At Westside Animal Hospital, we take pride in being your pet’s doctor and see our role as an integral part in providing healthcare to your pet. The primary focus of our practice is centered on offering professional, high-quality medicine. In order to provide the highest quality of medicine, we offer numerous forms of pharmaceuticals and products for your pet. Dr. Purcell and WAH’s team takes measures to ensure the medications and products we provide to our patients are properly handled and stored per the manufacturer’s recommendations. The items we offer within our pharmacy are obtained directly from the manufacturer or through selected manufacturer-authorized distributors. By sourcing pharmaceuticals through these appropriate channels, we are able to maintain chain-of-custody tracking and verification of the pharmaceutical integrity. We are aware of the many internet pharmacies that sell pharmaceuticals directly to consumers. Many online or catalog pharmacies are NOT manufacturer-authorized channels or distributors of the commonly purchased products, such as heartworm, flea, and tick prevention. This means that if the manufacturers do not sell directly to these companies, these pharmacies obtain the 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 nullifies the warranties on these products. All major pharmaceutical manufacturers require their products to be sold only through licensed veterinarians. Manufacturers consider Westside Animal Hospital and Vet’s First Choice/Covetrus as such. Due to the excess amount of time and the difficulties involved in ensuring accuracy of prescriptions, we are unable to authorize prescriptions from outside pharmacies electronically or by phone. This policy exists whether the pharmacy is internet-based (PetMeds, Chewy, etc) or brick and mortar locations (CVS, Walgreens, Sam’s Club, etc). If you choose to get your pet’s prescription elsewhere, we are happy to provide you ONE written prescription per medication at no-charge at the time of your examination. If you require a new prescription and/or you are not having an examination done at the same time, a fee of $15 will be assessed to cover the medical record’s research costs. The written prescription will be provided directly to you. You may pick the written prescription up or ask it to be mailed to your address with a postage fee. We will not authorize prescriptions electronically or by phone. If you choose to use an internet or catalog pharmacy to obtain your pet’s medications, you are responsible for ensuring the written prescription is received by the pharmacy of your choice. We will not authorize prescriptions electronically or by phone. You are also responsible for ensuring the integrity of the pharmacy of your choice by thoroughly researching the pharmacy. Thank you for your understanding and continued support as we seek to keep our fees affordable for all. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Sincerely, Dr. Purcell and the Pet Caring Team at Westside Animal Hospital