forms. In the 1980s, and especially in the '90s, physicians and patients came to realize, once again, the benefits of preparing customized medications to meet specific patient needs. Today an estimated 43,000 prescriptions are compounded daily or one percent of total prescriptions dispensed.

The options of what a pharmacist can do by compounding medications are almost limitless. They are able to provide doses that normally don't exist, avoiding the troublesome task of cutting tablets into halves or quarters, or avoiding having to take 3 or 4 pills at a time. They are able to formulate multiple drugs into one cream base, allowing doctors to order specialized topical treatments for skin conditions, nerve pain, or arthritis. They can put medicine into liquids and flavor those liquids for kids or pets, effectively stopping the huge battles parents and pet owners have in giving medicine. They solve problems, pure and simple, by catering drug therapy to each patient based on their needs.

Kim Tenreiro, FACA, FACVP, FIACP, owner of The Medicine Shoppe in Canandaigua and a compound pharmacist, feels it was the "problem solving" aspect of the business that convinced him to choose this as a profession. Kim began his career compounding in 1976 in the 34-bed inpatient dermatology department at NYU Medical Center. There, he says, they faced problem-solving decisions every day, and compounding medications to treat the skin disorders with which people were afflicted was an everyday occurrence.

"You develop a puzzle-solving mindset as you try to solve the problems that come up in the dispensing and administering of medical drugs," Kim says from his West Avenue pharmacy. "Situations arise where the medicines that are readily available by big name drug companies just don't work. People aren't cookies. They don't fall off an assembly line with directions that say, 'one size fits all.' Customization to treat medical disorders is very often necessary, and not just in people."

Tenreiro, who received his pharmacy degree in 1981 from St. John's University College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions in Jamaica, New York, also has a full fellowship with the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists, a branch of the American College of Apothecaries which has less than 75 full fellows nationwide. He is also active in the American Pharmaceutical Association, the National Community Pharmacists Association and the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists. With that background, Kim decided to open the Animal Pharmacy, a specialized compounding pharmacy designed to serve pet owners, veterinarians, and animal care specialists. The pharmacy, one of only a few hundred in the United States, specializes in compounding. Prescriptions are hand-made, based on the size, weight, dosage and flavor preference for each patient.

"The need for animal compounding has always been there, but in recent years the need has certainly been emphasized," says Tenreiro. "In just the last year or so, four major drugs were taken off the market by the FDA. These drugs were typically used in humans, and because of side effects or risks associated with the drugs when used in humans, the FDA pulled them. However, these are drugs that were also used in the treatment of animals, used for different reasons due to the completely different physiology, of course, but they were used with complete effectiveness. Veterinarians no longer have access to these drugs, and often these are the drugs that worked the best. That's where I can step in to help."

Not only can Tenreiro provide veterinarians with medications that are no longer available to the public, he can also help them solve the problems associated with administering medicine to "uncooperative" pets.

"Let's face it, animals don't always cooperate," Tenreiro states. "Try to give a cat something that tastes bad and you're literally taking your life in your hands! And it may not even be the taste that drives a cat to madness. Just the act of trying to push a pill down a cat's throat is an unnatural one for the cat. Anyone who is a cat owner has been through this, I'm sure, and it's an exhausting, and sometimes painful, process that leaves the owners wondering if it's really worth it. There are solutions and alternatives that are readily available."

How to get an animal to take its medicine is a great portion of what the animal pharmacy does. Does your pet have difficulty swallowing medication? Does he hate the taste? The Animal Pharmacy can make whatever is available in pill form into a flavored liquid, and you can name the flavor that your pet prefers. There are numerous veterinary flavors available, including alfalfa, apple, beef, cheese, chicken, fish, liver, cricket and mouse. Maybe your pet likes people food better. They can flavor the medicine in any way you want, just ask.

"I had one woman come in who said her cat loved bubblegum, so we flavored the medicine in bubblegum," Tenreiro says with a smile. "The cat looked forward to her medicine every day. Some dogs like chocolate or peanut butter flavors. Whatever it takes to make the medicine go down, we can do it."

Whether you have a cat, dog, horse, guinea pig, snake, turtle, ferret or bird, the Animal Pharmacy can help you and your pet by making medicines that are easy on both of you. They even make medicines for sea lions, tigers, polar bears, and snakes!

"We actually worked with the Republic of Viet Nam for a while to formulate a way to medicate their cobras," says Tenreiro. "They raise cobras in captivity to harvest their venom for antidotes since the snakes are so plentiful in that country. Raising them in captivity introduces many problems that wouldn't normally occur, and the treatment of one such disorder required an injection. Would you like to be the person who had to treat 1000 captive cobras with an injection? We actually developed a liquid formula for them that could be sprayed on the skin of the cobras that would allow the medicine to pass through transdermally. However, import and export laws between the two countries ultimately prohibited them from receiving the spray."

The Animal Pharmacy can also provide medicine in many other forms, too. Tenreiro makes his own "chewy treats" at the pharmacy, usually in beef, liver, chicken and fish flavors. Medicine can be put into the chewy treats for dogs, cats and other small animals. Transdermal creams are also a popular way to administer drugs to pets. Medicine can be put into the creams and rubbed into areas of the pet's body where it will be absorbed. This is especially good for cats. Injections, creams, gels, transdermals, lip balms, aerosols, suppositories, eye drops, lotions, nasal sprays, suspensions, capsules, and even lollipops are just some of the various forms that medicine can take. It's all creative problem solving, and dosages can be tailored for a three-pound cat or a 2000-pound horse.

While Tenreiro wasn't required by law to attend any special schools for dispensing animal medicine, he has taken many special courses led by veterinarians and pharmacists affiliated with veterinary colleges. He has received specialized training in canine, feline and equine physiology, pharmacology, and pharmacotherapy and works closely with many area veterinarians.

"Everything administered through the pharmacy requires a prescription, so while I am most willing to talk to pet owners about their animal's condition, I usually like to talk to the animal's veterinarian as well," says Tenreiro. "Sometimes pet owners come to me first, and then I call the veterinarian to discuss possible treatment methods with him. Other times, the veterinarians will call me after the owner discusses the problems they're having with the vet. It's a triad, between me, the veterinarian and the patient's owner, and it works best when we're all communicating."

While the Animal Pharmacy has definitely grown since its inception, Tenreiro says that most of the growth has been achieved through word of mouth, much of that through veterinarians. A veterinarian he works with in Penn Yan discussed a treatment they had worked on with another veterinarian in Kingston, New York. Tenreiro got a call from the vet in Kingston who had a similar problem with one of his own patients and was able to help him as well. A typical day sees a dozen or more calls like that and the dispensing of dozens of prescriptions. Yesterday, for instance, Tenriero says he made several batches of anti-inflammatory chewy treats for arthritic dogs, a transdermal cream with hyperthyroid medicine for a cat, several batches of anti-seizure capsules for dogs, some blood pressure medicine in a cream for both a dog and a cat, and treated a mother cat and her four kittens for an infection. "The whole kit and kaboodle," Tenriero says with a smile. The Animal Pharmacy also has the capability of sterile compounding, which enables them to produce sterile eye drops, something many dog and cat owners have need of.

"There is so much that we offer at both the Animal Pharmacy and the Medicine Shoppe that is unique to the profession," Kim adds. "We can ship prescription medications worldwide, so you don't have to wait in line at the local pharmacy. UPS will deliver your medicine right to your door, and they guarantee next day arrival of all ground shipments within a 500-mile radius. Orders received by noon are usually shipped the same day. You can even order refills by phone, fax or email, so the process couldn't be easier."

The Animal Pharmacy and the Medicine Shoppe are located at 66 West Avenue in Canandaigua. The Animal Pharmacy is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. for pickups. For more information on the services the Animal Pharmacy or the Medicine Shoppe offers, you can call 585-394-4930, or call 800-396-9970 outside the 585 area code. You can also e-mail them at pharmacist@animalpharmacy.net or check out their web site at www.animalpharmacy.net.

Published with permission of the Messenger Post Newspapers