You can become a veterinary pharmacist if you have an interest in animal health and are pursuing a pharmacy degree. There are trained professionals who only work with veterinarians to prescribe medications for animals and distribute products to their owners. Because some human medications are also effective on animals, traditional pharmacists may collaborate closely with veterinarians. Extra training in animal disease processes, anatomy, and compounding, an important skill for prescribing animal medications, will be required for the former.
Because most veterinarians aren’t taught much about pharmacology in school, they must rely on a pharmacologist who specializes in animal medications. You can train as a veterinary pharmacist going to a regular pharmacy school for humans and then rotating into a veterinary medicine program. A specialist would receive additional training in animal anatomy and disease processes, as well as general pharmacology and toxicology courses. Compounding programs benefit from and require math, physics, science, and chemistry classes.
Many old-school vets who concocted their own remedies practiced compounding, which is the modification of medications to conform to unusual dosage requirements or administration. Mixing a medication with a flavoring or other inactive ingredient to make it palatable to a cat, or recalibrating the dosage of a human drug for use in an animal patient, are two examples. To avoid harming the animal or rendering the drug ineffective, the pharmacist must understand how compounding affects the stability and medicinal properties of drugs.
When prescribing medicine for different species, animal pharmacists consider both weight and metabolism. Because it’s impossible to know how long drugs will stay in food animals’ systems, compounded medicines aren’t recommended. Pharmacists may dispense to them manufactured medications that have retention built into the formula. Furthermore, because parasites are common in all types of animals, you will need to learn about parasite transmission and eradication in order to work as a veterinary pharmacist.
The Society of Veterinary Hospital Pharmacists (SVHP) is an international veterinary pharmacology professional organization. Many members are veterinary college instructors who teach classes and workshops aimed at educating veterinarians and keeping them up to date on the latest techniques and information. Veterinary pharmacy experts are frequently needed in agricultural and livestock production to keep the stock of food animals healthy. The field is always evolving, with newer drugs and a better understanding of how medicines affect animals. Aside from treatment, becoming a veterinary pharmacist allows you to conduct research into new and effective medications for a variety of animals.