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The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Abstract

This study evaluated the patterns of prescription/request of vitamins, minerals and vitamin-mineral formulations (V-MF) for dogs presented for veterinary care at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital Nsukka (VTHN), Nigeria, between January 2013 and December 2017. Hospital records of a total of 4074 dogs were used for the study. Overall, vitamins, minerals and V-MF were prescribed/requested for 3096 out of the 4074 cases (75.33%). The frequency of prescription/requests for vitamins, minerals and V-MF significantly (p =0.000) increased from 54.1% in 2013 to 87.8% (highest) recorded in 2016 and the effect size of the variations across time was very strong (ɸc=0.268). Vitamin B-Complex injections were the most frequently prescribed/requested (2212/3096), followed by multivitamin injections (745/3096), tablets + other oral V-MF (613/3096) and iron dextran (434/3096). The least prescribed/requested were vitamin K (32/3096) and calcium gluconate (73/3096). There were significant variations (p=0.000) across the years of study in the frequency of prescription/requests for Vitamin B-complex injection, multivitamin injections and tablets + other oral V-MF but there were no significant variations (p>0.05) in the frequency of prescription/requests for calcium gluconate, iron dextran and vitamin K. Overall, vitamins, minerals and V-MF were inappropriately prescribed in 6.43% of cases and wrongly combined in 12.21% of cases. The frequency of both inappropriate prescription and wrong combinations significantly (p=0.000) varied across the study period. It was concluded that the frequency of prescription/requests for vitamins, minerals and VM-F for dogs in the hospital studied during the study period was high and significantly increased across the study period.

Publisher

Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University

First Page

605

Last Page

611

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