I want to talk about something that comes up more than it should: our prescription policy, and why we don’t process refill requests directly through online pharmacy platforms like Chewy.

A few clients have pushed back on this recently, and honestly, I get it. From the outside it can look like we’re making things harder than they need to be. So I want to explain what actually happened, why we made the decision we made, and what we offer instead. Because I think once you understand the full picture, it makes a lot more sense.

It Started After Thanksgiving

A few years back, I came into the office after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and my assistant had over 100 prescription requests sitting in the queue from online pharmacy platforms. A hundred. Over a long weekend.

And here’s the thing: a significant number of them were just wrong. Incorrect doses. Medications that had already been faxed directly. Requests for pets whose records showed a change in condition that made the medication no longer appropriate. Some of them weren’t even requested by the client at all; they were auto-generated by the pharmacy’s system.

My assistant spent most of that day working through them. Reviewing, flagging errors, trying to communicate corrections back through the platform, starting over when the same incorrect request came through again.

That was the moment I realized we had a real problem. Not because the volume was hard to manage, but because of what that day cost us. My assistant is not a data processor for a corporation. That is not what I hired her to do and it is not what she is there for.

What Her Job Is Actually For

The position I’m describing is one of the most important roles in this practice. She is a client advocate. She is the person who calls you personally when you have a question that needs a real answer. She follows up after a scary diagnosis to make sure you understood what the doctor said and that you’re not sitting at home worried and confused. She is the bridge between you and the clinical team, making sure nothing falls through the cracks and that you feel like a person, not a chart number.

That is a high-touch, relationship-based role. It requires time, attention, and genuine care. And when she is spending her day processing prescription requests for Chewy’s fulfillment system, she is not doing any of that. She is working for a corporation, for free, instead of working for our clients.

That’s when we stopped.

What These Platforms Are, and What They’re Not

I want to be fair here. Online pet pharmacies are not all bad, and I understand why clients use them. Home delivery is convenient. Pricing can be competitive. For some medications, they make sense.

But I also think clients deserve to know what these companies actually are.

Chewy is probably the most familiar name. A lot of people remember when it felt like a scrappy little startup that really cared about pets. That company has changed significantly. Chewy was acquired by PetSmart, became a publicly traded corporation, and now operates at a scale that has nothing to do with the personal connection it once marketed itself on. That doesn’t make them evil, but it does mean you should understand what you’re dealing with.

1-800-PetMeds has been around since the 1990s and is also publicly traded. They operate entirely online with no veterinary relationship built into the model.

Costco, Sam’s Club, and Amazon have all entered the pet medication space as well. They are volume retailers. Your pet’s prescription is one transaction among millions.

None of these platforms have your pet’s medical record. None of them know that the dosage changed at the last visit, or that we discussed discontinuing a medication, or that your pet lost weight and the prescription needs to be adjusted. They dispense what the written prescription says. That’s it.

What We Do Instead

When a client needs a prescription filled, we always provide a written Rx. No hesitation, no guilt trip. That’s your right and we mean it.

What we also do is make sure you know your options, because in a lot of cases clients don’t realize we can actually do better. If cost is the driving factor, and that’s completely understandable, our in-clinic pharmacy offers immediate rebates on many medications that often make us less expensive than the online retailers when all is said and done. We want you to know that, not to pressure you, but so you can make an educated decision with the full picture in front of you.

And if what you really need is the convenience of having medication shipped to your door, our own online pharmacy does exactly that, and is competitively priced, often better. You get the delivery without handing your pet’s prescription relationship over to a platform that doesn’t know who your pet is.

We’re not trying to be pushy about any of this. We just think you deserve to know what’s available before you assume the big online retailer is automatically the better deal.

When you fill through us, your prescription goes through the same hands that know your pet’s history. We catch the things that automated systems miss. That has real value, even when it’s invisible.

The Honest Bottom Line

I know some clients will read this and still prefer the convenience of a big online pharmacy, and I respect that. You have every right to fill wherever you choose.

What I ask is that you understand the choice you’re making, and that you know we are always here. We know your pet by name, and we are on your side in a way that no publicly traded corporation can be.

Lake Pine is an independent practice. We answer to our clients and to our patients, not to shareholders. Every prescription filled here is part of what keeps it that way.

Thank you for being part of this community. It matters more than I can say.

— Dr. Katz

Have questions about pricing, our online pharmacy, or transferring a prescription? Call us or ask at your next visit. We’re always happy to talk through what makes the most sense for your pet.