I work in a chemist and am aware of the amount of people who buy piriton for allergies in their dogs, but I overheard someone the other day saying they wondered if a dog could be given Oxytetracycline (antibiotic) for a skin infection and just yesterday was told the childrens travel sickness tablets Kwells were to calm the dog down on bonfire night. Does anyone on here know if these medications or in fact any human medications are okay for animals or not.

dont know about those meds in specific but a lot of the same meds are used on dogs and humans, epilepsy drugs are the same, muscle relaxants like diazepam, some pain meds like paracetamol and tramadol, eye drops. People still need to see vets as it is the level / amount of certain drugs where it will differ greatly from humans

I hope a vet was seen by whoever was buying these things and how they would get the antibiotics if they were from a doctor for the dog is beyond me

My friend's dog was taking the same heart meds as her uncle (at a lower dosage).

The vet told my sister to give her dog half a Piriton (and breaking them in half is not easy!) for his grass allergy.

But, although dogs do get given the same meds as humans, it should only ever be after consulting a vet.

As for calming dogs down on Bonfire Night - Bach's now do an animal version of Rescue Remedy (it's alcohol free) that works well.

So do I, and I wish I had intervened the conversation but at the time I was busy and now I keep worrying about the dog in question.

In my time as a dog owner we have been told by our vet to use childrens cough medicine (tixylix), anti histamines (piriton) and several others I can't remember at the moment. We have never just dosed initially ourselves and always got the vets advice but as we have had new dogs and they get a cough (or similar) we will try the human med we were advised for a past dog before going to the vet.

Years ago one of our dogs got kennel cough. The vet said he could give dog cough mixture, but advised us to give Benylin as it was cheaper. That was when Benylin was full of alcohol and sugar too. The dog seemed to like it though

Ours was tixylix because she was a tiny chihuahua and benylin would have knocked her off her feet because as you say the alcohol in it was too strong for a tiny dog. In general I would have imagined childrens meds better than adult ones but I am no vet so that's just my opinion.

My cat had a heart condition, and he used to have 1/4 of an aspirin every day with his heart syrup.

Dread to think what a poor lil chihuahua would be like after 5mls of Benylin! Would be like a vodka cocktail for it. Doubt the vets would tell us to give it to our dog now if it still contained the alcohol. Thinking back it probably was a bit dodgy.

On a slightly different note, I've had animal meds used on me! Was at a horse event and cut myself just before I was due to compete. St Johns were busy with a bad fall, so my Mum put some horse wound powder (sulphonamide?) and purple spray on me. Didn't wash off for a few weeks!

The drops the vet perscribed the kittens for there eyes cost £15 from them. The same drops from asda cost me £5.

there are a few things, piriton is a really common one

but they even give dogs viagra for heart conditions.

our vet told us to give our dog half a paracetamol tablet when her hips were causing her trouble
(meaning a 250mg dose)
we used to get her regular courses of an antihistamine from the vet when she was younger as she had a few problems when the seasons changed, as these episodes calmed down they said a piriton tablet every now and then if she was having trouble would be okay

in fact one of the last meds she was on towards the end of her life was a human medication - they were like horse tablets, terrible to get down her, considering she was a 17kg border collie and had a tumor in her throat at the time.
they were to prevent her being sick, the vet basically told us they're such large tablets as it's a fair bit cheaper to get the human pills, than the animal use ones.

fungal treatments like daktarin can be used on dogs or guinea pigs & rabbits to treat small areas of ringworm
i always keep a tube in in case of any flaky guinea ears.

i went into a boots once and asked if they had any generic (cheaper branded) miconozole nitrate cream to use on one of the guinea pigs, they thought it a bit strange that i was asking for it for that use, and to be honest it's a fair point on their side, they're not really there to know or advise on animal treatments.
i took in printed research to back up my claims that it was safe though.

We have used Calpol on our 2 dogs after they were spayed, vet said it was fine first though.

Years ago the vet told me to give Cleo who was getting on a bit calpol or the own brand from any chemist as it would have been a tenner for the stuff she would prescribe but at the time a lot less if I popped to the local chemist and got their own make "calpol" type syrup. It might have been the sight of me with the three Slavettes all in the pram with the dog in the tray underneath and we had walked the 2 and a bit miles to the surgery that made her take pity.

We were skint at the time. I had enough money for the Vet but not enough for a taxi. There weren't any buses going that way from our village so we walked over the fields. The pram I had was a huge coach built one and it was named "The Bus". You don't see many "Bus" type prams now.

I wouldn't give my dogs any over the counter medicines unless the Vet told me and what dose to give just 'cos for one dog I was advised to.

My mum has a book that converts animal meds into human. She use to give her dog human medicine regularly. Personally I've never done it. Good that some vets will assist in this way. Some would want the money.