Prescription Medications
At West Toowoomba Vet Surgery, we take pride in being your pet’s doctor and see our role as an integral part in providing healthcare to them. The primary focus of our practice is centred on offering a professional level of high quality medical, surgical and dental care. In addition to these professional services, we do stock numerous forms of pharmaceuticals, vaccines and products for your pets. We carry these items in our practice primarily for two reasons:
- Many items are animal specific formulations or for animal only usage – often these products aren’t carried by local medical pharmacies; and
- There is a convenience in having items readily available onsite rather than sending you to another location just to sit and wait for your prescriptions to be filled.
We will not provide prescription medications for patients when they have not been evaluated by our hospital. This is illegal under Queensland law. We can not fill prescription medications for animals which are not current patients of our Surgery.
Refill Requests
We will refill prescriptions on request provided we have recently examined your pet (within the last 6-12 months) for the problem the medication is needed, and the particular medication or product is appropriate based on the veterinarian’s diagnosis. The time frame of ‘recent examination’ is at the doctor’s discretion but will never exceed a maximum of one year from your pets’ last annual examination.
If you require a refill on your pet’s medication, we ask you contact the Surgery by telephone first to confirm we have the medication in stock (we may have to order it in from our supplier) and to allow enough time for the staff to verify the refill is authorised by the Veterinarian and prepare the refill. Generally orders are placed with our suppliers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It therefore follows that special order medications or medications which have gone out of stock will usually take 3 days to arrive at our Surgery from major suppliers.
We cannot provide prescription refills for patients when they have not been evaluated by us within the appropriate time frame deemed necessary by our veterinarian. This means we do not fill medication requests for problems which have not been diagnosed by our veterinarian.
There is a prescription refill fee charged to cover the costs and time associated with checking your pet’s medical history and then writing and recording the prescription on that history.
No Returns For Refund Or ‘Credit’
Queensland Health regulations prohibit the return and resale of pharmaceutical products once they have left the control of the veterinarian. This is a basic safety issue and applies to pre-packaged prescription medications as well as loose pills or liquids.
Because we cannot – and will not – resell medications that have left the direct control of our hospital, we will not accept medications or ‘returns’ which have left our hospital premises.
For the same reasons, we do not offer ‘credit’ or refund for unused or unwanted medications once these medications have been dispensed to you.