From cbc.ca

The association representing Nova Scotia's veterinarians wants to find a way to keep pet owners from using opioids prescribed for their animals.

Veterinarians can dispense whatever drugs they feel are appropriate for treating animals, and the registrar of the Nova Scotia Veterinary Medical Association calls the current lack of controls a "loose brick" in the medical system.

"There's no limitation or restriction on the drugs that a veterinarian can write a script for," said Dr. Frank Richardson.

Richardson said opioid prescriptions issued at veterinarian clinics are not recorded in the province's prescription monitoring system, which means there is a risk of "doctor shopping."

"The same client could go into another veterinarian with the same complaint and potentially get the same medication from that veterinarian and so on down the line," said Richardson.

"There's an opportunity for some of these drugs to be diverted to the street, which is never a good thing, and certainly something that we're all conscious of, and we want to minimize the risk of those things happening."

Hydromorphone is one of the many opioids that veterinarians prescribe to animals in pain. (CBC)

Richardson said he raised the issue two years ago with the Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons. But the college told CBC News it "doesn't regulate veterinarians, nor their prescribing."

Medavie Blue Cross — the company that runs Nova Scotia's prescription monitoring program — declined an interview, saying only that the topic "remains of interest" in an email.

Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang, broached the subject again in December by contacting the veterinary association.

CBC News obtained a copy of an email sent by Strang that outlined how he wanted to have a discussion with the association about "opioid use in veterinary medicine and how this might link to work underway in the Nova Scotia health and justice systems regarding misuse and overdose."

"Hopefully in the near future, something will happen," Richardson said about tighter controls on opioids. "Certainly the Nova Scotia Veterinary Association is 100 per cent behind it and we will do whatever it takes from our part to see that happen."

The veterinary association is not discouraging opioid prescriptions for pets. Those who work in clinics say drugs are necessary for sick animals.

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