As of December 1, 2018, you will need a prescription before buying a medically important antibiotic for livestock production.
Beef Production Specialist with Alberta Beef producers, Karin Schmid, says a lot of the antimicrobials we use are already prescription only, such as Draxxin.
"What this change will affect are things like your penicillin your tetracycline, scour boluses, sulfa drugs, those types of things, as well as the access to some raw in-feed product. So, if you're mixing Tylan, or chlortetracycline into feed on farm, you can no longer get that product from your feed mill."
Prescriptions are good for one year, and can include refills, Schmid says.
"If you're something like a big feedlot with a fairly regular schedule of usage, you can likely get that prescription to cover off that usage for a year. They've been doing that for sometime."
She says the important part is, to get a prescription you have to have a Veterinarian-Client-Patient-Relationship.
"That means not necessarily that your vet has to come out and examine every animal, but that they have a reasonable idea of what is going on at your place and your herd health protocols."
Source : Steinbachonline