Preventing Mistakes with Your Pet's "Paw-scription"

If your pet needs a medication, it is often prescribed by the veterinarian and provided by the veterinary clinic. Sometimes a prescription is given so that the medication can be provided by a community pharmacy. Like prescriptions for humans, your pet’s medication requires many safety checks.

SafeMedicationUse.ca received a report from a consumer describing a “wrong patient” error involving their dog’s prescription. When picking up the dog’s medication, the owner gave their own name, rather than the dog’s name. The pharmacy mistakenly gave the owner medication belonging to another person with a similar name. The dog was given one dose before the error was caught.

Let the pharmacy team know the following information when dropping off the prescription and also when picking up the medication:

• the type of animal (e.g., dog, cat, llama)
• your pet’s name and birthdate (if known)
• why your pet needs the medication

This is important information for the pharmacy team to complete their safety checks.

• Check for your pet’s name on the prescription receipt before you leave the pharmacy and on the product label before giving any medication to your pet.

Similar checks are needed when the medication is provided by the veterinary clinic.

This newsletter was developed in collaboration with patients and families.

Learning from consumer reports is shared with health care providers through ISMP Canada publications.