ONLINE PHARMACIES If you are thinking about ordering your Heartgard plus, Frontline plus online, you may want to reconsider. Over the past few years online pharmacies have been airing commercials to lure unsuspecting clients into purchasing products directly from them with a claim that they are cheaper. Before you decide to order online, there are a few things you should know.
Many of the drug companies ie. Pfizer, Merial (Heartgard/Frontline), and Fort Dodge do not guarantee their products unless they are puchased through a licensed veterinarian. Many online pharmacies are on the aforementioned drug companies "do not sell" list, therefore, if the drug companies aren't selling directly to the online pahrmacies, then where are the drugs coming from? In some cases, drugs purchased by a licensed veterinarian are bought in mass quatities and are sold to online pharmacies. In other cases, the drugs come from overseas sources such as Germany, Australia, Canada or France. FDA guidelines differ greatly with respect to U.S. drugs vs. drugs manufactured in other companies. Federal law prohibits the importation of many drugs not manufactured in the United States. For more information you can visit: http://www.fda.gov/. There have been known cases of placebo's (a false form of medication containing none or a very minute quantity of the active drug) being inserted into manufacturer labeled products. Sure, the tablets may look the same, but what good is it if there is no medication in them. We have recently received free Heartgard plus taste test samples, which are just the beef chewable tablet without any of the drugs added to it. They look exactly the same as Heartgard and are even the same size, if they were to fall into the wrong hands these treats could be repackaged and sold as Heartgard Plus chewables for a very low cost to you, the consumer.
Merial, the company that manufactures Heartgard and Frontline products, has a 100% guarantee on both Heartgard and Frontline so long as they are purchased directly from your veterinarian. If your dog is on Heartgard for at least 9 months out of the year and happens to cantract heartworm disease or intestinal parasites, Merial will pay for the entire treatment as well as replace your current box of Heartgard with a new one. For more information of Merial's guarantee please visit http://frontline.us.merial.com/products/products_guarantee.asp or
http://heartgard.us.merial.com/products/productsguarantee.asp
So, before you make your next vet care purchase online, take a step back and think about it--is it really worth the risk?
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