ANIMAL CARE HOSPITAL

1991 St. John Ave.  Dyersburg, TN 38024

 

On-Line pet Pharmacies and What You Should Know

  Beware of TV advertisements for pharmacies selling medication and other supplies for your pets, especially Heartworm Prevention.  These places you see advertise are not licensed Veterinarians.  They are strictly pharmacies like the ones where you have your medications filled.  Now, think about this:  There is no Doctor/Patient relationship with these pharmacies.  Would you feel comfortable taking medications yourself or giving medicine to your family that was given to you by someone who has never examined you or your family and who was not even a doctor?

At the Animal Care Hospital, we pride ourselves on providing our clients and patients with the highest quality care available.  In doing so, we form a certain bond or relationship with you and your pet.  This bond is extremely important in being able to provide your pet with the proper veterinary care they may need.  This relationship is also a legal requirement in being able to dispense any prescription medication to your pet.

 

 

 

You also need to be aware that the manufacturers of such products as Heartguard, Interceptor, Advantage, etc… DO NOT guarantee these products purchased from the online pharmacies.  They will only guarantee their product when they are purchased from a licensed veterinarian and where there is a valid doctor/patient relationship.  The manufacturers of these products DO NOT sell directly to these online places, therefore they will not guarantee these products because they don’t know where they came from.  When these online pharmacies state they offer a 100% guarantee, it is only from the pharmacy itself, NOT the manufacturers of these products.  Purchasing prescription medication from other sources can be dangerous to your pet’s health, especially since they have never seen or examined your pet nor are they familiar with their history.  You also don’t have any idea where they are actually getting their products from since the manufacturers WILL NOT sell to them because they are NOT licensed Veterinarians.

These online companies have also been accused of illegally selling pet medications in the United States that were actually manufactured specifically for the Australian and other foreign markets.  These foreign medications are NOT approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for sale in the U.S.  The formulation of these products and their instructions for use are different from the products we purchase directly from the manufacturers such as Novartis and Merial.

   Many people are using these online pharmacies because they feel like they are saving a lot of money or the shipping is more convenient.  After comparing or prices with one of these online pharmacies, there is only a dollar or two difference in almost all products and when you add their shipping and handling charge their cost is actually more.

    For your convenience, we have adopted a shipping program for our clients who would like to have certain products mailed directly to them.  We can ship these products to you the day you call and they will reach you within 2 to 3 days depending on what city you live in.  When you order from these online pharmacies, you are forced to wait longer while they fax prescription authorization requests back and forth for approval.

In addition, when you order Heartworm Prevention from these online places, we are forced to test your pet every year instead of every other year which will cost you an additional $23.50 per year.  We must test every year because these products are not guaranteed by the actual manufacturers and we don’t know where they actually came from.

We want to share an example of how little these online pharmacies care about you or your pet.  We have received several prescription authorization requests for Heartworm Prevention from online places and in some cases we cannot approve them because of the animal’s safety.  There was either a problem with the animal not currently on Heartworm Prevention or there was no current negative Heartworm Test available.  We wrote this information on the prescription request and returned it to this online company.  We made it clear to them that it was not in this animals’ best interest to fill this Heartworm Prevention because he needed to be tested.  However, this online company didn’t care about this reason or the health and well being of this animal because 2 days later we received another request to authorize this prescription.  Their request this time was asking us to just go ahead and authorize it this one time to dispense this medication and they would inform our client that a test was needed.  If we had signed that prescription and this client received this medication and then gave it to their pet not knowing whether or not he had heartworm disease, it could have very easily been fatal for their pet.  Since this online pharmacy is not a licensed veterinary office, this didn’t seem to concern them when they sent a third request to just go ahead and sign the prescription authorization this one time even AFTER we informed them this pet needed to be tested first.

As you can see, there are far more risks involved when purchasing medication from anyone except your veterinarian.  There is no substantial money saved and in most cases more money is actually spent.

So please think about what you have just read and ask yourself:  ‘Is saving a dollar or two really worth jeopardizing my pet’s health and well-being?’

Please contact us at the Animal Care Hospital, 731-285-6270, with any additional questions or for more information.

What are the risks involved in buying Heartworm prevention from online pharmacies rather than your Veterinarian?

*These pharmacies employee pharmacists, not doctors of Veterinary Medicine, and they have never seen nor examined your pet.  

*This also means that they are not familiar with your pet or their medical history.

*These pharmacies DO NOT buy their medications directly from the manufacturers because these manufacturers will NOT sell to them.  This is because there is no licensed Veterinarian on staff that has examined your pet and formed a valid doctor/patient relationship.  Therefore, we have no way of knowing where they get their products from.

*There are no guarantees from manufacturers of the products they are trying to sell, only the pharmacy itself.  The pharmacy agrees to refund the product cost if you are unhappy.  So in other words, if your pet gets heartworms after taking any of these medications, they expect you to feel better because you get your money back.  

The guarantee from the manufacturers of these products is completely different.  They guarantee their product if you have purchased it from your licensed Veterinarian.  They guarantee product replacement or reimbursement but most importantly, they guarantee medical treatment of your pet should they become ill which is highly unlikely with their products.