"Adlai Stevenson"? Man… those would be some ooooold hippies, in fact they might actually be beatniks.
It’s, like, a hand me down. They, like, got it from Sol’s brother, you know, like the one that wrote “Crazy Kool Radiant Cucumber” and “How Now, Brown Bureaucrat?”
Because giving that medication to a dog with adult heartworms can kill it. Giving out potentially fatal stuff willy-nilly is stupid, dangerous, unethical, and AFAIK, illegal.
Una, no, they are not trying to “soak her” for anything. They refused to sell the meds without the test for the reasons listed above. It’s quite possible that the receptionist misunderstood the vet’s “Hell, no, we’re not mailing her that stuff, and we’re not authorizing anything from the internet, either”, interpreting it as an issue of mailing meds (which is perfectly legal, given a valid prescription) or with dealing with the internet company (whom he couldn’t have given a prescription without doing the test, and has other issues.) It’s quite possible that she was just blowing smoke up the OP’s ass to make her shut up and go away (which, given the OP’s comments when she dropped the dog off, doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable). It’s quite possible that she was talking out her ass just to be talking out her ass, as this seems to be a fairly common problem with veterinary receptionists who think they know a lot more than they do. I don’t know, and it has absolutely no relevance to the initial refusal to dispense the medication. That was medical issue not a matter of cheating, bilking, or fucking with the OP.
And yes, dear, PetMeds does sell Frontline and Heartgard. Unless something has changed since that letter we got from Merial three years ago, telling us they didn’t sell to these companies and we’d better not be selling it to them either, they are selling illicitly obtained Frontline and Heartgard. I never said they didn’t sell the stuff, I said they didn’t get if from legitmate sources. Since Merial is the only legitmate source for these medications, and Merial (at that point anyway) doesn’t sell to these companies, I stand by the assertion that the Heartgard and Frontline sold on that website are not legitimately obtained products.
For most medicines, my vet is much cheaper than the internet places. I suppose the multi-pet discount we get helps. I do compare prices and have found that my vet’s prices are consistantly cheaper than online, not even including the shipping charges.
I give my dogs heatworm preventitive year round. We don’t usually have mosquitoes in December and January here in Wisconsin, but making appointments for all of them before April 1st got to be a hassle since we usually do their annuals in late summer, so I decided to do year round heartworm.
I save approximately $20 per packet on Frontguard over my local vet’s prices (& get free postage too). Their heartworm meds are comparable in price - especially if I don’t order them at the same time (too cheap to get free postage), so I tend to get them from the vet. My local vet does have rather expensive prices for a lot of things - their annual vaccinations boosters are $17 per dog each dearer than another (less) local vet - so I took them there. I have no objections to paying for service, but I do object to being stiffed unnecessarily. However, the same local vet also gave me a prescription for my elderly dog’s heart medication without me even askig & recommended that I take it to a pharmacist & shop around for whichever is cheapest, so it’s an odd mixture.
And like you, I give the meds during the winter too - mostly because I have a very old dog, and it took them the devil’s own time to actually manage to get any blood out of her for the initial bloodtest & the vet said that if I faithfully gave her the meds through the winter, we could do it every two years rather than put her through it the next year too. Even ignoring the benefit to the dog (& it so is a benefit), the cost of the meds for an extra 6 months about balances out (or is cheaper) than cost of the blood test.
First, the condescending “dear” can be omitted in the future. I wasn’t condescending to you in any way, shape, or form, and poking at someone posting facts normally isn’t an intelligent and viable conversation startegy.
Second, I’d imagine that in fact “something changed” - three years is essentially an eternity in terms of e-commerce timescales, changes in licensing, etc. However, despite your qualifier it really looks like you’re making a somewhat bold and clear public assertion/implication that a major online pet medicine corporation is illegally selling prescription medication for pets. I suppose it’s possible, but given that these firms are openly and clearly advertising the wares, and findable by a 2-second Google search, I somehow don’t think they can be that illicit. Searching Merial’s horrid website (“vbscript error 00d00bb0” indeed) does not reveal any clear guide other than it’s only available “through your licensed vet”, which in itself does not preclude internet sales if the seller has a corporate license as a vet or vets on-staff and has a proper prescription transfer on-record.
You could always mail Merial on this specific, exact subject and post their answer, rather than argue further. In fact, that’s what I expect is going to be the only clear way for you to prove your allegation of illegality. Fierra just tried calling them about this, and they are “closed for the evening(?)”…
Your vet may bleed you for unearned fees by padding your bill for other services, but mine sure doesn’t (thank og!). I have a 20 year old cat who was diagnosed with chronic renal failure 3 1/2 years ago. As a result of her condition, she gets quite a bit of medication and prescription-only items. If my vet had refused to submit the prescriptions to online sites and insisted that I purchase them only through her, I would have either had to find a different vet or put my cat down, as their prices are WAY cost prohibitive. Way!
Their office charges $22.43/bag of Lactated Ringer’s Solution, $7.50/IV line and $0.60/needle. I always order a 4 month suppy at a time, so if I had had to buy it through their office, the 8 bags of fluid, 4 lines & 80 needles would cost me, including tax, $278.68. The exact same order through valleyvet.com is $52.50 (no sales tax, free shipping); a savings of $226.18. Given that she’s been seeing this vet now for 3 years, that’s an overall savings of $2,035.61, and that ain’t chump change.
I save more than 50% by ordering her heart meds (Norvasc, for treating high blood pressure), through familymeds.com. My vet’s office wants $57.00 including tax for a 6 month supply of Advantage, which I can order from petshed.com for $29.95 (free shipping) – another nearly 50% savings. They want over $10/tube for her Nutri-cal vitamin supplements, for which I pay $4.19 at Valley Vet, and I don’t even recall how much they overcharge for the pet version of glyco-flex, which I can buy dirt cheap online, as well.
I asked my vet from the very get-go about her willingness to provide 'scripts to online sources and her reply was, “If you can’t afford to pay our office’s prices for her supplies, you’ll do one of 2 things, find a new vet or put her down, which means I lose all your future business and you may lose your kitty earlier than necessary. If you can afford to continue treatment by ordering her supplies from other sources, then I get your ongoing business for quarterly testing and other needs, and you get to keep your kitty with you for as long as we can keep her healthy. I think it works out to both our advantages that way, and I’m more than happy to accomodate you however I can in order to help ensure a long and happy life for your pet.” I run every online source by her before establishing them as a vendor, and she has approved every single one of them. The only caution she gave me was not to buy Advantage from any of the European sources, as the product is often sent over by cargo ship and spends who-knows-how-long sitting in hot warehouses, etc., possibly diminishing its effectiveness. Petshed ships airmail from Australia, so we know the product is safe and effective, so it got the green light.
And in 3 years, I haven’t seen their service fees increase a single dime.
I have spent thousands of dollars in their office having my cat’s blood, urine & blood pressure checked quarterly, and I have saved thousands of dollars more by having a vet who understands that a pet owner who can’t afford treatment for their pet, won’t even be a patient at all.
I gave a condensed version of my conversation, but the last time Bud has his heartworm medicine was June 25th (It’s a repeating appt on my calendar). That means he was about TWO WEEKS overdue, though it was clear that the receptionist did not believe me when I estimated it had been “about 6 weeks” since his last pill. As soon as I said that, she looked at me suspiciously and started looking in the chart. I assume she saw that I hadn’t purchased any HeartGard from them in Dec 03 (which was the date of his last check-up, which included a heartworm test), she assumed that I don’t give heartworm medicine to my dog regularly. Which is incorrect. I do give it regularly, but only during the months when fleas are active. This is not open to debate with me and any vet who tries to strong-arm me into giving it year round or not at all will lose me as a client. It’s an ELECTIVE medicine and if my dog dies due to heartworms because I fail to give it year round, I’ll blame no one but myself.
Now, the reason I didn’t buy any Heartgard from them in Dec 03 is because I had some left over from my previous pet who was put to sleep, also a beagle. But it shouldn’t matter to them how I obtained it in the past. If I SAY that I give it to him regularly, and if I continue to have him checked annually for heartworms, that should be sufficient, end of story. She should have handed me the heartworm medicine with a smile on her face. It wasn’t her job to question whether I was telling the truth. But since she did, and pissed me off in the process, the LEAST she could have done was to follow through and ask the vet instead of forgetting and then pretending that we never had the conversation.
And when I chose to purchase it elsewhere because of her mistake, her response should have been to approve it instead of putting up another roadblock. It has now been another week that’s he’s gone unprotected. How is this in my dog’s best interest? And how is it in the vet’s best interest since he lost me as a client?
Face it, if the vet doesn’t charge enough for his services and needs to mark up medicines, that’s his problem, not mine. I have no problem paying an honest wage for an honest living. I do have a problem with either of them thinking that I because I’m his client, I am OBLIGATED to purchase elective preventative medicines, at inflated rates, from him. Especially when she knew that the reason I was going to an internet company in the first place was because SHE wouldn’t sell it to me when I asked. Then, to tell an already annoyed customer that they’d have to come out to pick up a written PRESCRIPTION, and that she couldn’t fax it to the internet company or mail it to me…well, she was being deliberately shitty and I don’t have any regrets about being pissy right back.
The whole scenario reminds me of my husband’s fight with Sears Optical a few years back. Hubby has an uncle who is an optician in North Carolina. He graciously sells contact lenses to family members at cost. However, he requires a prescription from a local optician and he requires it be updated every other year, no exceptions. So a few years back, hubby goes to Sears Optical for a check-up so he can get contact lenses from his uncle. When he leaves, they try to sell him updated contact lenses and/or glasses. He tells her that his uncle is an optician and asks the receptionist for a written prescription. Believe it or not, she refuses to give one. My husband was incredulous. It seems that were under the impression that if they did the exam, he was then obligated to purchase the contact lenses from them! After an ugly scene, she finally agrees to FAX the prescription to his uncle, but she still flat out refuses to give him a written prescription. There are now laws in place that give consumers the right to a written presciption (and this presumably includes vets, too), but it’s a shame that a law had to be passed because unscrupulous doctors felt that they had a RIGHT to make a profit on dispensing medicines.
Gaaah. FLEAS DO NOT CARRY HEARTWORM DISEASE, MOSQUITOS DO.
I don’t really have any other comments about the whole shebang… I give both you and the vet’s office the benefit of the doubt. Sounds like you need to take yor pets to a new vet that you can get along with. 
As for online vet companies getting their hands on Heartguard and such from non-approved sources, that was the last I had heard too. In the last notes we got at for our service dogs, we were warned that no online retailer had the rights to sell their meds online… the reason given? They were afraid people would give the meds to their dogs after the vets would just approve an order without seeing the pet and then start seeing animals die because they already had an infection (see CrazyCatLady’s explanation of why this is dangerous).
Forgive the non-native english-speaker in me - mosquitoes. Freakin’ funky rules for pluralization… grumble… :smack:
Bud has his annual test (inc. heartworm test) in Dec 03. I have been skipping winter months for countless years with all my dogs, and have always been upfront about this practice with the vets. I have never encountered a problem in the past. When Dr. B asked if I needed heartworm preventative in Dec 03, I reiterated that I only dose during non-winter months and that I had enough to last me awhile at home from my previous dog who had to be put to sleep. He never said that I should re-test before giving his first dose of the year. He never said that he couldn’t sell it to me unless I dosed year round. Instead, he did recommend that I be diligent about giving it as soon as the weather breaks in the spring and to get an annual heartworm test without fail. That’s exactly what I do. And that is exactly why I wasn’t about to pay for another heartworm test.
Had Ms. Receptionist questioned him about it, I know he’d have said no problem to sell the stuff to me. It wasn’t her place to question me, IMO, but since she did she should have followed through. She didn’t. And then she exacerbated the problem by not mailing out the stuff, or if that really wasn’t possible, mailing out the stupid written prescription, when she realized she made a simple mistake. Mistakes I can deal with. People who won’t admit, let alone correct, their mistakes, I can’t.
Oh. Well. Same argument, though. Neither fleas NOR mosquitoes are around in December in Ohio. And for the two dozen that MIGHT hatch on a particularly warm day in mid-winter, I’m willing to take the risk considering Bud only goes out to take a piss. 
The extreme uniqueness of your situation, Shayna, does not alter the fact that those who do buy from their vet help their vet’s bottom line. Thanks for demonstrating the breathtakingly original concept that there’s an exception to every rule.
Just as buying a $15 bottle of shampoo from my hairdresser helps her bottom line. Would it be unethical of me to buy the same product from another source for significantly less money? And would she be within her rights to refuse to name the product that she used unless I agree to purchase it from her?
I never said unethical. I said you get what you pay for.
And if it’s a bottle of SuperTresses that’s $15 in the salon or $6 at Target or a box of Heartguard that’s $18 from the vet and $11 at cheaperpetmeds.com, you’re getting the same thing and paying less, so what’s the problem?
Are you actually holding out that the consumer has some obligation to purchase products at a higher price from a local source just because that source is local?
Bah.
I don’t do preventative meds for heartworm during the winter either. This is Minnesota (previously Ontariariario’s Ottawa Valley - shit, you’d have thought I’d have moved further down south, no?)… the skeeters aren’t anywhere to be seen.
I do test every year, mostly because it would cost me the same to just do lyme testing (and lyme IS a problem here - a growing one).
Back in Ottawa, my vet required a blood test only every 2 years, assuming you had given the preventative during the summer months (7 months out of the year, according to them - because it can catch an early infestation that, say, could have happened in October so you’d treat November too)… but the vet assumed that when you okayed that you had been dilligent in your giving of the preventative meds.
Find a vet you can work with… it’ll be a win win for everyone concerned…
Just FTR, this is indeed bullshit. You can mail prescription meds perfectly legally, you just need to label the packaging as per instructions.
http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm/C024.htm
Scroll down to 11.2 Mailing Standards.
And, I mean, it’s just stupid on the face of it: how does she think all those mail-order medicine companies stay in business? 
Look, I sympathize with your scenario, and if you’re going to have a pissing war with the vet, then that’s your prerogative. However, you’re now bringing your dog into this, and you’re right-- it’s been another week that he’s gone unprotected. If you’re really going to have this battle of principles with the vet, then you need to hold up your end and go find a new one. By now, your dog could have the Heartgard he needs.
If you haven’t had the time in the past week to find a new vet, then I’d say you should cut your losses and get the damn test, and thus the Heartgard. How is it in your dog’s best interest that you’re having this feud with the veterinarian instead of either getting him the test or finding a vet who will give you his meds? It’s not.
Like I said, I understand where you’re coming from, and I’m seeing some unwillingness to cooperate from your vet. However, at this point, you should swallow your pride and get the meds – whether it means getting a re-examination from this vet, or finding a new one.
It’s not quite that simple. If you read the cited US Code, 21 USC 1300, et seq., you’ll see stuff about needing permits, registration and such. For example from 21 CFR 1301.11:
It’s entirely possible the vet is not a registered distributor of controlled substances, and therefore cannot legally mail prescription drugs.