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Just like your dog knows the sound of you opening their treat bag, they recognize when you are opening their pill bottle. Before you hide their pill in their meal or treats, make sure to open the bottle without your dog seeing. This way, they won’t suspect the hidden pill.

Hiding the pill in tasty treats is a common way to help your dog take their pills. There are a wide variety of foods and treats to use: cheese, banana slices, peanut butter, hot dog chunks, meatballs, mashed potatoes, or pumpkin puree are popular choices. Make sure the food you choose is the right one for your dog. For example, peanut butter and cheese are high in fat, so if you are trying to help your dog lose weight, another option may be more appropriate. Cheese is also not a good choice if your dog is lactose intolerant. If the food is new to your dog, make sure to give them a small amount without the pill first to make sure they will be able to tolerate it. There are also a number of treats made specifically for hiding pills, just make sure those treats don’t have ingredients that counteract with any condition your pet may have.

Help your dog build a positive association with taking pills. Giving them a pill before they go on a walk establishes an immediate reward. If your dog has a consistent time of day when they eat meals or get treats, give them their pills at this time as well. Piggybacking their pills onto their meal or treat time makes taking medication part of their normal routine rather than an ordeal. Another trick pet parents use is to crush up the pill and sprinkle it over their dog’s food. Be sure to check with your veterinarian that crushing up the specific pill is safe to do and will not alter its effectiveness.

If your dog is used to getting a few small treats in a row, swap one treat out for their pill. Give them a treat first, then their pill, and then one last treat. Even though the second is a pill, they will accept it because they are expecting it to be a treat. Giving them a treat at the end is a reward for them taking their medication.

While these are tips commonly used by pet owners, you and your veterinarian know your dog best. Depending on your dog’s unique diet and behavior, your veterinarian&nbsp;might have more specific recommendations to help you give your dog their pills.

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5 Tips to Give Your Dog Their Pills

Before a company develops a new drug, they often perform market research to identify viable candidates for development. A drug candidate must have enough market potential to justify the extensive resources needed to develop the required data and obtain FDA registration approval. 
During this stage, the drug sponsor evaluates drug candidates by conducting preliminary safety and effectiveness studies. Additionally, pilot manufacturing and chemistry studies are conducted to ensure that the product can be successfully manufactured. Collectively, these preliminary studies are conducted to provide assurance that the drug can be successfully developed into a viable animal health product. These studies serve as the basis for making a go/no-go decision for the drug to enter the development phase. 
A drug sponsor is the company responsible for overseeing all aspects of development before submitting the drug information to the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) for review. They play the key role in getting the drug from the test tube to patient.

Once the company determines that the market for the potential product is sufficient to justify development and that the drug candidate is safe and effective, the drug enters the development phase. 
This phase begins with the drug sponsor submitting a development plan to the CVM. This plan includes a description of proposed safety and effectiveness studies designed to generate the extensive data needed to fulfill the stringent regulatory requirements for a New Animal Drug Application (NADA). The drug sponsor and CVM conduct Pre-Submission Conferences to negotiate a binding agreement between the drug sponsor and the CVM on a Development plan designed to fulfill all NADA requirements. 
After concurrence with CVM on a Development Plan is achieved, the drug sponsor conducts the required pivotal safety and effectiveness studies. These studies are large and require strict adherence to the FDA’s regulatory standards. The effectiveness of the drug product is typically evaluated in double-blind studies conducted in pets with the disease that the product indication is targeting. Safety studies are conducted in laboratory animals and must demonstrate that the drug has an acceptable margin of safety. Additionally, user safety must be demonstrated to ensure that the product can be safely administered by the pet owner. The safety and effectiveness studies that are conducted in the development phase must result in data that conclusively supports all components of proposed product labeling, including the dosage regimen and product indication, and the safety of the drug in the targeted population. 
Another major component of the development phase is generation of data to fulfill very strict FDA manufacturing requirements. These requirements are held to the same standard that human pharmaceutical products are held to. All data must meet FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. Fundamentally, the manufacturing section of a NADA must document and validate the quality, purity, potency, and stability of each batch of the product manufactured. 
The product development phase typically encompasses 2-4 years and requires an investment of $5-10 million and can be a risky venture.

Upon completion of the pivotal studies required in the product development plan, studies are submitted to CVM for regulatory review. Data from the studies must conclusively support each component of the product’s labeling (i.e., safety, effectiveness, manufacturing). After CVM has ‘approved’ each component of the development plan, a drug sponsor requests approval of the NADA. In addition to safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing sections, the NADA includes product labeling and a Freedom of Information Summary (FOI). The FOI is a public document that describes a summary of FDA’s basis for NADA approval. Approval of the NADA indicates that CVM has concluded that the drug is safe and effective when used as prescribed in the product’s labeling. Upon NADA approval, a drug sponsor may legally market the drug for the approved label indication.

Learn more about <a href="https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/resources-you/fda-regulation-animal-drugs" target="_blank">FDA Regulation of Animal Drugs</a> on the FDA's website.

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From Test Tube to Prescription, What Does It Take to Get a Drug Approved?

We’ve all had experiences with drugs: over the counter pills for a headache, allergy medicine when flowers start to bloom, or antibiotics from a doctor. Most of us don’t worry about whether what we’re taking is safe or how it was regulated. But do you have the same faith in the drugs you give your pets? This is a reasonable concern, but it should ease your mind to know that the drugs you give your pets are just as safe as the drugs you take yourself.

In general—yes. Both human and animal drugs are regulated by the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/resources-you/fda-regulation-animal-drugs" target="_blank">U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.</a> To get <a data-sys-entry-uid="blt2d22d01d9a2b4b97" data-sys-entry-locale="en-us" data-sys-content-type-uid="blog_entry" sys-style-type="link" class="embedded-entry" type="entry" href="/learn/article/what-does-it-mean-if-a-drug-is-fda-approved">approved by the FDA</a>, both types of drugs must meet the FDA standards of safety and efficacy. Additionally, both types of drugs must meet the same strict FDA manufacturing standards. To demonstrate that new drugs meet these standards, companies must submit to FDA a New Drug Application (NDA) for human drugs, or a New Animal Drug Application (NADA) for animal drugs.
The NDAs and NADAs include information on the drug’s chemistry, composition, intended label description, intended effects, and all potential side effects. In addition to this information, the company submitting the application must include comprehensive data sets to demonstrate the drug’s safety and effectiveness profile.

One difference between animal and human drug applications is the number of participants in a drug’s field safety and effectiveness trial. This information is part of the data set that evaluates a drug's safety and effectiveness under conditions of use. Human drug trials require thousands of participants, whereas veterinary drug trials require much fewer patients since the population of animal species (I.e., dogs, cats) is relatively small. Even though the data set is smaller for veterinary drugs, the drugs must still adhere to strict study standards set by the FDA in accordance with the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). It takes companies 5-7 years and millions of dollars to gather enough data to fulfill FDA requirements for a NADA. 
All drugs are subject to oversight in their method of manufacture, and new animal drugs must meet the same quality standards for purity, potency and stability as human drugs. In other words, the drugs prescribed to your pets meet the same quality standards and are just as safe as the drugs prescribed to you.

The bottom line is, yes, veterinary drugs are subject to very similar regulation as human drugs. You can rest easy knowing that your pet is getting safe, effective treatment.

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Medicine Cabinet

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