Heartgard and Nexgard from Chewy?

[ks-man]

Up to now I've always gotten Heartgard and Nexgard from our vet.  I was just looking at Chewy and it is much cheaper than what I've been paying.  Is there any reason not to get those from Chewy?  I see that they need to contact my vet for a prescription however I would hope that my vet would be willing to provide one.  Thanks for any thoughts.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

By law, a vet is required to provide a prescription to a pharmacy, either brick and mortar or online, at the request of the owner. However, they do not have to provide them for online retailers that do not have a pharmacist on staff, such as chewy. My vet follows these guidelines. The manufacturers of the products provide guarantees when you purchase them from your vet, but not when you buy them elsewhere. Counterfeit product abounds, and this is one reason for that policy. 

We have had discussions about this here in the past. Some of the manufacturers, including Merial, have stated that they do not sell to online non-pharmaceutical retailers, which means that if you find the products being sold through one, the products are either counterfeit or have been obtained through third party sellers. There have also been cases where veterinarians themselves were selling the products to online retailers. 
I got some suspicious Heartguard from Foster & Smith years ago, and stopped looking for "bargains" on my dogs' HW meds. The few dollars you might save per month are not worth it to me. 
Frontline and similar spot-ons do not require a prescription, so those are better bets to purchase online. 

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

How can you tell if it is counterfeit?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

One way is that is DOESN'T WORK. LOL   Another is if you have the old package from the vet and look at the new one from a place like Costco or Amazon or wherever, you can sometimes see the differences in packaging.  I once got counterfeit Proviable from Amazon.  It wasn't working , but I was blaming myself for perhaps not keeping it in a cool enough environment.  I got an e-mail from Amazon informing me that the box of Proviable was counterfeit.  I happened to have my old box as well as the new one and I compared them.  The bar codes were different - one was embedded into the box, one wasn't and the pink on the boxes were different.  Very subtle differences, but differences.  Many times it is much easier to tell  - misspellings, odd grammar. poor labeling.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Also, why are you giving Heartguard AND Nexgard? Nexgard covers HW as well as fleas & ticks, one of the advantages of using it in the first place.

[ks-man]

My vet always recommended both.  I just did a quick search and I don't think Nexgard does both, they have a product called Nexgard Spectra that does all the intestinal worms but my vet doesn't seem to offer Nexgard Spectra.  I copied the below from the Nexgard site's FAQ

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEXGARD contains the active ingredient afoxolaner which has been proven to kill both fleas and ticks and to protect your dog for a whole month.

See NEXGARD product label for full claim details and usage instructions.

Like NEXGARD, NEXGARD SPECTRA contains afoxolaner, providing the same excellent level of protection against fleas and ticks. Additionally, NEXGARD SPECTRA contains the active ingredient milbemycin oxime, which provides protection against heartworm and intestinal worms, making it the most complete protection against fleas, ticks, heartworm and intestinal worms in just one tasty chew.

See NEXGARD SPECTRA product label for full claim details and usage instructions.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Ah, I see. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We found that buying Frontline from Costco was cheaper ------- until we go some counterfeit Frontline.  We purchase from out vet or our vet group's on-line store.  That includes Heart Guard.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I do too, after the bad experience with Foster & Smith. The savings just aren't worth it to me. And there's a rebate through the vet's office which offsets the difference.

Although I guess it depends what your vet charges. Some of them really mark things up. 

[Adina P]

What happened with Dr.F&S?  I buy Frontline plus there...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I got some bad Heartguard. Random assorted single doses with no box, in a plastic baggy, and various expiration dates, some of which were already past.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Foster and Smith is owned by Petco, and they are closing down. I believe they might already be gone. 

[Stacy]

 I just took Willow to the vet for a weight check and a dose of heartworm/flea and tick meds today - she's close to the cutoff where she will need the bigger dose, but she hasn't gotten there yet. So just for fun I decided to check Chewy's prices. Sentinel, even with the subscribe and save price is less than a dollar per pill cheaper than my vet. Simparica is about 6.50 per pill cheaper on Chewy, but my vet gives me a discount when I buy 12 at a time and then there's a rebate that I don't think you can get if you use an online pharmacy (they ask for the vet's invoice, I'm not sure if Chewy would qualify but I could be wrong) So in the end the savings isn't worth it for me. 

I still use Chewy for Maggie's food and I think it's a good deal, but since they no longer sell Fromm I have to pick that up. But since the store that sells Fromm doesn't sell Nature's Variety... Maybe instead of being a dog trainer I need to open a pet supply store where you can get all the good stuff in one trip. I could stock the good crates too. No one local sells the really safe car crates.