By: Revanche

Dog Health Care for 2014

September 30, 2013

Whether it’s an aging thing, or a post-surgical complication, Doggle is now on a chronic drug to keep him right and tight. At least he doesn’t need a chronic maintenance pain medication, that would make my heart hurt.

A 30-day supply from the vet costs 42.10, or $505.20/year. That’s a good chunk of his annual medical allowance!Ā  So off I went, online shopping as is my wont, and found that my original drug supplier (1800PetMeds) had it for a good $51.86 for a 2 month supply. A 20% savings with an 8% cashback from Fatwallet is good, but I got it in my head to try shopping around anyway. And lo, I found two competing suppliers offering the 2-month supply for $34.

DrsFosterSmith has been around for a while and I’ve never heard of the National Pet Pharmacy but I did my due diligence.

NPP just seemed a bit ridiculous in that I couldn’t get a straight answer from their FAQs how they work and their policies suggested that not only do you have to mail in a written script (slooowwww), they’d also need to get an additional approval from the vet. Delay+delay = annoyance. Even though their price was nearly a dollar less and they didn’t charge shipping (total savings of $7) than DFS, buying from a place that couldn’t get its policies written out clearly wasn’t appealing.

DFS offered free shipping for orders over $49. They charge the same per pill price between the 2 month supply and 3 month supple volume, but while it wasn’t cheaper per pill to buy a 3-month supply, the greater amount did get me within $1.50 of the free shipping limit. That means Doggle gets a new rawhide. If I’m going to pay extra, it’s going to be for a thing, not for shipping thank you very much.

In the end, we’re paying just $51 for a 3-month supply of medications plus a new rawhide, rather than $128 and a handful of free treats whenever we pick up another bottle of meds. 60% savings? Yes please.

While I spend a good amount of time working on maximizing my income within my energy limits, it still behooves me to do a little bit extra work to keep recurring costs down. A $300 annual savings for an extra 20 minutes of work is a fair enough ROI.

9 Responses to “Dog Health Care for 2014”

  1. Michelle says:

    Good job lowering your spending! That’s a good amount of savings šŸ™‚

  2. One of my dogs is on daily thyroid medication. I tried to cost compare on-line once without much success. Thanks for doing all the legwork -I’m now going to check into DFS. How do they verify the script?

    • Revanche says:

      You just have to mail them a physical script from your vet so while it’s a bit silly and manual, it can still be worth it. Oh, and if your vet allows it (mine doesn’t) you can just have DFS call them directly and ask for the script verification. That’s much easier.

  3. Gasp!

    Good work finding a better deal on the meds. Another option might be Costco: in our parts, they have the cheapest Rx drugs around, and they now carry pet medications.

  4. Karen says:

    1800PM price matches. I don’t (currently) need to use them often but I try to stick with them because their so close to me so shipping is quick. =)

    • Revanche says:

      How did I miss that?! I will have to do that next time, thy are faster shippers?

      And how was your trip?

      • Karen says:

        They ship USPS but seem to process quickly. But they’re only about 15 miles from me šŸ˜‰
        My trip was really good but I think 7 days might be my max time traveling alone in a country I don’t speak the language. Or maybe I should plan better! Ha. I spent just under $1900 ( I used miles for my international ticket).

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