pet med dilemma

What would you do for your cat?

My veterinarian recommends flea and heartworm medication for my cats. There is one cat whose skin is so sensitive that she can only tolerate one product. We're looking at 16 years of reactions.

We give all our cats the same medication. It's mild and effective for heartworm prevention, which is more important to us than flea abatement. We're putting poison on our cats at our doctor's recommendation, so we would like it to be the least toxic possible.

Here's the dilemma. When I ask my clinic to refill the prescription, the receptionist acts like a gatekeeper. We don't recommend this product and we don't sell it. It's not as effective as ... ___ ... product. Okay, I respond, then I will order it online. Thank you.

Please hold for a few minutes while I ask, the receptionist says. She comes back and says, okay, we have some and we'll sell it to you. When I pick it up, I have to make sure I have documentation of the online supplier's price for price matching or I pay thirty-five dollars more.

Of course I would rather give my local clinic the business. They are excellent doctors and staff. Our cats get the best, most personal professional care.

There have been times when my clinic has said, no, we don't carry that any more. So I order through the online supplier. Invariably my clinic then says, when they receive the prescription request, Oh! We have that and we will do price matching to keep your business.

So what would you do? Order online and be the customer who took them at their word, when they said they don't carry that product, and be sought after by your local clinic? Or try to order it from your local clinic and be frowned at and counseled and ultimately allowed to patronize your local business because you are a valued but problem-causing customer?

My husband says ask them to flag the prescription so we don't get the rigamarole every time.

Honestly, we just want to follow our doctor's directions for protecting our cats against flea allergies and heartworm without their hair falling out.

Absolutely I would put up with this aggravation over the the pain of losing a feline friend any day.