Is there over-the-counter/no-prescription-required heartworm prevention for dogs available? I need to buy some without a script. Before flaming me, read below about my dog already testing negative for heartworm 8 days ago.
We just adopted a new dog on Saturday from a family that couldn't keep her. She went to the vet and had all her shots and a check up, including the heartworm test, on 2/12/09. The heartworm test was negative. However, the previous owners did not get her the usual supply of Heartgard because they didn't want to pay for it since they knew they were going to give her away on Saturday. She has been on Heartgard continuously and has 1 pill left.
So now my vet (for my other dog) will not write a prescription for Heartgard for the new dog until she gets another heartworm test at their office. I don't want to do this because 1) I don't want to spend $40+ on bloodwork when she just had the test a few days ago and 2) I don't want her to get stuck with a needle when it's not necessary.
The new dog's old vet (a Banfield vet at Petsmart) will not write the script for me because I am not her owner of record. The old owners will not return my calls about this. I do not want to pay for an office visit at Petsmart when I don't feel it's necessary.
Ok, so....is it possible to buy 6 months of heartworm meds over the counter? If so, where? I am having no luck with internet searches.
I do not believe there is any available without a prescription. Since you still have one pill, you do have a little bit of time to figure this out. I would keep trying to contact the previous owners so you can get your pup's records transfered into your name. I would hope they would not do this, but say in two weeks they decide they want the pup back- the medical records are in their name so they do have claim to the pup.
Can the old vet fax a copy of the current heartworm test to your new vet? That seems a reasonable thing to accept. Not sure where the Banfield part figures in. Prescriptions are prescriptions and their license is on the line regardless of where the vet works.
Heartworm preventive is a prescription only medication. If you find it somewhere with no rx needed it is probably a counterfeit product. Hope you get it figured out!
None without prescriptions? *sigh* I was hoping I was just overlooking something.
I am going to try to talk to the old vet directly (and not just the Petsmart office staff). Maybe he will make an exception to the company policy of not giving scripts to new pet parents without re-establishing the dog as a patient under my name. That's the reason I kept hearing from the office staff...it's Banfield policy not to change owner of record without an office visit to see the dog in person.
Can the old vet fax a copy of the current heartworm test to your new vet?
This is what I was going to suggest. We used to take our pets to Banfield, but ended up at a vet that was closer to us. Banfield faxed over all of the paperwork to the new vet. No questions asked, we just asked that they fax all of the records to the number and that was that.
No-prescription heartworm prevention?
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by jesvet
