Hillary Israeli wrote:

In ,
SullyAndCorey wrote:


[snip]


*I want to order my dogs heartworm meds from www.1800petmeds.com so I
*can save money but when they contacted my vet they denied them a
*prescription. My vet told them I haven't brought my dogs in for a
*wellness check/Physical for over a year. I haven't brought them in
*for their "wellness check/Physical" but I have brought them in when
*they got sick. I bring them in every month to make sure I'm getting
*the correct heartworm meds b/c I knew they were getting close to being
*over 100lbs, and they write it down in their charts, so they have seen
*them.


[snip]


But hey - shouldn't you have given the name of the Petsmart or Petco
veterinarian to these 1800petmed people? Whoever has the did the most
recent physical exam and has the most recent heartworm test on file is the
veterinarian who will be able to approve the prescription for you!


That's exactly the problem - the 'regular vet' can't verify the HWT
because it wasn't done at their office; simply knowing the dog's weight
isn't enough. PetSmart or PETCO (actually Luv My Pet who does the
clinics at PETCO) should have provided a written record of the heartworm
test, but you may have trouble getting ahold of the actual veterinarian
to get a prescription written. Call the office number on your receipt
and see what they can do for you.

Barring that, bring a written record of a negative HWT to your regular
vet and he/she might be willing to write a prescription based on that -
but frankly it's pretty rude to ask someone to take time out of their
day to help you give money to someone else.

A few things to keep in mind when ordering from internet/mailorder/phone
pharmacies:

* The HW med manufacturer will *NOT* honor their product guarantee for
meds obtained in this manner.

* Many of these companies sell product which has been sold in other
countries and re-imported to the US; these items are often not labeled
for sale in the US. At least one person I know has gotten HW meds
labled in Spanish.

* PetMed Express and others have been taken to court, sometimes
repeatedly, for offenses such as: illegal re-importation of product;
sale of improperly labeled, outdated, or non-FDA approved products; sale
of prescription product without a pharmacy license; and most egregiously
dispensing prescription medications without an actual prescription - in
some cases they will forge a DVM's approval, in other cases they have
vets on staff who write Rx's without ever seeing the pet. Given these
practices, how trustworthy do you think they are?

* When you take shipping charges into account, you may not be saving all
that much. In addition, many local veterinarians and Luv My Pet have a
policy of matching prices to any published advertisement.

* There is inevitably a shipping delay, and you will not get the kind of
technical advice your veterinarian can provide. Total value involves a
lot more than price.

* There is inevitably a shipping delay, and you will not get the kind of
technical advice your veterinarian can provide. Total value involves a
lot more than price.

Something we had always feared would happen did happen recently to someone
who thought they would save a few bucks (they really didn't) by getting
their meds from an internet pharmacy. Meds which are quite cheap to begin
with. Two weeks after they requested refills, they still hadn't gotten their
meds. The dog has a serious autoimmune disease and was in a mild crisis that
the meds would have relieved. Their own vet was out of town for the weekend,
the nearest emergency clinic is 50 miles away, so they contacted us. We had
no medical records but did see the client in the night and got them enough
meds to hold them over until Monday. The client went through a lot of
emotions that weekend.

We also had a go around with one of those internet pharmacies last weekend
when they continually faxed us an approval form for a med for a patient we
had no record of - owner or pet. ever. We'd cross it out, deny authorization
and send it back. This went on for a few days until we finally called them
up. All they told us is that "it" was taken care of. I wonder.

We have also had an incident of a medication not matching the previous fill
and after long research it was found that it was filled wrong. Oy. I like to
be face to face with who fills my prescriptions.

Another note, it was explained that since most companies will not sell to
these pharmacies they buy them overseas. Customers should be very wary about
the conditions they are shipped in. Many of these products are sensitive to
extreme temperatures and there is no telling when coming overseas how long
they sit, where.

If this is where our clients want to do business we explain our concerns and
offer them a script to go to a local pharmacy if the meds are available
there. However, if this is their choice we smile and do what we have to do
to please them. But we won't match the price. Our prices aren't much more
than theirs anyway.

* There is inevitably a shipping delay, and you will not get the kind of
technical advice your veterinarian can provide. Total value involves a
lot more than price.

Something we had always feared would happen did happen recently to someone
who thought they would save a few bucks (they really didn't) by getting
their meds from an internet pharmacy. Meds which are quite cheap to begin
with. Two weeks after they requested refills, they still hadn't gotten their
meds. The dog has a serious autoimmune disease and was in a mild crisis that
the meds would have relieved. Their own vet was out of town for the weekend,
the nearest emergency clinic is 50 miles away, so they contacted us. We had
no medical records but did see the client in the night and got them enough
meds to hold them over until Monday. The client went through a lot of
emotions that weekend.

We also had a go around with one of those internet pharmacies last weekend
when they continually faxed us an approval form for a med for a patient we
had no record of - owner or pet. ever. We'd cross it out, deny authorization
and send it back. This went on for a few days until we finally called them
up. All they told us is that "it" was taken care of. I wonder.

We have also had an incident of a medication not matching the previous fill
and after long research it was found that it was filled wrong. Oy. I like to
be face to face with who fills my prescriptions.

Another note, it was explained that since most companies will not sell to
these pharmacies they buy them overseas. Customers should be very wary about
the conditions they are shipped in. Many of these products are sensitive to
extreme temperatures and there is no telling when coming overseas how long
they sit, where.

If this is where our clients want to do business we explain our concerns and
offer them a script to go to a local pharmacy if the meds are available
there. However, if this is their choice we smile and do what we have to do
to please them. But we won't match the price. Our prices aren't much more
than theirs anyway.

In ,
Radical Moderate wrote:

** Many of these companies sell product which has been sold in other
*countries and re-imported to the US; these items are often not labeled
*for sale in the US. At least one person I know has gotten HW meds
*labled in Spanish.

And I saw the stuff for sale in a Stone Harbor NJ pet-accessory store -- I
looked at it and saw it was labelled for sale in Australia. I asked the
store owner about it and was informed it's "entirely legal, it's the only
way for pet owners to get around the vets who are all just trying to rip
you off." I removed my $200 worth of planned-purchases from the counter in
front of the register and said that this veterinarian didn't really care
to patronize the business of someone who felt that way about me. I
wouldn't have made a huge issue of it if she hadn't made that nasty
comment about wanting to rip people off.

* ** PetMed Express and others have been taken to court, sometimes
*repeatedly, for offenses such as: illegal re-importation of product;
*sale of improperly labeled, outdated, or non-FDA approved products; sale
*of prescription product without a pharmacy license; and most egregiously
*dispensing prescription medications without an actual prescription - in

Yes - at least one of these groups (and I honestly do not recall which
one) has sent heartworm medicine to a client of mine after I told them I
did NOT approve the prescription. I found out because the client came in
as instructed, bringing the medicine with her, saying "gosh Dr I, I
thought you said we couldn't get this without coming in first, but look,
they sent it to me anyway!"

h.

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large

In ,
Radical Moderate wrote:

** Many of these companies sell product which has been sold in other
*countries and re-imported to the US; these items are often not labeled
*for sale in the US. At least one person I know has gotten HW meds
*labled in Spanish.

And I saw the stuff for sale in a Stone Harbor NJ pet-accessory store -- I
looked at it and saw it was labelled for sale in Australia. I asked the
store owner about it and was informed it's "entirely legal, it's the only
way for pet owners to get around the vets who are all just trying to rip
you off." I removed my $200 worth of planned-purchases from the counter in
front of the register and said that this veterinarian didn't really care
to patronize the business of someone who felt that way about me. I
wouldn't have made a huge issue of it if she hadn't made that nasty
comment about wanting to rip people off.

* ** PetMed Express and others have been taken to court, sometimes
*repeatedly, for offenses such as: illegal re-importation of product;
*sale of improperly labeled, outdated, or non-FDA approved products; sale
*of prescription product without a pharmacy license; and most egregiously
*dispensing prescription medications without an actual prescription - in

Yes - at least one of these groups (and I honestly do not recall which
one) has sent heartworm medicine to a client of mine after I told them I
did NOT approve the prescription. I found out because the client came in
as instructed, bringing the medicine with her, saying "gosh Dr I, I
thought you said we couldn't get this without coming in first, but look,
they sent it to me anyway!"

h.

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large

"Sharon too" wrote in message
...

If this is where our clients want to do business we explain our concerns
and
offer them a script to go to a local pharmacy if the meds are available
there. However, if this is their choice we smile and do what we have to do
to please them. But we won't match the price. Our prices aren't much more
than theirs anyway.


We had someone come in recently and ask if we would match petmeds price on
something -- my boss looked up petmeds price, added shipping, looked up our
price, and said "sure, I'd be happy to price match, but you'd be paying
about $3.00 more than what I charge everyone else"!!! People don't realize
that when you buy products at the vet clinic you often get special
discounts -- free product, instant rebates, etc.

And this may sound absolutely horrible, but in all honesty, the clients who
choose to buy their heartworm and flea medicine from internet pharmacies,
who are virtually all disreputable, are then NOT going to be the clients we
will offer free promotions or other discounts too. So you may save $10.00,
but I'm not as likely to offer your overweight dog that free bag of Hill's
r/d which would cost you $20.00 (or whatever, I'm just making up prices here
:-)). You also are not going to get the free dose of frontline applied when
you are having problems with it, or don't know how to use it correctly.

Deborah, DVM

"Sharon too" wrote in message
...

If this is where our clients want to do business we explain our concerns
and
offer them a script to go to a local pharmacy if the meds are available
there. However, if this is their choice we smile and do what we have to do
to please them. But we won't match the price. Our prices aren't much more
than theirs anyway.


We had someone come in recently and ask if we would match petmeds price on
something -- my boss looked up petmeds price, added shipping, looked up our
price, and said "sure, I'd be happy to price match, but you'd be paying
about $3.00 more than what I charge everyone else"!!! People don't realize
that when you buy products at the vet clinic you often get special
discounts -- free product, instant rebates, etc.

And this may sound absolutely horrible, but in all honesty, the clients who
choose to buy their heartworm and flea medicine from internet pharmacies,
who are virtually all disreputable, are then NOT going to be the clients we
will offer free promotions or other discounts too. So you may save $10.00,
but I'm not as likely to offer your overweight dog that free bag of Hill's
r/d which would cost you $20.00 (or whatever, I'm just making up prices here
:-)). You also are not going to get the free dose of frontline applied when
you are having problems with it, or don't know how to use it correctly.

Deborah, DVM