Many dog lovers like myself will spend every last dime doing tests, getting vaccinations, and buying the best foods. Let’s be clear – my dog had insurance YEARS before I did. And I was po’. My only concern was that if something happened to my uninsured butt that my adequately covered parents – yeah, her grandparents – would be there for her.
I know I’m not alone. So I thought this FDA warning about online pet pharmacies was particularly important. The thing is once we’ve spent all our money figuring out what’s wrong, we think maybe we can shop around for the treatment. Makes sense. However, online pharmacies for pets are just like online pharmacies for humans… there are good ones and bad ones. We’ve all heard about online pharmacies that offered basement prices on high demand drugs only to find out they were selling placebos. The same holds true for pet drugs. There are sites that will sell you drugs with no pharmaceutical value and you will be none the wiser while your pet suffers for it.
Here are some red flags to look out for when buying from online pet pharmacies:
- Site does not require veterinary prescriptions for prescription medicines.
- Site has no licensed pharmacist available to answer questions.
- Site does not list its physical business address, phone number, or other contact information.
- Site is not based in the United States. (If an out-of-country site fraudulently takes your money, there’s not much the U.S. government can do to help you get your money back.)
- Site is not licensed by the State Board of Pharmacy where the business is based. (If the site operates in the United States, check the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) website to see if the pharmacy is properly licensed.)
- Site’s prices are dramatically lower than your veterinarian’s or other websites’ prices.
For full information visit the FDA’s Animal Health Literacy site.
Bark of Seattle 