The birth of online pharmacies has created a huge shift in veterinary medicine over the past few years. For many pet owners, purchasing medication online may seem more cost effective than going through their local veterinarian. However, it is important to realize that this process also comes with many risks.

Due to the dramatic decline of pharmaceutical sales in the veterinary hospital, the validity of numerous medications used by pet owners—especially those purchased through online pharmacies—cannot be guaranteed.

When a veterinarian prescribes a medication and the client purchases it directly from the veterinary hospital, the product can be tracked from its source. This means the veterinarian can guarantee the product has been stored at the ideal temperature, is not expired and is in the original packaging.

When a client orders the same medication from an online pharmacy, none of these things can be verified. This can cause several problems. For example, if the medication ordered is not properly shipped (meaning it is allowed to get too hot or too cold) or is not in the proper packaging, it could be ineffective, damaged or unusable.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), illegal online pharmacies may also sell medications that are “counterfeit, outdated, mislabeled, incorrectly formulated or improperly made or stored.”

In addition, many online pet pharmacies purchase their stock from secondary parties not supported by the pharmaceutical manufacturers. Veterinarians only purchase products from reputable companies with whom they have a relationship.  These companies will not and do not sell to online pharmacies; therefore, the pharmacies purchase medication from secondary parties that are willing to sell strictly for financial gain.

This same information can be found in the Risk Factors section of Pet Med Express’ annual reports. The report states, “We may inadvertently fail to comply with various state regulations covering the dispensing of prescription pet medications which may subject us to reprimands, sanctions, probations, fines, suspensions or the loss of one or more pharmacy licenses.”

At The Drake Center, it is most important that our patients obtain quality medications that come with a manufacturer guarantee. It is for this reason that we recommend clients purchase all medications directly from our hospital. If a client declines, we are happy to write a prescription that he/she may take elsewhere. This allows us to be out of the loop if a client does choose to purchase medicine from an online pharmacy.

Recently, we have also lowered some of our pharmacy prices. We know that managing your pet’s needs can be expensive, so we have cut some of the prices at our in-house pharmacy to make caring for your pet more affordable and convenient.