Doctors Foster and Smith: A Curious Timeline

June 23, 2016 by · Leave a Comment

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.

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Gwen Goes To Urban Tails

April 15, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Our younger dog Gwen is just around two years old. As any Labrador that age she has a lot of energy. We had thought that it might be good idea to help her burn off some of that energy by occasionally playing with a group of dogs at a nearby doggy day care. Shadow and Dickson had both been regulars at another doggy day care facility up until they closed up shop.

The first visit to a new facility involves a “temperment test” where the staff try to ascertain how a new pup will behave in a group. This brief video is one that I shot with my cell phone as Gwen was playing with a test group of five other dogs. Gwen is the Black Labrador in the clip.

Like most Labradors, Gwen proved to be very social, and a good fit into their clientele. Time will tell just how often she gets to go. We were a little surprised to see how much Shadow, our older male Labrador, missed her when she was gone for the afternoon.

One of the nicer things about Urban Tails is that the have webcams in their play spaces. You can watch your pets as they go about their day, even as you have to work. They also have iPhone and Android apps that offer an event better way of looking in on the pack as they play.

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CBC Radio’s Ideas Podcast: Dogs Themselves, in Three Parts

November 6, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

It’s been almost nine months since we brought Gwen into our household. Our early estimates of her age turned out to be higher than reality. We had initially been told that she was 12-16 months old when in fact she was less than a year. It may not seem like a big difference, but it explained some of her puppy-like behavior.

peace-love-dogs-logoIn July we sought out a trainer to work with Gwen and ourselves. Stella eventually settled upon Stephanie Bennett at Peace Love Dogs, a new facility that was in process of opening in the Spring Branch area of West Houston. Stephanie came to the house for an initial session, then had two further two-hour sessions working with us and Gwen.

In the month or more that it took to find and coordinate the training we had actually worked through many of the issues that we had with Gwen. As she was maturing she was better able to focus and stay on task.

When we went through the formal training we found, much as we expected, that Gwen’s a smart and able little Labrador. Her only issue is that she’s young and full of energy. Stephanie had her handling all the basic obedience work in just one session.

[Read more…]

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Valentine’s Day Biscuits

February 14, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Estella sent me the following message a little earlier this evening:

Shadow and I just got back from his evening walk.
He asked for a biscuit.
I promptly got him a regular biscuit.
He sniffed it and declined it saying,
“No have to have the valentine’s biscuit. If I don’t eat it today it will go bad tomorrow! I am only thinking about you and Dad having spent all that money on my biscuits. I don’t want to waste them.”
Foiled again by a 4 legged little boy with brown eyes.
Happy Valentine’s Day!

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When Shadow Met Gwen

February 13, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

After a month or more of having filled out an application with the Southeast Texas Labrador Rescue we finally met a candidate puppy yesterday. Julie (her foster parent) stopped by with Gwen so that she could meet Shadow & the cats.

Gwen is a sweet and playful little pup. She’s only 18 months old. Even Gracie (younger cat) seemed to like her. Noel (older cat) simple made herself scarce for a while….as is her way.

If we are decided that she is “The One” then we’ll probably have her moved in next weekend.

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