Animal Welfare Professionals

We are a small shelter (combined intake of <400 dogs & cats annually) and have traditionally purchased all of our monthly preventative medications from the veterinary practice that partners with us.  They sell us the same consumer sized packages in single dose packaging that they sell to their clients.  They have given us the okay to purchase them elsewhere if we can find a more cost-effective solution.  I feel like I have done a good job scouring the internet but I have only come up with the same single-dose packaging that we are already purchasing.  With our flea/tick protocol, we buy the largest size topical, open and re-bottle it, and then dose by weight to cut the costs.  We use the monthly chews for Heartworm prevention.  Any guidance that anyone can offer would be most appreciated. 

I am surprised that there have been no comments at all to my post looking for solutions for less costly preventative medications.  Surely other rescues are dealing with the same issue and would love to find ways to reduce costs in this area.  Am I barking up a dead tree because you've already searched for solutions and come up empty?  Or is it just because your veterinary partners require that you buy from them?  Any comments at all would be most appreciated!!!  

We buy directly from the distributor as we have a vet on staff.  I can't say it's a huge savings.  It still takes up a large portion of our budget.  I am not involved with the buying of the products so do not know how much it actually costs us for each dose though.  I do know we use Sentinal Spectrum as our heartworm preventative as it's also a dewormer.  It costs us less to use that rather than heartgard plus an additional dewormer.  We use Paradefense Advanced for fleas/ticks, a spin off of Frontline Plus.  We are constantly looking for better pricing but haven't had any success. 

Thanks so much for replying!  I will certainly look at Sentinal and Paradefense.  Are either/both available in bulk form or are they still single-dose?  I appreciate your time!

We buy in bulk!  ParaDefense Advanced comes 4 doses in a box with 4 boxes in a pack, Bayer is the maker.  Sentinal Spectrum is by Virbac and there are 6 doses in a box, 5 boxes per pack.

Have you looked into Zoetis for Shelters? They offer discounts to shelters. We are also a small shelter, with just over 400 combined cat/dog intake. We use Proheart 6, an injectable heartworm preventative(good for 6 months) and Simparica(similar to Nexgard) for flea/tick preventative. They also just came out with Proheart 12(good for 12 months of prevention). Where are you located? I can tell my rep to have one of their regional reps contact you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!  We are in central Arkansas and I'd very much appreciate the referral!  My email is debe3@att.net

I have recently been tossing this problem around our team as well, you are not alone! Even buying from the vendor directly, at per dose cost it would average $5-6. That is not a feasible option either to maintain a year round protocol recommended by AVMA and CAPC. We utilize the "bulk dosing" as we call it to administer at intake but then each pet is kept on a monthly preventative (being rescue base all pets in homes) we can not do that for the maintenance. So what do we do now...... still trying to figure this out. We have discontinued the use of topical flea/tick until March 1st due to our region but then you have the problem- do as we say not as we do. We recommend our clients and fosters administer monthly preventatives year round, we would for the rescue pets but budget restraints do not allow it. 

In the era of influencers' and marketing I do not understand why these companies are not using the rescue & shelters as their "in" to the consumer. We start their pet journey. Most organizations have built a large community as well that adds another tier for potential consumers. If they can gain owner loyalty instead of just the businesses they establish their longevity for the new era. 

Have you looked into Zoetis for Shelters? They offer discounts to shelters. We are also a small shelter, with just over 400 combined cat/dog intake. We use Proheart 6, an injectable heartworm preventative(good for 6 months) and Simparica(similar to Nexgard) for flea/tick preventative. They also just came out with Proheart 12(good for 12 months of prevention). Where are you located? I can tell my rep to have one of their regional reps contact you.