Browsing by Subject "cat"
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(2013)The pet medication industry is growing but there are still challenges especially in feline medication. Palatable flavours, efficient taste masking technologies and easily administrable dosage forms are needed to facilitate feline medication. Based on the literature review, there is only little information about cat's preference to individual flavours. The methods for palatability testing should be improved to achieve reliable results. Most common taste masking technologies are flavouring and tablet coating. In experimental section different flavours for taste masking were studied. Five main flavours were selected: phenylalanine, leucine and methionine as possibly good flavours and arginine and denatonium benzoate as bad flavours. In preformulation experiments tableting characteristics, thermal behaviour and crystal structure of flavours were analysed. The aim was also to study their possible incompatibilities with tablet excipients. The main compatilibility study method was X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), but differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was also used. Excipient povidone (PVP) was incompatible with nearly all of the main flavours. The use of lactose as an excipient was excluded because of the risk of the Maillard reaction. In tableting studies a tablet mass containing microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), calcium hydrogen phosphate dihydrate, mannitol, hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), crospovidone, talc and sodium stearyl fumarate was produced. Minitablets of diameter 3 mm without any flavours were compressed. Also minitablets with flavours phenylalanine and denatonium benzoate were compressed. Minitablets complied with the European Pharmacopoeia tests for uniformity of mass, disintegration and friability. However, characterization and handling of minitablets was found to be challenging due to very small size of the tablets. Minitablets are a promising technology for facilitating feline medication in the future.
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(2010)The purpose of this study was to describe cat owners' problems that relate to cat medication, especially from the drug formulation point of view. Oral, topical, eye and ear administration routes were included into study. There are few compliance and palatability studies made for cats and dogs in Finland and abroad, but this kind of descriptive study relating different drug formulation has never been done before. This study was carried out as Internet survey questionnaire study and it was addressed to cat owners who visited in academic veterinary hospital for small animals and those municipal and private veterinary offices that were randomized into the study. Additionally, the survey study was addressed to cat owners who had medicated their cats during January-March 2010. Those cat owners were contacted through Internet discussion sites. In the veterinary offices the office staff selected the proper candidates for the study and distributed invitations to participate. For distributing invitations the main criteria was that the cat owner received veterinary medication prescription or got directions for using some medication in cat. 59 answers were received in the study and 84 % of all formulation were administered via oral route. The products were antimicrobial and paracite medicines, cardiovascular and anti-inflammatory medicines. Based on the study results most of the problems were related to oral and ear administration routes. Cat showed low compliance and unwillingness to take pills and capsules because of the unpleasant smell, taste and mouth feel of the product. Tablet and capsule form medicines caused problems to the owners, because it was often necessary to adjust the dose by splitting and cutting half the tablet. This made it difficult for owners to follow given medication instructions. The consistency of liquid medicine forms was described sticky and package material thick and stiff. Because of these factors cat owners had difficulties to evaluate the amount of drops to administer to cats ear or eye and the amount remaining in the medicine bottle. According to the study results there is a need for palatable and easily administered medicines that will be taken readily by cats. It should also be possible to adjust to dose as described. The survey questionnaire is a convenient study method for descriptive purposes and it should be carefully considered what kind of sampling method to use and how to carry out the sampling in practice.
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(2018)Tramadol products for cats are not commercially available. Problems may occur when dividing a tablet registered for humans due to uneven distribution of active ingredient within a tablet and bitter taste of tramadol. Minitablets have multiple benefits, including small size, better uniformity of content, coatability and fast administration, in comparison to a divided conventional tablet. The purpose of this study was to develop minitablets which are possible to coat with a taste masking coating. Physical and chemical properties of tramadol hydrochloride, such as water solubility, temperature behavior and hygroscopicity were studied. Additionally, compatibility of tramadol hydrochloride with excipients was studied by a 3-month stability exam. The pre-tests of granulation were carried out by using lactose or ascorbic acid as an active ingredient to model tramadol hydrochloride. The granulation was performed with high shear granulator and tableting with a rotary tablet press. The only variable factor between the granulation batches was the amount of granulation fluid. The impact of the amount of granulation fluid to the tableting properties was examined by determining particle size distribution, Carr index and Hausner ratio. Uniformity of mass, uniformity of content, hardness, disintegration time and dissolution were examined. The study revealed that tramadol hydrochloride did not have incompatibilities with the examined excipients. Tramadol hydrochloride was not hygroscopic even though it was found out to be freely soluble in water. Tablets with adequate hardness were successfully compressed of both granulated masses and the direct compression mass. However, the direct compression mass had more undesirable properties regarding the processes. Most batches fulfilled the requirements set for uniformity of mass and uniformity of content. Although the purpose of this study was to develop a tablet for veterinary medicine, the results in this study may be utilized in developing a formulation for pediatric medicine.
Now showing items 1-3 of 3