Bailey’s Pharmacy
June 9th, 2009
Is your pet on any kind of prescription drugs? Do you ever have trouble remembering to give your pet their meds on time?
Prior to her cancer, Bailey did not have any daily meds. But in the past 3 years, we’ve added meds for her arthritis, her bladder stones, and her diabetes (3 pills and 2 shots).
Early on, I found that it was easy for me to forget to give her the right pill at the right time. One pill must be taken on an empty stomach. And the other two pills must be split in half.
One of the things I did to help myself remember was to use a weekly pill box. Every Sunday, I fill Bailey’s pill box for the upcoming week.
I purchased the pill box (photo above) and the pill splitter (photo to the right) from my local drug store (any pharmacy will have them). The pill splitter is actually intended for parents to use in splitting pills for children, but it works good for dogs, too! There is a razor embedded in the lid. You put the pill into the “L” shaped holder and close the lid. Voila! The pill is sliced in half!
Bailey’s third pill comes in a foil bubble pack. This one needs to stay sealed until I give it to her, so it can’t go into the pill box. As you can see by the photo on the left, I use a marker to assign each pill bubble a day-of-the-week initial.
This is also the pill that she must take on an empty stomach, and it was like I had a mental block trying to remember to give her this pill at the right time.
I settled on using an alarm clock. I set it for 8:00 PM, and we’ve been on time giving her that pill ever since (OK, maybe we messed up a couple of times, but mostly this system really works for us!)
Bailey’s diagnosis of canine diabetes has added another layer to the whole drug administration regimen. It’s now very important that she eat a specific times. And her morning and even insulin shots must be given roughly every 12 hours.
One of the things my veterinarian asked me to do, was to track when Bailey eats and when she gets her shots. So I took an excel spreadsheet and set it up to record her meal, meds, and shot times. This got posted to our refrigerator, above the calendar. Whoever does the feeding/pilling/shots fills in the time of day that the action happened.
I take this tracking sheet with me when we go to the vet, and the dogtor makes a copy to add to Bailey’s records. We use it to fine-tune Bailey’s medical care.
And it adds to my feeling of security–if I had to take Bailey to an after-hours emergency 
clinic, I could simply grab the tracking sheet on my way out the door and the emergency vet would get more complete information then I would be able to provide in my (probably) hysterical state.
clinic, I could simply grab the tracking sheet on my way out the door and the emergency vet would get more complete information then I would be able to provide in my (probably) hysterical state. I’ve taken a little bit of ribbing from some of my friends for being slightly anal retentive on this. Doesn’t matter. I’m gonna do whatever I can to make sure that I give Bailey the best possible care. I just wonder who’s gonna do this for me when I get to be an old lady?
Boy do we sympathize with you here Bev. benson is on TONS of medications, some need to be taken at certain times, before dinner, after dinner, one hour after eating, etc. And some are a.m. and some are p.m. he also needs to be fed at certain times. So we understand what you're going through here!
Hugs,
Jaime, Benson and Gibson