Veterinary practices are competing with online pharmacies every day.

And if we’re being honest, approving prescriptions and price matching isn’t exactly where we want to spend our time.

Online pharmacies have made it incredibly easy for clients to compare prices, shop around, and move a prescription to the cheapest option with just a few clicks. Your practice can spend a lot of time trying to explain why our price is different, matching a price, or watching a pharmacy sale walk out the door.

So here’s a question: what if, when it’s medically appropriate, you offered more injectable preventatives?

Instead of competing with an online pharmacy for the same box of medication, why not offer a product that requires the client to come back to your practice?

That’s one of the things I really like about injectable preventatives.

They’re not something a client can add to an online shopping cart and have delivered to their front door, which means you’re no longer having a conversation about why your practice is $5 or $10 more than an online pharmacy. You’re having a conversation about what makes the most sense for this patient and this client.

And there’s another benefit that I think is even more important: compliance.

Think about the conversation you’re having with a client about monthly heartworm prevention.

“How is that going?”

“Honestly? I forget.”

“We have three dogs, and I can’t keep up.”

“He spits it out.”

“I thought I had another dose.”

Those aren’t unusual answers. They’re real-life barriers to preventive care.

For the appropriate patient, a long-acting injectable can remove all of those barriers. Instead of asking the client to remember a dose every month, the preventive can be administered during a veterinary visit.

One conversation. One administration. One less thing for the client to remember.

And that creates opportunities for the entire team.

The CSR can ask about prevention needs when the appointment is scheduled.

The technician can ask what the client is currently using for prevention. Once they know the current product, the next question is simple: “How’s that working for you?”

The DVM can follow up by discussing the options and make a recommendation based on the patient’s needs and lifestyle.

And if an injectable is the right choice, your team can administer it before the client leaves.

I’m not suggesting every patient should receive an injectable preventative. And I’m certainly not suggesting that practices should choose a product based on revenue instead of what’s medically appropriate.

I’m suggesting that in a world where we’re increasingly competing with online pharmacies, we should pay attention to the products they can’t offer.

If an injectable option is medically appropriate, it can give you the opportunity to retain the pharmacy revenue and make compliance easier for the client, which is a pretty good combination.

Because the goal isn’t simply to sell the preventive. It’s to make sure the dog actually gets it.

Written by Meghan Bingham, CVPM