Buying Prescription Items

If you see the little red page icon and text  "Vet Prescription Required" next to an item you’d like to order, it means the item can only be sold with a prescription. While you can add these items to your shopping cart and pay for them along with other non-prescription products, we cannot dispatch them until we’ve received a prescription.

Veterinary prescriptions must be written in accordance with UK regulations and signed and dated by a veterinary surgeon who is registered in either the UK or Europe. And please note, we can only send prescription medication to the same country that the prescription was issued in.

Each prescription is a legal document containing the written instructions from your vet that outlines which medication is needed, the amount to be supplied, the dosage, whether it is eligible for repeats or not, details about the animal, the veterinary surgeon who has prescribed it and confirmation that the animal is under their care.

How This Works

Visit your vets for a consult and get them to write a prescription. Your Vet is legally obliged to issue you with a prescription should they determine POM-V products are necessary, but they are allowed to make a reasonable charge for doing so. This is a nominal fee and should not be excessive or to prevent you from purchasing a product. From our experience, most Vets charge around £15 to £17 but it can be more or less than this.

Prescription Form Download

If you need a blank prescription form to take to your vets, download our template Prescription Form

Got A Prescription?

Place your order and upload your prescription as you checkout. There are four ways you can send your pet's prescription

1. Photograph & Upload - The quickest and easiest way is to photograph your prescription using your phone and upload it with your order (this is part of the checkout process.) – this method gets priority during the order fulfillment process.

2. Email - Scan or attach a picture of your prescription and send by email to prescriptions@petdrugsonline.co.uk. If you can note your order number in the subject line, this will help us tie everything together and speed up order processing.

3. Post - This method takes longer as we wait on the post to arrive and it is also a manual process. If you can write your order number on your prescription (Post-Its or paperclips can easily get separated)

Pet Drugs Online
Unit 7B, Burnett Business Park
Gypsy Lane
Keynsham
Bristol
BS31 2ED

4. Fax - Write your order number on top of your prescription and fax it to 01225 430 234

When submitting your prescription to us by post, fax or email you MUST write your order number on the top of the prescription. Otherwise your order will take longer to process..

We check your prescription and pop it in the post!

We verify the authenticity of all prescriptions received. If we receive a prescription that is invalid, forged or altered, we’ll have no option but to de-activate the sender’s account. It is a criminal offence to alter a prescription and as animal lovers we adopt a zero tolerance approach. We will report any offences to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and charge a reporting fee of £50. This is to ensure all of our medication falls into the right paws, rather than the wrong hands.

What Happens If My Pet Requires Long Term Treatment?

Some pets are on lifetime medication, so vets can write on-going or 'repeat prescriptions' and this means they can be used a number of times. This repeat number is written on the prescription so you do not need to keep going back to the surgery to get and pay for additional prescriptions – saving you time and money. There are two limits on repeat prescriptions, the total amount of medicine prescribed and time. You can only buy the maximum amount of medicine shown on the prescription and it is valid for six 6 months from the day it was written. When either of these limits is reached the prescription is deemed to be exhausted.

The vernacular repeat prescriptions are written in is a little confusing, as it is the original prescription PLUS the stated number of repeats. So for example if your dog requires 1 tube of ointment per month, a repeat prescription for six month’s treatment would state 5 repeats. This is the tube stated on the original prescription PLUS the five times it can be repeated, giving a total of six tubes.

So if your pet is on long term or lifetime medication be sure to ask for a repeat prescription.

Prescription Allowance

Every prescription authorised is saved in the ‘Prescriptions’ tab on your Account page. Alongside each prescription are two numbers: the total amount prescribed and the amount purchased so far. If you had a repeat prescription it will be the entire prescribed amount. It will also show the expiry date of that prescription. This also means you don't have to buy all of your pet's meds in one huge order, you can dip and in and order what your pet needs in manageable, affordable, chunks.

Exceptions

For Controlled Medication (such as Epiphen) we require the original paper prescription, which means we can only accept posted prescriptions. For these drugs we cannot accept emailed, faxed or uploaded copies. If you are buying a Controlled Medication (the technical term is Scheduled) the “how are you going to send your prescription” options presented in the checkout will be limited to “by post”. Such prescriptions can only be used once and we cannot authorise repeat prescriptions.

Altered Prescriptions

You are advised that the Veterinary Medicines Regulations (“VMR”) were amended in 2009 to make it a criminal offence to tamper with a written prescription. Schedule 3 Part 5(3) of the VMR states that ‘no person may alter a written prescription unless authorised to do so by the person who signed it’. Pet Drugs Online has a zero tolerance policy for altered or forged prescription. We check all prescriptions received to verify their authenticity. Where we suspect the prescription has been illegally amended, altered or tampered with we will immediately notify you and contact the relevant veterinary practice. If our suspicions are confirmed by the relevant practice we shall immediately cancel the whole of the order in which the altered prescription is included, de-activate the relevant user account and report the misuse to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.

If we suspect the authenticity of a prescription and that it has been created fraudulently using a veterinary surgeon’s identity, in addition to the above measures, we shall report the matter to the police who will deal with it as a matter of fraud.

In all cases where we suspect a prescription has been illegally altered or is a forged document we shall charge a Reporting Fee of £50 per prescription. By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions you agree that we may deduct the Reporting Fee from the payment received with the order and return the balance to you. If the payment received with your order is less than the Reporting Fee you agree to provide us with the balancing payment within 7 days of notification.

You are advised that Prescriptions are only valid for 6 months from date of issue. Prescriptions for Scheduled Drugs are also for single use only and cannot be written as repeat prescriptions.

Whilst we endeavour to ensure all Prescription Only items prices displayed on our website are accurate, occasionally there may be some fluctuation due to manufacturer’s price increase or specific order requirement. In such cases we will contact you to advise you of the revised price once we have your prescription.

Regulation

We are registered as a Veterinary Practice Premises with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Our premises reference number is: 7059400.

You can verify our status by contacting the RCVS directly, their contact details are available on the RCVS website.

Our RQP (Responsible Qualified Person) is John Cadogan Campbell (BVM&S BSc MRCVS). Reference number: 0314480.

This can be verified by visiting the register list at RCVS.

Owner & Registered Business Address

The owner of the business is Independent Vetcare Limited:

Independent Vetcare Limited
The Chocolate Factory,
Keynsham,
Bristol,
BS31 2AU

Company No. 07746795
VAT No. 115 1416 58
Company Registered in England

Veterinary Medicines Directorate

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is the government agency responsible for issues concerning the use and manufacture of veterinary medicines in the UK.

The Summary of Product Characteristics (SPCs) for all the medicinal products sold on this site are available from the Veterinary Medicine’s Directorate Product Information Database.

Adverse Reactions

No effective medicine is risk free and all medicines have the potential to cause adverse effects. Some of the adverse effects are known about when a veterinary medicine is first licensed, but those which occur rarely or are specific for certain breeds or groups of animals only come to light later when the products are used more widely.

In the event of an adverse reaction to any medicinal product, it should be reported to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate using this form, you should also report it to your vet.

Guidance For Animals Owners

For guidance and advice for animal owners please visit the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) website.

Complaints About Veterinary Medicine

If you have a complaint about a veterinary medicine that you do not feel that Pet Drugs Online has resolved satisfactorily, you can contact the VMD.