According to figures provided by the American Pet Products Association, spending on pets and pet products has increased from $17 billion in 1994 to $48.35 billion in 2010. The level is further expected to rise to $50.84 billion in 2011. Of this $11.4 billion is estimated to be spent on supplies and OTC medicines with another $14.11 billion likely to be spent on vet care. Pets are quite popular amongst Americans due to their friendly nature. A pet very soon becomes a part of your family and requires the same care and attention as any other family member. To keep your pet healthy and happy you need to spend regularly on vet visits, food supplies and medicines. More and more Americans are opting to buy online pet meds due to the convenience it offers. However, certain precautions need to be taken while making online purchases.

Online Pet Meds: Issues Involved The advancement in technology and the growing popularity of internet has made life easier in many ways. Traditionally we used to personally visit a pharmacy to buy the necessary medicines. But internet has changed all that and several online pharmacies have come up that offer to take your order over the phone, fax or e-mail and deliver the medicines and supplies at your doorstep. So buying online pet meds saves the time and effort that would have been spent on personally visiting a pharmacy. There are several other advantages of buying online pet meds:

• Online pet meds are generally cheaper than the medicines bought from brick and mortar pharmacies or veterinarians. This is largely due to the low overhead costs of operating an online pharmacy.

• You can get branded as well as generic medicines

• These online medical stores offer a wide range of pet products that include food supplies, vitamins, medicines etc thus allowing you to shop for all pet related products at one place only.

A major concern amongst buyers when buying online pet meds is the quality of the products being sold. Rest assured, the medicines sold by the online pharmacies are the same as the one sold by the brick and mortar stores. As mentioned before it is the low cost of running online operations that allows these pharmacies to offer significant discounts to customers on online pet meds.

Precautions while buying online pet meds The presence of a large number of online pharmacies also raises doubts about whether all of them are genuine and authorized to sell the various medicines. This can be avoided by approaching pharmacies that are licensed by the regulatory authorities and prominently display their license or registration number on their websites. Pet owners should take certain precautions while making online purchases.

• The first and the foremost thing is to check the authenticity of a online pharmacy.

• One should also compare the prices of various pharmacies to ensure that claims being made by them are legitimate.

• One should always buy prescription drugs only after showing a valid prescription. A pharmacy which is willing to sell such drugs without a prescription is likely to be a fake or fraudulent one.

• While buying online pet meds, one should look for the A pharmacy recommended by your friends, relatives or vet is always better than a new one.

• You should confirm from the pharmacy's staff about the usage and the dosage of online pet meds being bought by you.