Ordering online versus through the vet

One reason I bought prescription drugs from my regular vet is customer service. If I needed a drug that they didn't have in stock, they would very quickly get it for me.
I had to give my boy one exotic-expensive drug, and the my vet's price was fairly competitive.

My vet-opthamologist just gave me a prescription, and recommended that I pick it up at Target Pharmacy.
 
Justme said:
One reason I bought prescription drugs from my regular vet is customer service. If I needed a drug that they didn't have in stock, they would very quickly get it for me.
I had to give my boy one exotic-expensive drug, and the my vet's price was fairly competitive.

My vet-opthamologist just gave me a prescription, and recommended that I pick it up at Target Pharmacy.
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This is a very important point, here. I could see paying a higher price point to a vet for a Rx when I factor in the vet's overhead and services offered to me and my pet. (I doubt that I would willingly pay triple as one poster mentioned, but a slightly higher price is worth it, to me). As I said before, I think the vet should be as concerned about providing me with affordable care as he/she is with the health and care of my pet. But, it's a two way street. I should be as concerned with the vet keeping his/her practice viable (within my ability to affect it) as I am getting good, efficient care for my pet. These are win-win situations to me.
 
The vet I use to work for had some issues with 1-800-pet meds. It was when they first came out with commercials and people would call and ask us to fax them. It was time consuming to some degree to work on those in addition to the daily tasks of people in the office. Taking phone calls from patients and discussing details instead coming in the office he would do daily. He would spend 2 hours past closing working on talking to other vets for consultations, inquiring at colleges about tests and reports, paper work in letter writing when trying new things and such. He was really dedicated to his practice. He would speak with owners every night going over every phone call, and so on. He did this as a courtesy to his patients. He even took some animals home with him at night to watch through the night himself. The sales were a supplement to his practice and if he was losing that then his costs would grow higher and he wouldn't be able to do the extras without any extra costs helping the practice. If someone only came once a year and bought meds outside the vet practice then he could no longer spend time on the phone discussing issues to save them a visit, they would have to start bringing their pets in as extra time and less money wasn't going to keep things going forward in the practice. The patients who spent retail were always open to call him or have special circumstance for their loyalty. If your vet have say 50% if their monthly retail going somewhere else you certainly have to raise prices or cut back somewhere. Those old fashioned vet offices needed those sales to keep vet visits low. I think we were like $40 a visit. This is where a lot or prices began rising through loss in revenue to the clinics. The new xray machine or an ultrasound machine or something costs have to be saved and come from income generated. There were people who needed small payments and who would simply not pay their bill and stick us. These all add up in a practice that people don't realize. He never turned an animal away that needed help and he got stuck with a lot of deadbeat non payers but he always did the right thing. We took in animals that someone didnt want anymore and expected us to put to sleep. He would refuse and say sign the animal over and we will find it a home. You would be surprised at people whose dog peed the floor in old age and decided time to go. We had new born kittens dumped on our doors, dogs abandon and so on. The local zoo brought in a pelican with a part of his beak missing and he worked long and hard on making him an artificial beak, the time experimenting and working on materials late every night was his costs and time. I always admired his old fashion approach. He was the 2nd vet in the town I lived in and worked with the first original vet and learned old school customer care
It is a tough call sometimes. I buy a lot local when I know I could drive further to pet smart but the local pet store ladies have helped me with questions and issues I was working through and are filled with knowledge and give back to the town I live in so I try to shop with them out of
courtesy for their help.
 
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Honestly, if the cost of purchasing Trifexis from my vet was only $10-15 more than buying online, I would have no problem buying from the vets office. But the truth is, my vet charged me $154.35 for a 6-month supply of Trifexis. I pulled out the invoice because I was worried I was exaggerating. I can buy it on Drs Foster and Smith for $95.99(plus tax) with free shipping. I'm sorry, but that's a ridiculous mark-up.
 
Jess041 said:
...my vet charged me $154.35 for a 6-month supply of Trifexis... I can buy it on Drs Foster and Smith for $95.99(plus tax) with free shipping. I'm sorry, but that's a ridiculous mark-up.
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I would agree that seems like a pretty hefty markup. I am a believer that the reasonable price for anything, is whatever the market would bear. For me, that kind of markup is beyond what I could bear. If my vet marked everything up to that extent, I would have some choices to make (new vet???). If just a few of the products the vet provided were marked up to that extend, perhaps the choice is to just find an outlet for those few products.
 
Jess041 said:
Honestly, if the cost of purchasing Trifexis from my vet was only $10-15 more than buying online, I would have no problem buying from the vets office. But the truth is, my vet charged me $154.35 for a 6-month supply of Trifexis. I pulled out the invoice because I was worried I was exaggerating. I can buy it on Drs Foster and Smith for $95.99(plus tax) with free shipping. I'm sorry, but that's a ridiculous mark-up.
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That is high. I better look and see what I paid last time, as next month I will need order another box, the last one will be then. 95.99 sounds pretty good.
 
I was using Trifexis with my Pom ( about $160 Canadian for a 6 month supply), with Hanna I've decided to use Revolution and it's $20/vial, so that's a 25% saving. She just had it applied today, so depending on the weather this may be her last treatment until next spring. I'm really happy to have a good local vet, so even though it may be cheaper online I do want to support his practice. If I had multiple dogs and a tighter budget however I'd shop around.
 
I'm thinking about switching to Program Plus.. If you buy from canada it's free shipping and don't need a prescription for it. One of my mate's in Ruu's Agility class uses it on mini Aussie's and poms and has had no issues (used it for a long time). It's under $50 for 6 months. Seems almost too cheap, but she said she's never had an issue with it and she tests hers regularly for heart worm.
 
EJHUNTL said:
I was using Trifexis with my Pom ( about $160 Canadian for a 6 month supply), with Hanna I've decided to use Revolution and it's $20/vial, so that's a 25% saving. She just had it applied today, so depending on the weather this may be her last treatment until next spring. I'm really happy to have a good local vet, so even though it may be cheaper online I do want to support his practice. If I had multiple dogs and a tighter budget however I'd shop around.
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See I'd be okay with it if I didn't have to use it every month. If I just used it in the summer (or whenever heart worm is popular) I'd be willing to pay $20/pill, but since it's all year long it hurts a little.
 
I know - we used to live in Calgary Alberta and there was no heartworm there - my shelties also never got fleas so I didn't use anything at all. Here in Ontario it's a May to October thing.
 
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