The prescribing of drugs for case in veterinary medicine in Norway was investigated through a cross‐sectional survey. Of the 8741 prescriptions issued for animals included in this study 22% were for drug use in veterinarians' practices. Drugs from all but one therapeutic group were prescribed for use in animals. On average, 49% of the prescriptions were for vererinairy prepirations, 43% were for human preparations, and 8% were for formulations prepared by pharmacies. Of prescriptions for specific animal species, 27% of the preparations were not approved for the intended animal species. The corresponding figures for prescriptions of veterinary and human preparations were 7% and 41%, respectively. Of prescriptions for production animals 17% of the preparations were not approved for the intended animal species, and for pets this figure was 30