At Jelsema Vet Clinic, our goal is to provide excellent, focused care for your animal companions. Our doctors and support staff value their relationship with you and aim to provide comprehensive and personalized care. That’s why we are updating our prescription policy to be more in line with these priorities and better serve you and your family.

We will no longer be communicating directly with third-party pet med pharmacies such as PetMeds and Chewy but instead will provide written prescriptions if you choose. This is due to several concerns.

• Manufacturer’s product guarantees are voided when the product is purchased through unlicensed channels. Big box pharmacies often obtain medications through third party companies (gray-market brokers) that divert these veterinary products around the intended chain of custody set aside by the manufacturers. This action then nullifies the warranties on these products.
• There is increasing concern about the legitimacy and storage of medications sold online. By communicating directly with the pharmacy, we feel it misleads our clients into feeling that we approve of the safety and efficacy of what they are purchasing when actually we cannot vouch for the safe storage and legitimacy of medications not sold through authorized veterinary channels.
• Massive time-loss involved in third-party prescription approvals. When we receive a prescription request from a third-party pharmacy, it begins an unnecessarily lengthy and redundant process that takes time away from your pets and ties up our phone lines. We are choosing as a hospital to spend our time focusing on taking care of our patients and clients instead of answering duplicate faxes and calling pharmacies.

 

We understand that cost is the main reason that our clients purchase from outside pharmacies and online retailers. We do our very best to make our medications and preventatives affordable and provide rebates to make sure that our prices are competitive. Most importantly, by purchasing directly from our hospital and from our online store, you are supporting our local business. Rather than send your dollars off to a large corporation, we would hope that you would choose to support our small business and shop locally.

 

We would like to encourage our clients to order medications and preventatives directly from us through direct purchase at our hospital or from our own online store. Because our online store is part of our clinic infrastructure you will not need a written prescription if you order this way. Our hospital and online store’s supply chain is 100% secure. From the time the medication you order is manufactured, all the way to when you are going to give it to your pet, it has been handled, stored and packaged in compliance with manufacturer guidelines. The product you receive is guaranteed to be the name-brand medication in the proper dosage and packaging. Medications purchased directly from us and our online store are guaranteed by the product’s manufacturer and most importantly by us, your pet’s veterinarian.

 

We absolutely support our client’s choice to choose where they obtain their pet’s medications and are happy to accommodate a request to do so. Clients who opt to obtain their pet’s medication through big box stores will simply need to pick up a written prescription at our hospital. Note that we cannot email written prescriptions but if you are unable to pick up a physical copy, we can mail one to you for a flat fee.

 

If you have any further questions about our policy, please do not hesitate to contact us. We thank you for your support!

 

Your Friends at Jelsema Vet Clinic!