Here's one of my go-to resources for pet med information:
Marvista Vets Pharmacy Centre
I also use
www.drugs.com for research - useful for learning about side effects of human meds prescribed for feline patients - look at the notes for
professionals as well as those for consumers. (Don't ignore the rare side effects in humans, especially if your cat is med-sensitive.)
ETA:
drugs.com has a very helpful
drug interactions checker.
Other useful sites:
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WebMD Drug Database - also useful for side effect research.
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PetEducation.com Medication Centre - whole site's a goldmine of information.
-
petMD - Pet Medications
For all resources listed above they will give you basic information and you will probably need to do a good bit of thinking about how these treatments may benefit or put your cat at risk.
It is also extremely valuable to seek out the experiences of other caregivers managing cats with similar health issues as they may be able to shine more light on specific benefits and potential side effects of medications that don't necessarily get much of a mention in the literature, or indeed they may be able to point you toward medications which can work well for cats but which your own vets may not have come across or used to treat any of their other patients; every cat is different and sometimes you need to be a strong advocate for your kitty in order to secure treatments that really suit your kitty's needs. Condition-specific support groups (e.g. FDMB, Tanya's Site, various Yahoo feline support groups) can be a great place to learn more about a broader range of effective treatments, but make sure that the groups are reputable and well-respected by other experienced feline caregivers.
I have always discussed anything I learn through research on meds & supplements with my vets. Sometimes they may know more than me, sometimes they may know less than me about various treatment options but we always debate the potential risks and benefits of any treatment avenue and agree a way forward
before I would even consider trialing a treatment on one of my cats. I strongly advocate that others do the same.
At the very least your vet needs to ALWAYS be completely aware of the type of food, meds, and supplements your cat is receiving in order to make safe recommendations for treatment(s) your cat may need.
Based on my experience a strong vet-caregiver partnership is the best thing to have in a kitty's corner - where both parties play to their strengths (the vet's professional training and clinical experience; the caregiver's intimate, day-to-day knowledge of their cat and their greater time available for research) for the benefit of the cat. The whole tends to be significantly greater than the sum of the parts in terms of developing effective treatment plans.
Mogs
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