Internet Pharmacy Companies
We appreciate your business and thank you for being a valued client of Sharon Lakes Animal Hospital. We understand that pets are special members of our families and our goal is to make a difference in the lives of both pets and the people who love them.
As part of that goal, we want to provide excellent medical care. A substantial part of providing medical care to pets involves good communication with pet owners. After all, unless you know the important facts and your options, it can be difficult to make a wise, informed decision.
In recent years, internet pharmacy companies have become prolific and in vogue, primarily due to heavy advertising that might best be described as “partially true.” We feel it is your privilege to have prescriptions filled where you wish; however, we hope you will be open to hearing “the rest of the story” as it relates to these internet pharmacies.
Major drug companies such as Novartis (the makers of Sentinel & Interceptor), Merial (the makers of Frontline) and Pfizer (the maker of Revolution) do not sell their products to online pharmacy companies.The online companies buy the majority of these products through either overseas sellers, from doctors who buy an overstock and then resell it,or counterfeiters. All of these activities are unethical, and the distribution channels are unverifiable, so the drug companies refuse to honor their safety and efficacy guarantees on products sold by these internet companies. Such guarantees are available only if the products are purchased through licensed veterinary channels.
As to price, most veterinarians have modified their pricing in recent years to be quite competitive. At Sharon Lakes, we offer our own online discount pharmacy for our clients (accessed through a button at the top of our website), where we are able to offer lower prices because we do not have to order and stock the items. Your order is reviewed and approved by a Sharon Lakes staff member, and is shipped directly to you from our licensed distributors with full manufacturers’ guarantees. Our online pharmacy prices are very competitive with leading internet pharmacy companies. An added convenience is that if your pet has a problem with the product, if you change your mind or find you bought the wrong product, we will back it up 100%.
If you would still prefer to order medications through an internet pharmacy company, we are happy to provide a written prescription for your pets. (See policy below.) Please understand that our doctors appreciate you asking for this during regular visits, or with 24 hours advance notice. It is not possible for us to stop during scheduled patient visits to provide written prescriptions for other pharmacies. Also, like most physicians’ offices, we do not communicate with or send prescriptions directly to pharmacies, local or online, via fax or internet. We WILL provide a written prescription to you, our client, to have filled wherever you choose – and we’re happy to mail it to you if that’s more convenient.
We feel that our knowledge and our client relationships are two of our strongest assets. We also want to provide you what you need in the 21st century. We hope that our knowledge, our discount online pharmacy, back-up of our products, our free shipping on any order over $39.00, and being available here at the hospital 6 days a week provide both value and convenience to you. Please let us know how we can be of service, and THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALLOWING US TO CARE FOR YOUR PETS!
Your Friends at Sharon Lakes Animal Hospital
Internet Pharmacy Prescription Policy
If you do prefer to purchase your products from these discount internet pharmacy companies, we will write a prescription for you to use for the products according to the following guidelines:
- All state and federal prescribing laws apply the same as if you purchase it here.
- We will write a prescription for your pet's medication. You may pick up this prescription in person or we will mail it to you. We always appreciate being able to write the prescription during your regular office visits; however, if this is not possible, we do need 24 hour's notice to have a written prescription ready for you.
- To avoid any doctor-patient confidentiality issues, and avoid the potential for faxed prescriptions to end up in the wrong hands, we will not communicate with pharmacy companies via fax or email. In fact, we do not fax prescriptions to any pharmacy, local or otherwise, for these same reasons.
- It is your responsibility to ensure that the prescription is sent, filled, labeled, shipped and used correctly. We cannot be responsible for errors made by these companies, nor for ordering the prescription for your pet.
- We will not be involved in product failure, quality, or incorrect dosing issues for these products.
In addition to our own online pharmacy, we also offer a 24-hour prescription refill hotline (704-552-7694 x.16) for clients who want us to fill their prescriptions and either have it ready for pick-up the next day, or mailed to them at no extra charge. This has been a very popular service for many clients who want convenience, but want to be served by people they know and trust.