The Online Pet Pharmacy Problem

Lilly and Ginko have their annual veterinary exams later this month. And, one thing I desperately need solved is the problem with using an online pharmacy. Trust me, I know that the veterinary profession shuns such outlets, but even conscientious dog mom’s like me get driven to the brink.

Depending upon the situation, I use:

Being a  major rule-follower, I would use the in-house pharmacy all the time, if it wasn’t such a pain. My main issues? The prices and the dreary customer service.

Rather than buy the “dog” version of clomipramine (called Clomicalm), which is just silly expensive, we use a generic clomipramine capsule. It works fine at much less cost. But, then, the cost of that doubled. No reason. Just doubled through our veterinary hospital. I was paying about $28 for a month’s supply, and it just BLIP went up to nearly $60/month.

I may have hung in there with the in-house pharmacy, despite the increase, but several times I sat waiting to pick up refills for as long as 30-40 minutes … even though I’d called them in days in advance.

I drive about 40 minutes (each way) to the dog hospital. Add in a long wait on site, and suddenly it’s taking me 2 hours to get meds for Lilly and Ginko. Heck, I would even pay a little postage to have the meds mailed here, but no one ever offered that option.

So, I decided to get Lilly’s clomipramine and Ginko’s thyroid meds online. I can get two months worth of both for around $70 total.

[I have to get Lilly’s alprazolam (xanax) at Walgreens because the in-house pharmacy doesn’t have it.]

The Hitch

But, here is the hitch. It’s a total pain to get refills OK’d when I need them. Several times in the last year, I’ve waited a week or more for our veterinary hospital to approve my online or other pharmacy orders. So much for the efficiency of my solution.

I cannot tell if it’s them just being difficult because they don’t approve of my choice or if they truly do have such terrible processes in place to handle these requests. I had to call Monday to beg for a refill OK. After first swearing up and down they’d received no refill requests, the receptionist found the faxes and got them OK’d.

But, should I really have to call? I’ve even tried alerting them by phone that refill requests were coming, but that didn’t speed things up.

This year I may ask for written prescriptions with 12+months worth of refills because it is just silly to have an online or phone order take so long.

Either that, or our veterinary hospital needs to offer an online pharmacy of its own. If the prices were at least in the ballpark and the process less of a hassle, I would jump ship in an instant.

Since I write for several veterinary trade magazines and companies, including the one that offers Vetstreet. I KNOW this is something veterinary hospitals can offer, if they choose.

I sure wish mine would.

I’m pretty sure the meds I get online are what they claim to be. In other words, because of the medical response (including stuff shown in blood tests) is real … I’m confident that I’m not getting counterfeit drugs.

That’s one of the HUGE cautions about using an online pharmacy. Certain drug makers swear they do NOT sell to online pharmacies, and yet … I’m sure you see the TV ads for some common, brand-name meds.

Here’s my beef: If you don’t want pet parents seeking meds elsewhere, then get in the game and offer us your own version of what we seek.