Sources and scope
About this data
Understand what each section represents, where its information comes from, and how to check its review status.
What this site is
This is a personal drug reference combining two different kinds of information in one search: Health Canada’s Drug Product Database (DPD) — the federal government’s public registry of marketed drug products in Canada — and unreviewed clinical evidence (species dosing, indications, contraindications, adverse effects, interactions, pharmacokinetics) collected from open sources and the site operator’s own personal reference material. These two kinds of information carry very different levels of reliability, described below — always check which kind you’re reading.
Regulatory information vs. clinical information
A DPD record provides regulatory product information. Check the individual record’s market status and the species recorded in the source. The clinical facts on a drug’s page — dose, indication, contraindication, adverse effect, interaction, pharmacokinetics — have a separate source and review status. Proposed entries have not completed the stored clinical review workflow. Neither kind of information is patient-specific treatment advice.
Why a species listed in the DPD record does not prove suitability
When this catalogue shows “DPD species: Dog” or “DPD species: Cat”, that means Health Canada’s record lists that species against the product — nothing more. It is not a statement that the product is safe, appropriate, or recommended for any individual animal. Species suitability for a particular patient depends on factors this catalogue does not capture: the animal’s breed, weight, age, health status, and the judgment of the prescribing veterinarian and dispensing pharmacist.
What the clinical evidence sections cover
Every drug’s own page can show species dosing (with an interactive weight-based calculator), indications, contraindications, precautions, adverse effects — including raw openFDA adverse-event report counts, which are spontaneous reports, not proven effects or incidence rates — monitoring parameters, pharmacokinetics, and pregnancy/lactation notes. Sources include DailyMed, openFDA, PubMed, PMC Open Access, and the site operator’s own personally-owned reference books (Plumb’s, Papich’s Saunders Handbook), used under a personal, non-commercial reference basis. Review status belongs to each individual assertion; automatically collected or proposed entries should not be treated as independently verified. Some drugs also have a printable owner handout (a plain-language summary for the client, not a substitute for the prescribing veterinarian’s own instructions).
The Conditions index links WSAVA Global Guidelines topics to drugs already in this reference; it provides bibliographic links, reference summaries and source-attributed findings. Consult the linked original guideline for complete practice guidance.
The interaction checker combines two signals: a structured, pre-graded human drug-interaction dataset (DDInter, a DrugBank 5 mechanism-text snapshot, and the ONC High Priority DDI List) and this app’s own weaker proxy (one selected drug’s name or class appearing in another’s own reference text). The structured dataset describes interactions studied in human patients — a shared active ingredient is a reasonable starting signal for an animal, never a species-verified one.
Check verification status
The verification dashboard separates stored assertion review counts from independent, scoped source checks. A source check does not approve a production record. Unavailable counts are explicitly marked.
When the source data was retrieved
Every product record on this site carries its own source snapshot date — the date Health Canada’s extract was retrieved — shown on that product’s detail page, along with the exact archive checksum the record was projected from. This catalogue does not use a single, site-wide “last updated” date, because different records can enter the catalogue from different extracts over time; always check the individual record’s own provenance section. Clinical evidence is refreshed periodically as new source data is ingested and is never backdated to look current.