PetMedic Hospitals Prescription Policy

Benefits Of Our Pharmacy

• Knowledge: Our veterinarians and medical team receive extensive training in the proper use, safety, and benefits of any given veterinary pharmaceutical, including off-label use which is common in veterinary medicine. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are rarely trained in veterinary pharmaceuticals, and are typically only able to explain the label claims of any given product. Our professional, animal-based knowledge helps keep your pet safe.
• Safety: We only keep pet-safe medications in our pharmacy. Retail human pharmacies are known to substitute medications that contain dangerous ingredients, like xylitol, that have caused pet illness. Pharmacists simply don’t know enough about pets to realize they may be giving a toxic substitution to the pet owner. That lack of professional, animal-based knowledge can lead to serious complications for your pet.
• Flexibility: By filling your pet’s medications in our pharmacy, we maintain a record of your refills, assuring your pet is getting the medication on schedule as needed. This can allow more flexibility with the exam and testing requirements when treating your pet since we are familiar with your circumstances. When you refill your pet’s medications at a retail human pharmacy, we have no record of the frequency of refills. That can spell trouble for your pet and their health if you fail to refill on time or fail to disclose the medications they are receiving during treatment.
• Shop Local: As Las Vegas veterinary professionals, we truly care about you and your pet, unlike the retail human pharmacies and online pharmacies where you are just another transaction. With us, you are doing business with compassionate, pet-loving professionals who are your neighbors and friends, not a distant corporate office or someone who may have never cared for a pet.
• Product Guarantees: We stand behind our products! Guarantees offered by manufacturers are often only honored if the medication is purchased through a veterinary pharmacy. Generic heartworm medication available at retail pharmacies may not have a treatment guarantee in the event your pet contracts heartworms or intestinal parasites while receiving the product.

Prescription Refill Request Policy

Please call, text, or email our office directly for any prescription refill requests. You can also request prescription refills through our PetDesk app. Our team will be happy to fill your pet’s prescription so that you can pick it up directly from our hospital. Our policy enables you to have prescriptions filled directly through the hospital or have a written prescription prepared for you to deliver to a pharmacy of your choosing. Please remember to plan ahead. While we work diligently to accommodate requests as soon as possible. We ask you to provide 72 hours notice for prescription requests. If utilizing third-party/online sources, we encourage you to plan ahead 7 to 10 days to ensure adequate turn-around time from all parties involved.

Third-Party Prescription Requests

We respect the right of our clients to get their pet’s medications from the pharmacy of their choice. Unfortunately, there are a high number of requests by online pharmacies that are inappropriate and inaccurate. By contacting us directly, we can provide the safest and most efficient service for your prescription refills. If you are choosing to have a prescription filled through another pharmacy, we are happy to prepare a written prescription for you to pick up, just as your doctor supplies you with a written prescription for any human medications. You may request to pick up a written script or ask for it to be emailed to you. This prescription can then be taken or mailed to any pharmacy of your choosing. Each pharmacy will have its own policies as to how they process written prescriptions. They may require an original ink signature on the written prescription (which means you would have to pick it up from our office and deliver it to the pharmacy of your choosing). Please make sure to check with the pharmacy you plan on using in advance so there won’t be any lapse in medications if they require you to mail in the handwritten
prescription.

Please Note: We are unable to call in prescriptions to a pharmacy on your behalf. If you are
planning to have a prescription filled at a third-party pharmacy, you will need to obtain a written
prescription from us OR have the pharmacy send us a refill request that can be completed and
emailed/faxed back to them.

Things to know about prescription refills:

• Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship: If your pet needs medication, the Nevada Veterinary Board stipulates that there must be a valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship. This means that in order for us to be able to fill any prescriptions, one of our veterinarians needs to have examined your animal within the past twelve (12) months. Some medications require follow-up appointments and/or lab work to help monitor the response and risks associated with the use of the medication.
• Refill Requests Timing: We ask that you allow 72 hours for any prescriptions to be filled to allow our team to review the request and your pet’s medical record.
• Online Pharmacy Prescriptions: Our relationship with the drug manufacturers ensures that the prescription drugs we dispense are safe and trusted. In fact, all of the major veterinary drug manufacturers maintain a strict practicing veterinary–only sales policy. These manufacturers have this policy in place because they know that veterinarians and their staff are best suited to discuss the issues relating to safety and efficacy, as well as, the side effects and risks that may be associated with your animal companion. Exactly how some of the retailers and internet pharmacies acquire your pets’ medications is not publicized given that they circumvent the “veterinary-only” sales policies of the drug makers. Many of these companies obtain their products through diversion. Diversion, for most of these cases, involves a way for these companies to obtain the drugs from an unauthorized channel. Most diverted products are purchased from the manufacturer by unscrupulous individuals who resell to an online pharmacy to make a quick profit. Although we recognize that diversion is not necessarily illegal, we do feel it is an unethical method. Diversion eliminates the ability to know exactly how your pet’s medication has been stored or handled and whether it is an effective or even a safe product. Furthermore, products purchased through online pharmacies will null and void any manufacturer guarantees or reimbursement programs due to product failure.

Please visit the website below for further information:
https://www.avma.org/prescriptions-and-pharmacies-pet-owners-faq