The Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA) is aware that human pharmacies, including large retail pharmacies such as Costco, are dispensing veterinary-only prescription medications, including seasonal heartworm and tick prevention.

The regulation of human pharmacies, including their scope of practice and dispensing activities, falls under the jurisdiction of the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba.

The Pharmaceutical Act defines prescription as:

“prescription” means a direction given by a practitioner directing that a stated amount of a drug specified in the direction be dispensed for the person named or animal described in the direction.

Under the current legislative and regulatory framework in Manitoba, human pharmacies that are appropriately licensed and operating within their scope may dispense veterinary prescriptions. The MVMA does not have the authority to regulate or restrict the dispensing activities of human pharmacies.

While similar practices have been reported in other Canadian jurisdictions, regulatory requirements are determined at the provincial level. There have been no changes to MVMA by-laws or expectations for members

Current Requirements and Guidance

As per MVMA General By-Law No 1:

Provide prescription on request

4-6-6 Where a VCPR exists, the Practicing Veterinarian Member must, upon request by the client, provide to a client a prescription instead of dispensing the prescription product.

As per section 2.6.3.3 of the MVMA PIPS By-Law All prescriptions must contain the following information:

i. Date
ii. Client
iii. Animal or group
iv. Drug–including generic name and strength
v. Direction for use–dosage, route, frequency, duration, withdrawal times
vi. Quantity
vii. Refills

If you have been asked to provide the prescription to a pharmacy directly, ensure that the pharmacy is properly registered in Manitoba. All practices that offer pharmacy services through The Veterinary Medical Act are required to hold a Practice Inspection Practice Standards (PIPS) Certificate. All practices in Manitoba that hold a PIPS Certificate are listed on the MVMA website on the Veterinary Practices Database.

All human focused pharmacies in Manitoba are regulated by the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba. A public register of pharmacies in Manitoba is available here. More information about human pharmacies can be obtained by contacting the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba.

The MVMA rules require you to provide a prescription when requested. If you are unable to confirm if a pharmacy is registered in Manitoba, you can provide your client with a written prescription for them to fill themselves.

The MVMA by-laws do not prohibit veterinarians from charging a reasonable prescription administration or processing fee. Decisions regarding such fees are at the discretion of each veterinary practice. However, regardless of such fee, a prescription must be provided upon request.

Continuity of Care and Professional Responsibility

This situation raises broader considerations related to continuity of care, patient safety, and appropriate oversight in the prescribing and dispensing of veterinary medications.

Veterinarians remain responsible for ensuring that prescriptions are clinically appropriate and supported by a valid VCPR. Clear communication with clients regarding treatment plans, product use, and follow-up care continues to be essential, regardless of where a prescription is filled.

The MVMA recognizes that members have raised concerns regarding continuity of care, product sourcing, prescribing oversight, and the broader impact on veterinary practice sustainability. The MVMA is developing an advocacy approach on behalf of the profession and will continue engaging with relevant stakeholders regarding these concerns.

If you have concerns about the care received at a pharmacy or the conduct of a pharmacist, please contact the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba .

Practice guidance information is available on the MVMA website:

https://www.mvma.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/written-prescriptions-guidance-doc.pdf

The grant assistance is now available to provide summer employment to:

• WCVM students who have completed their first year ($6500), second and third year students ($5000)
• Veterinary Technologist (VT) students who have completed their first year from a Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) accredited program ($6500) or
• Pre-veterinary students who have completed their first, second, third or fourth year of science ($6500)

Who Can Hire Veterinary Students as part of VetSTEP?

Veterinary practices and practitioners licensed to operate an active, large, or mixed animal practice located in rural Manitoba are eligible to participate in the program. Clinics and practitioners specializing in small animal medicine are not eligible.

Businesses and non-profit organizations operating a livestock operation in rural Manitoba are eligible if they employ or have a service contract with a veterinarian licensed to practice large or mixed animal medicine in Manitoba. The veterinarian must directly supervise the student.

How Do Clinics Contact VetSTEP and Submit a Grant Application?

Review the Program Terms & Conditions: 2026 VetSTEP Program Terms and Conditions, Factsheet: 2026 VetSTEP Factsheet v0.3 and Application form: 2026 VetSTEP Application Form, visit https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/funding/vetstep.html or email VSD@gov.mb.ca.

Once the clinic and a student agree on summer employment, the clinic submits its application to VetSTEP by emailing VSD@gov.mb.ca.

Please note both the employer and student must sign the application form.

The application deadline is May 7, 2026.

We encourage you to utilize the VetSTEP funding as an early recruitment tool. If students have positive work experiences, benefit from career development and learning opportunities within your practice, establish relationships with your team, and within the community, they are more apt to consider working and relocating to your community following graduation.

For Further Information

Contact VetSTEP by emailing VSD@gov.mb.ca or calling Omotola Ologbenla (204-729-1387).

Call For Volunteers

The PIPS Bylaw Implementation Committee is seeking input from MVMA members who regularly perform activities such as rehabilitation, acupuncture, and chemotherapy in their daily practice. Your insights are essential to establishing acceptable standards of practice and ensuring that the new activity-type bylaws reflect the needs of those directly involved with these procedures.

If you are interested in contributing, please contact the MVMA via email, mvmainfo@mvma.ca,

April is Volunteer Month, and we want to sincerely thank all of our volunteers for the time, effort, and care you give to support our work. Whether you have served on a committee, helped organize or run events, supported initiatives behind the scenes, or volunteered your time working with animals, your contributions make a real difference. We also want to give a special thank you to our dog volunteers, who brought a lot of joy to the people and events they were part of!

Your commitment helps us deliver programs, support our community, and keep things running smoothly. We truly appreciate everything you do. If you are interested in volunteering, please keep an eye out for opportunities shared through our communications.

As a small token of our appreciation, please watch your mailbox for a gift coming your way!

Thank you again for your continued support.

Virtual Continuing Education Webinar | March 19 | 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm

Join us for an evening of continuing education focused on honey bee health, disease identification, and the practical tools used to protect colonies. This webinar will bring together experts from academia, government, and industry to explore bee biology, modern beekeeping practices, biosecurity measures, and diagnostic services available in Manitoba.

This session is open to veterinarians and veterinary technologists, and it provides 3 continuing education credit hours. Veterinary students may attend free of charge.

Date: March 19
Time: 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Location: Virtual

Topics and Speakers:

Biology and Lifecycle of Honey Bees
Dr. Nuria Morfin, Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba
An overview of honey bee biology and colony development. This presentation will help participants understand how healthy bees grow and behave, and how disease can disrupt the lifecycle of a colony.

Beekeeping as a Hobby or a Profession
Matthew Polinsky, KRTP Lead, Honey Bee Industry Knowledge and Research Transfer Program (KRTP)
An introduction to Manitoba’s beekeeping industry and the equipment and management techniques used to maintain healthy colonies, whether for hobby beekeeping or commercial operations.

Identification and Biosecurity of American Foulbrood Disease
Derek Micholson, Provincial Apiarist, Manitoba Agriculture
A look at two significant honey bee diseases, American Foulbrood (AFB) and European Foulbrood (EFB). This session will cover identification, risk factors, and the biosecurity practices used to prevent, contain, and mitigate disease spread between beekeeping operations.

Diagnostic Services for Honey Bee Diseases in Manitoba
Dr. Neil Pople, Veterinary Microbiologist, Veterinary Diagnostic Services, Manitoba Agriculture
An overview of the diagnostic tests available in Manitoba for honey bee diseases, with particular attention to sample submission procedures and laboratory testing related to AFB and EFB.

Register Now

Student Registration

The National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities (NAPRA) has released a consultation entitled “Model Document for Pharmacy Regulatory Authority Use – Non-sterile Compounding Standards” and “Model Document for Pharmacy Regulatory Authority Use – Sterile Compounding Standards”. The Document is intended to guide provincial pharmacy regulators in shaping pharmacy compounding practice across Canada. Such NAPRA documents presently exist for sterile and non-sterile compounding and establish a standard of practice when adopted by a pharmacy provincial regulatory authority (PRA). The intent is to replace those documents with the current consultation Document. You will find the NAPRA document in the link below:

CONSULTATION DOCUMENT “Model Documents for PRA Use Compounding Standards” January 2026

Patient safety is a shared professional priority. However, certain proposed changes, if adopted, could have adverse impact upon veterinary clinics and, by extension, upon the patients we collectively serve.

Why this matters to your clinic

1. Potential loss of access to compounded medications for office use

Restricting or eliminating office use compounds will likely result in:

• Treatment delays
• No “on hand” compounded drugs and therefore, reduced timely patient access to drugs not commercially available but needed for emergency use
• Increased cost (ultimately) to patients

It has always been the right of Canadian practitioners to obtain drugs they deem necessary for their office practice (“office use” drugs). This has been recognized at the Canadian federal and provincial levels.

LINK Food and Drug Regulations section C.01.043

The revised document for consultation is noticeably absent the term “office use” but instead, uses “patient-specific.” As such, it can be argued that “office use” will cease in any Canadian jurisdiction where the revised consultation Document is adopted, since there is no provision in it for such procurement by practitioners for use within their practices – even if permitted by practitioners’ licensing authorities/practice standards. Pharmacies would not be permitted to compound “for office use” but only where a “patient-specific” prescription is issued by the practitioner, given the content of these proposed standards.

Below are examples of how the concept of “office use” is permitted across Canada within various professions.

https://www.napra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/NAPRA-Mdl-Stnds-Pharmacy-Compounding-Nonsterile-Preparations-EN-March-2018-CLAR-Jan-2022.pdf

(Current document, @p4, “3. Regulatory Framework” para #2: “In the absence of a patient-specific prescription, and with a prescriber’s order for office use, compounders may prepare a compounded product at an appropriate scale, time or frequency to ensure it is being used within a patient–healthcare professional relationship. Compounders may also prepare batches of compounded product in limited quantities in anticipation of future prescriptions.”)

https://www.cvo.org/standards/guide-use-of-compounded-drugs-in-veterinary-medicine

(see “In-Office Use”)

https://ocpinfo.com/ocp-resources/six-important-tips-for-using-the-narcotics-monitoring-system/

(Point #3)

https://oralhealthbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/03.02.021-prescribing-and-dispensing-drugs.pdf

(see pages 6 & 7)

https://www.ontario.ca/files/moh-odp-reference-manual-en.pdf

(p346, “Office Use Prescriptions”)

2. Reduced maximum beyond-use dates (BUDs) for compounded preparations

The proposed standards introduce more restrictive approaches to assigning beyond-use dates for both sterile and non-sterile compounded medications. If implemented, these changes could substantially shorten BUDs for necessary compounds, particularly sterile preparations. Shorter BUDs may make compounding impractical by increasing costs, increasing medication wastage and therefore limiting a clinic’s ability to stock essential drugs. If a compounder has stability data supporting longer BUDs, there is no scientific evidence that these proposed limitations are “rooted in objective replicable science and provide clear patient benefit.” (March 17^th, 2022 Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding letter to USP Compounding Expert Committee)

Suggested Action

NAPRA has explicitly requested feedback through these consultation surveys. Veterinary voices are critically important, as these standards are written primarily through a human-health lens and do not fully reflect the unique realities of everyday veterinary compounding practice. It is essential that NAPRA hears directly from veterinary professionals about how these proposed changes could affect patient outcomes, clinic operations, and access to care.

We respectfully encourage you to:

1. Complete the NAPRA survey sections relevant to compounding, particularly those addressing Office-use compounding and Beyond-use dates.
2. Provide written comments via respective survey input areas, describing how these changes would impact your clinic and your patients.
3. Contact NAPRA directly to share your perspective as a veterinary healthcare provider. (info@napra.ca).

The consultation is open until March 15, 2026 (11:59 p.m. ET).

Thank you for taking the time to ensure the veterinary profession’s patient care needs are considered and included in these changes to national compounding standards.

Jennifer Yonda, RPh, Designated Manager, Summit Veterinary Pharmacy Ltd.

Dean Adams, President, Summit Veterinary Pharmacy Ltd.

Information for Veterinary Practices in Manitoba

The Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association has been asked to assist the Manitoba Agriculture Traceability Program in encouraging PIPS inspected veterinary practices, specifically mixed, large, or consultative practices that work with livestock, equine, or poultry, to apply for or update their Manitoba Premises Identification Number (PID).

Important Information for Veterinary Practices

For veterinary practices in Manitoba:

• All owners and operators of premises with livestock and poultry, including veterinary clinics, must obtain a PID Number.
• Owners and operators of small animal clinics are not required to obtain a PID Number, but may apply for one if they wish.
• Most veterinary clinics in Manitoba already have a PID Number. For those who do, it has been several years since their information was last updated. Clinics are advised to submit their most current information to the program for updating.
• For clinics that do not currently have a PID Number, Manitoba Agriculture would like to include them in the program. Much of the information is publicly available, and if a clinic does not submit an application, the program plans to reach out directly to capture any missing information.
• Applying for a new PID Number or updating an existing one is done using the same application form. The application link is provided here: Manitoba PID Program

About Premises Identification

Premises identification is an essential part of a traceability system. 

• In Manitoba, it links livestock and poultry to geographic locations to improve emergency management.
• Under the Animal Premises Identification Regulation, all owners and operators of premises with livestock and poultry must complete a premises identification application.
• Manitoba’s premises identification system maps out parcels of land where livestock and poultry are grown, kept, assembled or disposed of.
• All owners and operators of premises with livestock and poultry must supply basic land information by completing an application.
• This information is then entered into a confidential database, and a unique national Premises Identification Number is assigned to the contact.
• In a crisis, such as a disease outbreak or natural emergency, officials can use the Premises Identification database to quickly identify individuals who may be affected.
• Manitoba is working with federal, provincial, and industry partners to take this critical step toward a traceability system.

Apply to the Premises Identification Program

There is no cost to participate in the Premises Identification Program.

Participation supports the planning and management of animal health and food safety emergencies and strengthens Manitoba’s traceability system.

Apply Now: Manitoba PID Program

Contact Information

For any additional questions, please contact Victoria at 204-250-5872, the PID program at 204-250-5872 or email traceability@gov.mb.ca.

Connecting Veterinary Professionals and WCVM Students Across Manitoba Agriculture

Sponsored by: Manitoba Agriculture and Keystone Agricultural Producers

Event Overview

MVMA presents VetConnect MB, a networking and learning event designed to bring together veterinary professionals and WCVM students. This is your opportunity to connect, learn, and explore careers in Manitoba agriculture while engaging with diverse voices in the veterinary community.

Lunch and Learn – FortWhyte Alive

Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026
Time: 10:30 am – 1:00 pm
Location: FortWhyte Alive

What to Expect:

• For Veterinary Professionals: 2 hours of Continuing Education credit

• For WCVM Students: Free registration

• All Attendees: Land-based, in-person session featuring Andy Wood and Emma Harper from Four Arrows Regional Health Authority

• Learn from Indigenous perspectives and lived experiences rooted in land-based learning within the veterinary and agricultural community

• Meet veterinary professionals and clinics across Manitoba

Registration Includes:

• Lunch

• Admission to the Lunch and Learn session

• Ticket to the Member Engagement and Awards Dinner:

Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026
Time: 5:00 pm. – 9:00 pm
Location: The Gates on Roblin

More information here: 2026 Member Engagement and Awards Dinner

Why Attend?

• Veterinary Professionals: Earn CE credits while connecting with students and colleagues

• WCVM Students: Meet clinics, learn from Indigenous voices, and explore career paths in Manitoba agriculture

• Engage in meaningful conversations, broaden understanding, and build connections across the profession

Registration:

• Veterinary Professionals: $75

• WCVM Students: Free

REGISTRATION CLOSED

Each year, members of the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association recognize individuals who have made meaningful contributions to the advancement of veterinary medicine in Manitoba. You can see our previous recipients here: MVMA Members of Distinction

To honour these achievements and celebrate the profession, the MVMA will host the Member Engagement and Awards Dinner on Saturday, February 21, 2026, at The Gates on Roblin in Headingley. The evening will begin with a networking reception, followed by dinner and the annual awards presentation. This year’s program will also include the Manitoba Veterinary Technologists Association awards, recognizing outstanding contributions by veterinary technologists.

This event offers an opportunity to connect with colleagues, recognize excellence across the veterinary profession, and celebrate the collective impact of veterinary medicine in Manitoba.

Event Details
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026
Location: The Gates on Roblin, Headingley, Manitoba

Schedule
Networking Reception: 5:00 to 6:30 pm
Dinner and awards presentation: 6:30 to 9:30 pm

Registration and Pricing
Veterinarians: $50
Veterinary Technologists: $25
Guests: $25

Please complete the registration form below to secure your tickets. Advance registration is required.

REGISTRATION NOW CLOSED