1-800 Pet Meds?

[cali baker]

Anyone here ever use 1-800 Pet Meds for your bully's meds (vs. getting thru the vet)? I need to buy more Sentinel and Comfortis and saw that they sell these w/out a prescription necessary. Anyone have any feedback/input?

 

[bullmama]

I have heard that they may not be from the manufacturer direct and many years ago they got in trouble for sending expired product. Not sure how true it is so you may want to research a bit first.


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[cali baker]

Interesting! I will look into them before purchasing anything. I was a little suspicious that they didn't need a formal rx from the vet, but then again, i'm not clear on the laws for pet meds. Other places like Dr.Foster's ask for the script, for example.

 

[Starkie]

We use them for both dogs. They do require a prescription from our vet for Sentinel. It's all done by them electronically so it's no hassle for us.

 

[Kevikell]

[MENTION=1904]cali baker[/MENTION] Below is a reply I wrote re:buying meds online. I really don't recommend it as I had a horrible experience when I did. I do use these online pharmacies for shampoos and such but not medications.

I actually used Trifexis on both of my bully's without incident for several years. I only changed because of hearing stories like the ones mentioned above. I decided to switch to Sentinel b/c the ingredients were mostly the same as Interceptor which my girls had been on previously before it was removed from the market & I started using Trifexis. My dog had a seizure within 1 hour of taking Sentinel & it scared me to death. Now she is on Heart-guard plus because I have read that the combo-guard drugs (flea + heartworm) are most likely to cause reactions.

I learned a very valuable lesson while I was on the phone with the makers of Sentinel after this happened to my dog. NEVER buy these meds from online pharmacies such as 1 800 pet meds, Dr. Foster & Smith, Vet Depot etc... Novartis does not sell directly to any of these places so where are they getting it from??? That's the question. They told me that it is called the grey market because you don't have any way of knowing if it is a counterfeit or if it's the real deal. You are possibly gambling with your pets life when you purchase medications from these sites. I didn't understand why my vet wouldn't fax a prescription to the one I had requested. They warned me. I didn't listen because I wanted to save a few bucks. What a scary lesson I learned.

**Another EBN member said that she worked for an online pharmacy and that these manufactures did in fact sell product directly to them even though they weren't supposed to. I don't know but it's not worth the gamble if you ask me.

 

[cali baker]

thank you [MENTION=12092]Kevikell[/MENTION], for that info. I think I will stick with getting these from my vet's office, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Cuddles116]

I'm not sure what you are reading but 1800petmeds has always required a rx, it'll be asked for at the end, you can just put in your vet's information and they'll handle it from there. We use it for the boys heart guard plus. Nothing has ever been expired or close to expiring. We had to find a new way to get it as our vet office switched to sentinel and they hate it, we have to cut em into pieces and hide them in multiple things, they know a big piece of cheese or peanut butter is a trap -.-

Jason used petmeds for years on his last dog without any issue, I'm not sure why everyone seems to be against using them they have amazing savings .

 

[Starkie]

I asked my friend Nigel for his opinion about this. Nigel trains dogs and was a Police Dog handler in the UK for many years. He was also a Senior and a School Prefect at the Royal Alexandra and Albert boarding school in Surrey when I was just a junior. Yeah, I was always "in the book" LOL. Anyway I value his opinion, so I asked and here's what he said:

Hi Simon, personally from the information that I have had from vets and tests that have been carried out on veterinary and human medications obtained via the internet I would only get them from the recognised suppliers. There has been a lot of controversy over here, so I imagine it could be the same the world over. Here we have a stuff called Advocate, it is administered to the skin once every four weeks an cures a multitude of things including heart and lung worm. Best regards Nigel

My Ann also raised a point - if you can't tell the difference between the medications from the Internet vs the vet, then how would you know if the ones from the vet's are genuine or fake?

I guess this is one of those subjects that remains controversial with compelling arguments on both sides.

We do know that our dogs both get tested for heartworm every year when they have their comprehensive examination at the vet's office. So if the medication is fake, we will soon find out. Likewise, if the Advantix is fake, we will surely know soon enough if we start seeing a flea infestation at our house or if the dogs start getting ticks.

Thanks for starting this thread. Good information.

 

[cali baker]

I'm not sure what you are reading but 1800petmeds has always required a rx, it'll be asked for at the end, you can just put in your vet's information and they'll handle it from there. We use it for the boys heart guard plus. Nothing has ever been expired or close to expiring. We had to find a new way to get it as our vet office switched to sentinel and they hate it, we have to cut em into pieces and hide them in multiple things, they know a big piece of cheese or peanut butter is a trap -.-

Jason used petmeds for years on his last dog without any issue, I'm not sure why everyone seems to be against using them they have amazing savings .

Thanks for sharing your positive experience with the company! I was on the very last step where I had to pay and didn't have to give the vet info or anything so maybe I didn't go far enough to see that an rx is indeed needed. I just noticed on the Drs.Foster site that they ask for the vet info right off the bat. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[cali baker]

Thank you, [MENTION=7311]Starkie[/MENTION]. Just like with human online pharmacies, it's up to us to check out and research the online pet pharmacy we're using too. There's this acronym that the FDA recommends:

AWARE

A: Ask your vet
W: Watch for red flags (such as not requiring an rx, for example)
A: Always check for site accreditation; the National Board of Pharmacy (NABP), created a program called Vet-VIPPS (Vetrinary-verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites). You always want to make sure the pharmacy you are dealing with is Vet-VIPPS.
R: Report Problems and Suspicious Online Pet Pharmacies; if your bully experiences a bad reaction to the med or you find the med not working you should report these findings to both the FDA and to NABP:

FDA: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ReportaProblem/ucm059315.htm NABP: http://www.nabp.net/

E: Educate yourself about online pharmacies

 

[Starkie]

Thank you, @Starkie. Just like with human online pharmacies, it's up to us to check out and research the online pet pharmacy we're using too. There's this acronym that the FDA recommends:

AWARE

A: Ask your vet
W: Watch for red flags (such as not requiring an rx, for example)
A: Always check for site accreditation; the National Board of Pharmacy (NABP), created a program called Vet-VIPPS (Vetrinary-verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites). You always want to make sure the pharmacy you are dealing with is Vet-VIPPS.
R: Report Problems and Suspicious Online Pet Pharmacies; if your bully experiences a bad reaction to the med or you find the med not working you should report these findings to both the FDA and to NABP:

FDA: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ReportaProblem/ucm059315.htm NABP: http://www.nabp.net/

E: Educate yourself about online pharmacies

Thanks for the useful info, Henny.
So I searched for "Vetrinary-verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites" and found http://www.nabp.net/programs/accreditation/vet-vipps which says:
Vet-VIPPS Sites

Pharmacies displaying the Vet-VIPPS Seal comply with Vet-VIPPS criteria, which address a customer’s right to privacy, authentication and security of prescription orders, adherence to a recognized quality assurance policy, and provision of meaningful consultation between customers and pharmacists.

So I looked at the http://www.1800petmeds.com/ website and it does have the Vet-VIPPS seal at the bottom of the page.

 

[bullmama]

This thread has been very informative! Thanks everyone for all of your input! Nice to know about that seal too.