Anyone buy pet supplies online?

[mouseclick1]

I've been looking around on the web and see many sites that sell heartguard and other pet supplies at pretty low costs. None of the sites are familiar to me though, and I want to make sure I'm using a reputable one. How do you know if you are ordering from a decent company? Any recommendations? Thanks!

 

[peg2001]

I have used both Drs. Foster and Smith, and ThatPetPlace. We get all our heartworm and flea medication thru Drs. Foster and Smith at a MUCH lower price than our vet. Very reputable. They have an excellent catalog sales as well as being online.

I use ThatPetPlace for aquarium supplies because they are a tad cheaper. . .but they don't carry some of the meds we use on the cats and dogs.

I'd highly recommend either one for quality products and saving money!!

Peggy

 

[mouseclick1]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

 

[Meriweather]

I used Drs. Foster and Smith but when I ran a search for you it said that Heartguard needed a prescription and they didn't send it out.

 

[peg2001]

You do need a prescription for Heartguard. We just get the 'script from our vet and mail it in to Drs. Foster and Smith. Our vet offered to match the price until we showed them the cost and they couldn't do it, THEY pay more than Drs. Foster and Smith sell it for.

Peggy

 

[peg2001]

Oh! Another option if your vet won't give you a 'script, you can order the heartworm pills (exact same product) through an Austrailian company without a 'script. My sister did this when her vet refused to give her more pills without running another heartworm test (he wants to do this ANNUALLY) and that wasn't an expense my sister could pay at the time.

I don't remember the name of the company she used but I could find out if anyone is interested.

Peggy

 

[DocRafiki]

There are no reputable online pharmacies. Those companies (Bayer, Novartis, etc.) will not sell their products to online pharmacies, pet stores, etc., so they have to go through "alternate routes" to get them. If you look on the box when you get it, it often states that it is not for use in the USA. In other words, you're bypassing FDA/EPA safeguards. It is widely-known that the flea products aren't as effective, we think due to the fact that the shipping isn't regulated and they likely are stored at high temps for long amounts of time. I've seen about 6 clients who have bought ineffective products (of the quality products like Frontline and Advantage) either online or at pet stores... then of course they had to have their pets' flea allergies treated on top of buying the US-approved product. I certainly wouldn't put my dog's life on the line by buying Heartgard that may or may not work. Then, regarding the person who is bypassing the rule to test every year... you'll never know if it isn't working. Heartgard only guarantees their product if you buy it through a vet AND get tested annually.

 

[peg2001]

Thank you for the information, DocRafiki. It is always great to get information like that directly from someone in the field.

I would agree that it is probably not the best policy to buy medications from overseas but it was either this or nothing at all for my sister as she did not have the $$ for the heartworm test AND the pills. I don't understand the ANNUAL testing because my vet does not do this. It is every 2 or 3 years for testing as long as the dog has consistently been on the meds.

As for the flea meds, we have been using Advantage through Drs. Foster and Smith for years and the product works great! We have had no quality issues at all.

Also, Drs. Foster and Smith are here in the USA and are vets themselves with their own clinic. Are you familiar with them? The mail order (and now online) is a very profitable sideline for them. So, I respectfully disagree to your statement that "There are no reputable online pharmacies."

Peggy

 

[mouseclick1]

Thanks, DocRafiki. That was the kind of info I was looking for. I haver never dealt with the online companies and didn't know too much about them. Looks like I'll stick with going through our vet.

Thanks to Peg2002 also. I appreciate your comments, I guess I just don't want to take any chances.

 

[ahutton]

We took our dog for her regular check up, and then bought her prescription at petmeds.com. It cost us the same for 12 months supply on line as it did for 6 months in our vets office, and they actually called our vet to verify it was the correct prescribed medicine and for the correct weight of our dog. I was very pleased with their service, but you do still have to take them in for their once over and shots...

 

[DocRafiki]

Originally posted by peg2001
Also, Drs. Foster and Smith are here in the USA and are vets themselves with their own clinic. Are you familiar with them? The mail order (and now online) is a very profitable sideline for them. So, I respectfully disagree to your statement that "There are no reputable online pharmacies."

Peggy

Every online pharmacy has a vet on staff, just to make things legal. They do not have the proper VCPR (veterinarian-client-patient relationship) required to prescribe meds. That is why they have to have a proper vet write the prescription. What a sweet gig -- you get paid for use of your license # and don't actually do anything.

So, do you base your "educated" opinion on them on the fact that they're profitable, or the fact that they're vets? Neither one means anything. The American Veterinary Medical Association disagrees, and the FVMA has even sued a few of them and won. Thanks for your input. Their products are inferior, and the companies are harming the state of veterinary medicine in the US (which in turn hurts pets). And if you HONESTLY can't afford a $20-50 test every year for your dog, you honestly should not have a pet (though I don't believe that very many pet-owners really can't "afford" it... they'd just rather spend their money on internet access or trips to Disney).

 

[Mish19]

My mother uses petmedexpress after she gets my dog fully tested and looked over by his regular vet. Most vet offices just charge too darn much for meds or other products. I tried to buy dental care products from my vet and I realized I could do much better through online stores.

My dog has epilepsy so he takes phenobarbitol so instead of having the prescription filled at the vet office she goes to a regular pharmacy since it is a person medicine as well. The price at the pharmacy is more reasonable than the vet office. Is there a problem with that? Should I be concerned?

 

[JuliaEeyore]

DocRafiki -

Hi! Are you familiar with MediVet.com? I've been purchasing Inteceptor and Frontline Plus (I know, no script necesssary) from them for a while as my vet charges an arm and a leg. (And we have two expensive doggies - bulldog and basset that we will pay fortunes for when needed... palate/nares surgery was just done on our bully in June.)

ANYWAY... MediVet is EXTREMELY particular about hearing from our doctor AND getting a faxed script from him when I order. And both dogs always are extremely up-to-date on all their shots and tests (ie Heartworm... in fact, they wouldn't send it to me as after we adopted the basset, our office neglected to run the HW test on her. Of course, we ran her back in and cleared that up.)

Same meds, free shipping, next day delivery... nice staff... and BIG sticklers for "the rules." All very positive things in my mind. Just curious if they're known in your circle and if maybe I'm oblivious to something "sinister..."

Thanks!

Julia (and Grover and Emily!)

 

[nancyj_pa]

I've been using Omahavaccine.com for a few years now for Advantage for my cat. No problems! The prices are so much cheaper than the vet's and it's the exact same thing. They also carry a lot of pet supplies.

 

[Tarheel Tink]

As DocRafiki has said, the reputable companies that manufacture the products will not sell to these companies. For these companies to get these products they have to get them one of two ways- 1- foreign distributors or 2- veterinarians who have breached their code of ethics.

For a prescription to be written, a CURRENT negative heartworm test is necessary for the preventatives (legal requirement) and must be within the confines of a veterinarian-client relationship.

One client was dispensed preventative from one of these companies despite it being denied twice because of there being no current negative test (remember-this is legally required). Not only did a vet she had never met sign a prescription for it, but gave more refills than would be normally approved.

Another client received a product labelled for foreign distribution. Other countries have different standards for production, manufacturing and clearance for distribution. Only your imagination limits the possibilities of potential problems that may arise from this type of illegal distribution.

Please realize that your veterinarian has to pay for these medications out of her/his pocket and add some markup to cover their costs of shipping/etc. Some comments I read seemed to hint that they were charged "too much". The mark up is minimal in many cases.

 

[peg2001]

Originally posted by DocRafiki
Every online pharmacy has a vet on staff, just to make things legal. They do not have the proper VCPR (veterinarian-client-patient relationship) required to prescribe meds. That is why they have to have a proper vet write the prescription. What a sweet gig -- you get paid for use of your license # and don't actually do anything.

So, do you base your "educated" opinion on them on the fact that they're profitable, or the fact that they're vets? Neither one means anything. The American Veterinary Medical Association disagrees, and the FVMA has even sued a few of them and won. Thanks for your input. Their products are inferior, and the companies are harming the state of veterinary medicine in the US (which in turn hurts pets). And if you HONESTLY can't afford a $20-50 test every year for your dog, you honestly should not have a pet (though I don't believe that very many pet-owners really can't "afford" it... they'd just rather spend their money on internet access or trips to Disney).

Wow! Didn't mean to get your fur flying! You did not state whether you are actually familiar with Drs. Foster and Smith. If they are vets in the USA and happen to also sell pet products by catalog and more recently online, just HOW is this less legitamite than buying directly from the vet down the street that wants to charge twice as much?

Sorry, I see no point in throwing extra money at the local vet when I can buy the exact same product for much less. They get enough of my money as it is.

The proper care of a cat or dog costs MUCH more than $20 to $50 per year so yes, that extra cost coming at the wrong time CAN be too much. You will have to euthanize most of the pets in this country if you want to eliminate the owners who occasionally can not afford a $200 vet bill. Good luck with that.

You also didn't address why my vet does NOT run the heartworm test each year if it is so critical. Shall I report them as incompetent?

Peggy

 

[cassie]

My Vet knows I order my dog products from Drs Foster & Smith, and at times she will recommend buying from them than her to save money. They won't sell their script meds online. Only thru the catalog. My dog has arthritis in her hip and needs Synovi-MSM which is costly. She started the dog on it and says it would be much cheaper to get it from Drs Foster & Smith, as the dog needs to be on it for a looooong time.