Cheap online pet meds

[BostonRott]

Was surfing around and found a place, PetShed, that seems to have very good prices (better than 800 Petmeds).

Here's the URL:

Pet Shed

[Brooke&Ryan]

Thanks for the link Gretchen. I bookmarked it in case I may need to use it someday!

:)
Brooke

[BostonRott]

Always willing to share! :)

[Carina43]

Thanks for posting this - I was just talking to a friend today who was just laid off and really broke. She even had to cancel internet until she gets financially on her feet - and is buying HW pills for her BIG dogs in individual pills for $25.00/month because she can't afford the whole packages right now. (Now, that's really broke!
:( )

I told her I'd find a good online source & spring for some HW meds for her puppers, this is really inexpensive. Thanks!

[brightlife99]

Hi all,

I saw this posting and just wanted to share an experience I recently had with 1-800-Pet-Meds.

I ordered and gave the name/number of my vet as requested, and I received a call from my vet a few days later. They advised that the makers of Heartguard, etc. WILL NOT GUARANTEE the quality of their products when they are sold through online retailers. The vet said these companies will refuse to pay the costs of treatment for pets if they contract heartworm while taking meds purchased through Pet Meds and the like, however they WILL stand behind the products when purchased from a licensed retailer, such as a veterinary clinic (these online stores are apparently not endorsed retailers of the products).

I immediately suspected the vet was trying to get me to buy the products from them at a higher cost, but they indicated they would match Pet Med's prices for me.

I can't vouch for the real story but can only tell you that I canceled my order and bought the product from the vet. We've been using this vet for years, and they're thought of very highly by many in this area, so I have a difficult time believing they would tell me that if there was no truth to it. The name of my vet is Stow-Kent Animal Hospital in Stow, OH if anyone wishes to contact them. At a minimum, I'd recommend contacting your own vet before purchasing discount meds online. Heartworm is nothing to be left to chance, and if these manufacturers are truly unwilling to stand behind products sold online, I'm concerned that there may be a reason for it (freshness, expiration, etc.)

Just wanted to pass on the info.

Tom & Pone

[Helen B.]

Another place with very good prices is:

www.kvvet.com

[tugger5000]

At those prices, I would check to make sure that the stuff they are selling you isn't expired or grey market products:
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/petproduct.htm

[Patty1231]

Brightlife99 - my vets advised against purchasing on-line medications as well because you can't be sure of where these medications are obtained, tested, or shelf-lifed. You could be getting an inferior or out-of-date product. I do get my K9 Advantix on line but continue to get Interceptor from my vet. I don't know if there is any real validity to their concerns, but their prices are actually cheaper than PetMeds anyway.

[hmeadq]

Originally Posted by brightlife99

Hi all,

I saw this posting and just wanted to share an experience I recently had with 1-800-Pet-Meds.

I ordered and gave the name/number of my vet as requested, and I received a call from my vet a few days later. They advised that the makers of Heartguard, etc. WILL NOT GUARANTEE the quality of their products when they are sold through online retailers. The vet said these companies will refuse to pay the costs of treatment for pets if they contract heartworm while taking meds purchased through Pet Meds and the like, however they WILL stand behind the products when purchased from a licensed retailer, such as a veterinary clinic (these online stores are apparently not endorsed retailers of the products).

My trainer (who is associated with our vet) told us that they will only gaurentee our heartworm medicine if we get stool samples checked every so many months and there were a couple other things you had to do to in addtion to having records from every purchase from a vet...

I feel safe buying from PetMeds, but I would be careful buying from other places. Its like buying from CVS's mail order pharmacy or some generic "Canadian" pharmacy.

Our old vet would not give us a perscription for our old dogs heart medication on line. And it was not until we had asked for it that he even told us he had generics for the dogs pills, which took the daily med cost from $4 to $1.50!!! After that dog when to the Rainbow Bridge we switched vets when we got Doc. That seemed very funny to me...

[groupieindenial]

What is a "generic Canadian pharmacy"?

The only online pet meds I am aware of that is Canadian, is www.petpharm.org and are an accredited pharmacy in the province of Ontario.

The pharmaceutical industry is a HUGE industry and those involved like Dr.s and vets expect to have their suppliers discourage the public from buying from any other source besides their own. The vets make $ on the meds, and so do their suppliers. To say to buy meds from your own country is a ploy to support the industry within your country. Unless it is expired, I cannot see why purchasing directly from online distributors would have less quality than the stock your vet has is ridiculous. To put it simple, meds are a lot cheaper in canada. I think its a combination of our $ being lower, so the exchange rate works in favour of americans, and the fact that our health care system in general (which go hand in hand with the pharmaceutical industry) is not privatized.

[hmeadq]

Originally Posted by groupieindenial

What is a "generic Canadian pharmacy"?

What I meant to differentiate was legitimate and non-legitimate (or reputable and non-reputable) online pharmacies.

Many online pharmacies (selling human drugs) which try to sell drugs to US citizens claim to be from Canada, they are, in fact, not. Those drugs are coming from other places and are often of dubious origins. That is why I put Canadian in quotes, because legitimate Canadian pharmacies are, of course, safe sources of drugs, but a pharmacy you find on line which claims to be Canadian is often not...

That's all I meant... I'm sure PetPharm is as safe a source as PetMed...

[groupieindenial]

AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, okay.

[2rotties2luv]

When my rottie was on long-term cephalexin therapy for an allergy related skin infection, my vet sold them to me for $.97 per capsule. I found I could buy them from PetMeds or Medi-Vet online (I forget which) for 200 for $19.95. I know that my vet's office has a very large mark-up on prescriptions.

I purchase GlycoFlex II from Countryside Pet Supply for about $20 less per jar than my vet sells it for. Before I purchased it from them, I called the manufacturer and verified that the online store was a customer of theirs and was not selling expired product. The manufacturer verified that the online store is legitimate and that they get a huge quantity discount that they pass on to their customers. The vet's office, on the other hand, has to buy them for the highest price because of the small quantity that they buy.

My vet said that there has been a problem with heartworm products being sold online, some may be legitimate, but some that are being sold are counterfeit drugs and some are past expiration. So I do buy the HeartGuard from my vet at their exorbitant prices, just to be safe.