Doctors Foster and Smith: A Curious Timeline

adequan canineOur older Labrador Shadow has been taking Adequan injections to help with his arthritis. That is, he was taking it. He just got through an initial month with the medication when we had to stop. Our vet advised that the drug was on nationwide backorder and simply was not available.

In fact, she had told us this quite early on. Based upon her advice we had placed an order with the vet, placing us in queue to receive some of the medication should some become available.

Further, I hunted around for alternative sources. Other vets, online pharmacies, that sort of thing. None was to be found, but I kept looking.

On the 9th of June I found that Doctors Foster and Smith, an online veterinary supply & pharmacy based in Wisconsin, had some Adequan in stock. Their online inventory showed it stock. Wanting to be certain, I called them and confirmed that they had some on the shelf.

Of course, dispensing the medication required a prescription be issued by our vet. I advised the vet, who was happy to comply. In the process of placing the order it was easy to tell the pharmacy to contact the vet to confirm the prescription.

Happy with my find I placed an order. That was June 9th.

We heard from the vet that they were contacted by Doctors Foster and Smith on Tuesday, June 14th.

We finally received shipping advice on Saturday, June 18th.

As I write this it’s Thursday, June 23rd and UPS advises that the package should arrive tomorrow…June 24th.

Apparently Novartis Animal Health, maker of Adequan, is upgrading the facility in New York state where it’s manufactured. However, looking around it’s easy to see that it’s been in short supply at various times in recent years. Clearly, they have issues or the supply would be more constant.

Also, I find it astounding that Doctors Foster and Smith took so long to process the order. Nowhere on their web site was there any indication of processing time. Nor do they give any indication of how long it would take for them to contact our vet.

Had I known they would take ten days to ship I would have selected overnight shipping. As it stands, we’ll receive the goods just over two weeks since the order was placed.

I find myself incensed by this experience. Maybe I’m just too accustomed to Amazon Prime. The idea that an order for something that is in inventory takes ten days to ship makes no sense to me.

Incidentally, the vet just advised that they now have some Adequan that I could pickup today.