"But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Teri-Ann Baldwin — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 15:35:42 GMT

It's really worrying how uninterested the VMD are, yet if we supplied POM-V's to animals and hadn't seen the animal at all then we can get disciplined?! Ridiculous. Getting really fed up of it now. There need to be enforcements made. I'll definitely look in to these leaflets though and hope it deters people.

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Selena Carnell — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 20:04:51 GMT

Yep client came in last week and can get advocate from amazon with no script. Our vet phoned the VMD and they weren't really interested just said they were aware and they just open new accounts in a different name.

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Helen Tottey — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 14:46:50 GMT

I think the VMD have leaflets explaining clients can be prosecuted for getting POM-V drugs on line. I know this is not exactly helpful but at least it shows clients that it is not us "making things up" or trying to be awkward - we are just being law abiding!

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Teri-Ann Baldwin — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 11:24:03 GMT

Sal i completely agree, some people have a quick search online for their animals symptoms and then look up drugs that can treat it and order it without even knowing the side effects or where it comes from. I've seen clients who have also ordered metacam online, overdosed and given their cats liver failure. I had a guy yesterday who kept laughing when i said about advocate needing a prescription but when his partner came in with the dog as i'd managed to get them to have an appointment she was worried about ear mites and the dog had thinning fur (it turned out to be seasonal alopecia) but how would she have gotten this advice if she'd just bought online? It worries me that owners are quite happy to buy online with no advice and no idea what they are doing just because they don't want to see a vet because 'it's expensive.' People don't realise that if we didn't have the NHS they'd have to pay for all their drugs and then would they just not go to the doctor because it's expensive and dose themselves with drugs for chronic heart diseases?! I think not!

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Sal the 1st — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 11:08:29 GMT

I have come across people in the past buying online without a script and not just flea and wormer (metacam from Australia and also propalin I remember clearly) who then come into the practice for advice on its useage, and my advice is to contact the pharmacy that supplied it, or I can make an appointment for a vet consult,in the case of the propalin the client wasnt even registered with us. Now I would hope in the case of metacam and propalin that they had been legitimately prescribed for that animal at some time in its existence (or else why would the owner be choosing to use these drugs?) but who knows?

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Teri-Ann Baldwin — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 10:26:52 GMT

[quote user="Lisa Goodship"]

Here in NZ you can sell all flea preparations and wormers to any customer, registered with your clinic or not, we even divide up the packets and sell them as singles, you can also buy some flea preparations from pet shops - animates - is usually more expensive though.

[/quote]

Yeah most of that is the same in the UK some flea and wormers are sold in pet shops as they arent prescription only such as frontline and then preparations we hate such as bob martin >:( drontal is sold over the counter here as a wormer. We will sell non-prescription fleas and wormers to non-clients but anything prescription we must see the animal - that's where the problem is. We also split packets to sell as single pipettes etc that's no problem. Just here if something is a prescription item they have to be seen every 3-6 months depending on the drug.

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Teri-Ann Baldwin — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 10:19:00 GMT

[quote user="Bizzy McClure"]

You could try to (politely) tell the client that it is illegal for them to buy Advocate without supplying a px. Also they need to be aware that these products are often shipped from abroad so there is no guarantee of the conditions (temp/humidity) that they are kept in. They also need to consider that if they are buying from dodgy companies not guarantee that the product is actually genuine. There have been a few cases of fake products being sold.

[/quote]

I always do this. I also tell them it's a legal requirement for us to check the animal every 6 months but people just don't seem to understand. I've also tried to put it in human medicine terms asking if a client would buy something unknown online for themselves without actually knowing where it came from or even if it was the correct product. I'm at my whits end, but it also doesn't help when other vets are telling them they don't need to be seen every 6 months which is such bad practice!

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Honeybadger — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 23:15:59 GMT

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

Lisa Goodship — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 22:11:47 GMT

Re: "But i've gotten advocate online without a prescription..." :@

SmegSlayer — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 21:19:04 GMT

I was always told that online pharmacies outside the UK couldn't sell to a UK address