Pets are a part of the family and it is every pet owner’s responsibility to make sure that their pets are well cared for by making sure that they stay healthy and disease free. It is not enough to make sure that your pet gets enough food and exercise but helping to keep them healthy and free from diseases also plays an important part in the role of every pet owner. The topic of safe vaccinations and medications arises when we consider healthcare for our pets. Nowadays pet meds are available online and are actually much cheaper than the meds that you would buy in a store or at a veterinarian’s clinic. But this puts more pressure on the pet owners as they need to ensure that the pet meds bought online are effective and safe.

The costs of medicine have been climbing up lately. This is because there are more new and improved meds out in the market, which takes the level of therapeutic and diagnostic treatments ahead. Another reason that pet meds have seen an increase in price is due to the emphasis of preventive care especially when it comes to the control of fleas, ticks, and heartworms in both cats and dogs. More than half of all pet med expenditures are made from the sales of prescription and over-the-counter flea, heartworm and tick products.

Although most of the pet meds are available at a lower cost online, most people tend to pick up pet meds at their vet’s office. This is actually a mistake made by most pet owners as vets’ mark-ups over wholesale start at a 100% and sometimes hit 160% to which a $5 to $15 dispensing fee is also added. Hence pet owners will be paying a lot more for the pet medications. This is mostly due to the fact that most people are in a hurry to buy medications that will relieve their pets of any pain that they may be undergoing immediately; hence there is simply no time to place an online order to get the same medication at a much lower cost.

In case your pet needs medication for some sort of chronic illness or even for preventive care, it would be better to order these medications online which would definitely save you hundreds of dollars. Ordering online also requires that you do some homework; you should not order pet meds from any random online store as well. Make sure that you choose and order your pets’ medications from one of the 18 sites that belong to the Vet-VIPPS (Veterinary-Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites) accredited pharmacies. Buying pet meds from these particular sites will ensure that your pets are in good hands as all these sites comply with federal and state licensing requirements and quality assurance. Ordering pet meds from these sites are not only safe but reliable as well.