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I don’t usually have a lot of deals to post here. That’s because the majority of discounted pet items I see are too localized: coupons in the local Penny Saver, sales specifically at my branch of Petco, that sort of thing.
This weekend I made my annual bulk purchase of our various pet medications and treatments. Then it occurred to me that I’ve been using discount websites for pet purchases for years now and I’ve never remembered to share the scoop.
If you’re a pet owner I’m sure you’ve heard it before; when buying your flea treatments, heartworm medications, and other pet items like that, consider purchasing them online. They’re often half the cost advertised in stores.
The website 1800petmeds.com, thanks to its recurrent television commercials, is the most easily recognizable discount pet medication website. I like it because it’s well organized and it has a plethora of pet items, far beyond popular medicines like flea treatment and heartworm pills. It also carries a variety of brands, which makes it easy to compare prices.
However, I haven’t shopped much at 1800 Pet Meds lately. I received a tip from the dog trainer at Petco about another discount website: petshed.com. Pet Shed is very similar to 1800 Pet Meds, but offers even better bargains.
The flea and heartworm items that we buy from Pet Shed are a bit cheaper than those from Pet Meds, and significantly cheaper than the in-store cost. However, making purchases from the site does come with a caveat.
We buy generic, non-branded pet medication from Pet Shed, and perhaps the website is able to give us such a good deal because the medicines come from out of the country. The ones we buy come from Australia, but for all I know other merchandise could originate elsewhere.
Because the goods travel from so far away, it’s important to check if the website lists the purchased medicine’s expiration date before buying. You don’t want to receive the products and find out that they’ve expired. That’s actually a smart practice to employ when buying any food or medicine online, regardless of from where it ships.
Now you might have noticed that I’ve been using the word “medication.” I want to be clear that if your pet is prescribed something from the vet, it’s still best to buy that medication there. I’m not sure that I would trust prescription medicine for humans bought online, though that is just my own bias.
For me the same wisdom applies for pet medications. My veterinarian provides any prescriptions I need for my animals there at the office; I don’t have to go to the pharmacy to fill it, and I don’t go online either.
In fact, if you’re trying to fill a pet prescription on a website it might be more trouble than it’s worth. The vet gave us the topical cream we use for Chihiro’s chronic skin irritation, but because it didn’t come in anything resembling a special bottle or box I never realized it was a prescription.
Later, when we ran out of the cream, I tried to buy more from 1800 Pet Meds. The website wanted me to have the vet fax or call in Chihiro’s prescription. Because the cream wasn’t that much cheaper online it wasn’t worth the additional hassle. For many other prescription pet medications I imagine the experience would be similar.
Still, I’m glad of websites such as 1800 Pet Meds and Pet Shed. They allow me to keep my pets safe from fleas, heartworms, ear infections, and more, for a fraction of the usual cost.
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*(This image by Alvimann is licensed under the morgueFile Free License.)