At Pflugerville Animal Hospital, we take pride in being your furry family member’s doctor and see our role as an integral part in providing healthcare to your pet.
It is our practice policy to provide written prescriptions to our clients at their request. We do not charge a fee for writing prescriptions for patients. We do, however, wish for your decision on where to have your pet’s prescription filled to be an informed one, and feel it is part of our responsibility as your pet’s doctor to advise you to consider the following:
We will provide a written prescription on request provided we have recently examined your pet and the particular medication or product is appropriate. The time frame of “recent examination” is at the doctor’s discretion but will never exceed a maximum of one year from your pets’ last annual Wellness examination. The written prescription can be provided directly to you, or we can call it in to the pharmacy of your choice. Given that review of your pet’s history and prescriptions is required for any prescription we require 48 hours notice. Please keep in mind that we close early on Saturdays, and are closed on Sundays, so this may increase the time needed to get approval.
If you choose internet sources, we will document the request and our response in the Patient/Pet file. All prescriptions called in to a pharmacy are automatically recorded in our phone system. All electronic communications are also archived.
Please double check to ensure your prescription is sent, filled, labeled, shipped and used correctly. Carefully select your choice of pharmacy including thorough research for Board of Pharmacy disciplinary actions and is licensed in the state they reside in.
Some guarantees made by manufacturers regarding their products are null and void (not honored) if their products are purchased through non-approved channels. This includes the guaranteed reimbursement for heartworm/intestinal parasite claims if your pet contracts heartworms or specific parasites while on prevention.
Some internet based pharmacies and catalog companies have been repeatedly reprimanded by the FDA and State Board of Pharmacy for violating prescribing procedure. Several well known companies have been cited and fined repeatedly for the same violations in the same state or several states!
Pharmaceuticals manufactured and labeled for use in other countries (Australia, New Zealand) have been illegally diverted and sold through some internet sources and catalogs in the United States. In addition, counterfeit medications, preventatives and products have been produced and sold to unsuspecting consumers. The FDA-CVM has documented these problems with the use of some internet sources. You may visit FDA.gov for more information on making sure you are purchasing from reputable sources for your pets medications.
As a small business we do our best to keep our costs as competitive as we can. If you want the convenience of ordering online and getting your medications shipped directly to you, but you want to keep the peace of mind of knowing your pet’s medications are coming from a reputable source, we have a online pharmacy with our main distributor who works directly with the drug manufacturers. Our online pharmacy offers competitive pricing and many rebates that are only available when purchasing directly from a veterinarian’s office. Visit our online store here to shop online.
