Pet shops ‘selling prescription drugs’

Prescription drugs for animals are being sold by unauthorised people at pet shops, a situation that poses health risks for humans, according to the Malta Veterinary Association.

“It is like being able to buy antibiotics from a stationer’s,” association president Victor Vassallo said.

He insisted that animal drugs should only be sold from pharmacies and veterinary clinics, accompanied by the relevant instructions. Ideally, before buying dog medicine, owners should consult a vet, he added. Unfortunately, failure to do this led to a situation where the owner actually aggravated the pet’s condition, Dr Vassallo continued.

The Veterinary Surgeons’ Council has made reports to the police about the existing black market but no action has been taken and the problem persists, he said.

It is not just antibiotics that are sold over the counter but also stronger medication, such as anaesthetics – an even worse crime as these are on a par with valium and methadone.

Listing the repercussions of selling animal medicines illegally, Dr Vassallo said in the case of vaccines, especially for puppies, owners may think their pets were protected when they were not as these had to be administered properly.

It could also result in the wrong doses of antibiotics, anti-worming and anti-flea and tick medicines. Dr Vassallo explained that some could be pretty potent, and in the case of an overdose, could make the animal very ill, while under-dosing would create a stronger strain of the parasite.

Dr Vassallo was confirming a point raised by Italian animal health expert Ezio Ferroglio, who was in Malta recently to talk about zoonoses, diseases transmitted from animals to humans and vice versa.

Prof. Ferroglio said if these medicines were dispensed from pet shops, it was likely they would not be used properly.

Pet owners, for example, often do not realise the importance of treating a dog for fleas all year round and stop in February because the temperature has dipped.

The wrong use of these drugs could also mean an infestation would not remain sensitive to the product, said Prof. Ferroglio, who specialises in animal infestations and how these can pose health risks to pet owners.

He called for more regulation of the channels through which these products were dispensed to the public, saying that selling them from markets also raised questions about their storage and origin.

Stressing the importance of informing the public on animal health, Prof. Ferroglio said the problem was that zoonoses were usually underreported and the complete picture was not available.

Not many pet owners were aware of the over 200 zoonoses in the world, adding, however, that they are more dangerous in animals than humans.

Nevertheless, when an animal is picked up from the street, the first thing the owner should do is visit the vet to treat it for fleas, which can be killed within 15 minutes with the right drugs. If not, these start to shed eggs in the home, and in a couple of months, it could be infested.

Apart from being annoying if they bite, they could also transmit various pathogens, such as Rickettsiosis, also known as Mediterranean Spotted Fever.

The problem, Prof. Ferroglio said, was that doctors may not think of these diseases when they are diagnosing a patient and would not treat the condition in the proper manner.

The vast majority of these diseases have similar symptoms, including pain, headaches and fever, so it is not always easy for a doctor to identify them.