Country Animal Hospital offers a complete in-house veterinary pharmacy for our clients. We have several types of flea, tick, and heartworm prevention options, and our staff is well trained in helping you choose the correct one for your pet. In addition to stocking a full pharmacy of prescription medications, we can also frequently use flavoring on some custom orders to increase palatability and ease of administration of many medications.
Having an on-site pharmacy is important to us because the convenience of seeing your pet’s doctor and picking up your pet’s prescription medication in a single visit reduces the time and cost you may incur both on the original visit and any future medication refill visits. Also, having convenient and immediate access to the many preventive and therapeutic medicines at Country Animal Hospital ensures pets can start recommended medications right away. In a few special circumstances, such as extremely small or massively large pets or unusual medication needs, your pet may require custom medications. In those cases we work with a few carefully chosen, trustworthy compounding pharmacies so we can tailor prescriptions precisely to your pet.
PRESCRIPTION POLICY:
Our doctors are required by law to establish and maintain a veterinary-client-patient relationship (VCPR) before prescribing any prescription products, including food and preventatives. A pet must be examined and evaluated by a doctor within the last 12 months to maintain a valid VCPR. This requirement applies to all veterinarians and all species of animals. By establishing a relationship with us, we are partnering with you to ensure your pet’s best health and welfare.
Therefore, our doctors may only sell or prescribe prescription products if your pet has been examined and evaluated by one of our doctors within the previous 12 months. If it has been more than 12 months since your pet was last examined by a doctor at our hospital please call to schedule an appointment. Please note that some dietary products and most preventatives are prescription products.
Please call us for a refill or appointment before your pet’s medication runs low. Please do not wait until the last minute to call for your refill, as we may not be able to accommodate your request as quickly as your pet needs. Please allow 3 business days for all refill requests. This is to not only ensure we have your pet’s medication in stock, but that our doctors also have the opportunity to approve your request and our staff has adequate time to process the refill. This policy also includes external medication refill requests, as well. We advise that if your pet is on chronic medications, that you submit your refill request with us at least 1 week prior to running out of their medication. Some prescriptions are compounded medications that require additional time for delivery to your home.
**WARNING**
It is very important that you DO NOT self-medicate your pet (giving your pet medication without the supervision of a veterinarian). Even though some medications that pets take might be the same type that people take, the dosages vary and can become toxic if given in too high a dose. Also, NEVER share medication between pets without consulting a veterinarian. We want to make sure your healthy pet is around for as long as possible to continue loving you, and medication sharing may be fatal to your beloved pet.
“The only difference between a remedy and a poison is the dose.” Paracelsus
In the rare instance that we do not stock a particular medication for your pet, or you choose to purchase a different flea, tick, or heartworm product from the several that we carry, we have partnered with Vets First Choice to provide a trusted online medication source. Remember, many online pharmacies obtain their products from illegal and/or untrustworthy sources, and thus most manufacturers will not stand behind their guarantees for products purchased online. Vets First Choice is an exception to this as they have full agreements with the various distributors; they handle their products as any veterinarian would.
