Oral delivery of medications to companion animals: palatability considerations

Comparison of the Palatability of a New Flavoured Drontal<sup>®</sup> Plus Tablet (Drontal<sup>®</sup> Plus Treat 10 kg) and Milbemax<sup>®</sup> Chewable Tablets When Presented to Privately Owned Dogs

“…the time elapsed between offering and consumption of the tablet. Although this information is sometimes considered as a measure of the palatability of a product, consumption should be considered as the measure of primary importance [7]. Nevertheless these studies give directions how much time an animal should be given in an acceptance test when a simple yes/no answer is adequate.…”

“…There are anecdotal reports of some breeds eating all they can get and others (especially smaller dogs) being more "picky". It has therefore been recognized that the dog breed used in a palatability test may have an influence on the outcome [7], and it is therefore advisable to include different breeds into a palatability study. This aspect has been considered in the present household study, which included 38 pure breeds and cross-breeds.…”

“…This may result in difficulties to evaluate whether a medication is taken directly from an owner's hand, which represents the ideal way of tablet application. Even offering the tablet in a bowl may generate invalid data as lab animals are often only used to receive their daily ratio and not to be given treats [7]. Although some studies report the successful generation of valid data in a laboratory setting with acceptance rates of >90%, it has to be mentioned that the animals were at least partially trained and were used to take treats or tablets from a bowl, from the floor or from the care takers hand [8].…”

“…Furthermore measurement of the prehension time is particularly useful in tests for drug formulation design as it is an objective which can be interpreted to be directly correlated with the attractiveness of the formulation. In a screening test with different flavoured placebo tablets, periods of 22 to 62 seconds between offering and consumption were measured [7]. A preference test for tablet formulations of carprofen conducted with trained dogs showed that the majority of dogs made their choice within the first 30 seconds [5].…”

The application prospects and development trends of orally disintegrating tablets to dogs

“…Because ODTs disintegrate in the dog's mouth, the drug will come in contact with the taste buds (FU et al, 2004). An unpleasant taste in the mouth can significantly decrease the acceptance of dogs (THOMBRE, 2004). Bland taste avoids excessive increase in tablet weight due to lots of taste masking materials used in the formulation (FU et al, 2004).…”