Retrospective survey of the patterns of prescription and request for vitamins, minerals and vitamin-mineral formulations for dogs in a veterinary hospital in Nigeria

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.