I can certainly appreciate trying to reduce opioid abuse in humans, but once again trying to treat veterinary medicine the same as human medicine has resulted in regulations that are unnecessarily and excessively cumbersome. In fact, I am convinced that the net result of this arrangement is that pets that need opioids to control their pain are not going to get them.

I have already had clients change their mind about getting tramadol or buprenorphine for their pet when they discover that they will have to come back in a week for another physical exam. People have very busy lives, and pet owners are notorious for not being able to identify signs of pain in their pets. Most people are not going to take time off from work to have a pet seen that looks fine to them.

Assuming the pet is brought back for the repeat exam one week later, one of two things are going to happen. (1) The pet's pain has not improved in which case I will probably prescribe more and/or stronger pain meds, or (2) They have improved in which I case I will give them more of the drug they already had. If a pet owner is stealing and using their pet's pain meds, requiring this recheck exam one week later does not stop this from happening.

I agree with my colleagues who state you just have to trust the doctor to make appropriate recommendations following standard of care. If abuse is suspected, then investigate that particular doctor. But requiring everyone to suddenly jump through these arbitrary hoops only makes things more complicated and does not really fix the problem.

Dr. Kathy Kallay