Pharmacy Info

Dispensing Medicatons
As directed by law a veterinarian can only dispense/prescribe medication to those patients that have a current veterinarian-client-patient relationship. This requires examination of the patient annually. It is illegal to dispense medications to patients that have not been seen by the veterinarian, regardless if the patient has a written prescription from another clinic/veterinarian. We are able to prescribe and dispense medications only for our current patients.

Third Party Pharmacies
Effective immediately we will no longer be accepting requests from third party pharmacies which includes Chewy, 1800PetMeds, Amazon, and more. If you chose to use a third party pharmacy we will provide you with a written prescription which can be submitted to the pharmacy of your choice. The written prescription(s) can be picked up from our hospital.

We have several reasons for this policy change:

• We believe in safe products. There may be a significant percentage of online medications that may not be safe. Many online pharmacies are selling products that the manufacturer has not sold directly to them. Some medications may even be counterfeits which can be dangerous to our pets. They may not have been stored properly or even near or exceeding expiration. These products may then be ineffective or dangerous to our pets.
• We have found numerous issues with medications filled by third party pharmacies. There have been times where they fill the incorrect dosage or the incorrect drug. We have also found third party pharmacies filling drugs that were not approved by a veterinarian.
• It is taking away from patient time. Online pharmacies send us requests to approve a prescription and they often send it multiple times daily via fax, email, and sometimes even phone calls. Their fax machines sometimes do not work when we send in approved prescriptions nor do they process our approvals when we call them directly to their pharmacist. Many online pharmacies will request refills from us when the owner has not. All of this requires more staff time reviewing patient charts and less time treating our patients. It also leads to frustration for you and us when a prescription is not filled quickly due to all the extra steps involved.
• Dosing Safety. We are not able to track refills well which leads to patient safety concerns.

We do caution you to be wary of where you order from online, as pharmaceutical products may be marketed through third-party sites and unverified vendors. As an alternative to other online pharmacies and to ensure that you receive the proper prescription for your pet, we have our own online pharmacy service, Koala Vet Pharmacy and/or faxing to a local pharmacy such as Costco, Carrs, Fred Meyer, Walgreens or Bernie's.