White Pine Equine streamlined prescription management and unlocked new practice revenue with myAnimalRx. By reducing on hand inventory and keeping prescription requests within the practice, they improved treatment visibility, cut waste, and made it easier for clients to get the medications their horses need—likely by the next day.

Challenges: Uneven stock and time lost to answering unnecessary question 

As a solo equine practitioner, space is of the essence to Annie Roach, DVM MS, cVMA, owner of White Pine Equine in Eagle, Idaho. Before using an online pharmacy, she had to stock her truck with what she thought her patients might need that day based upon her appointment schedule. Of course, there is only so much space on her truck so there are careful calculations of what to carry and what stays in the clinic. She explains, “I end up at an appointment and I'm 45 minutes from my inventory and this client needs this medication.”

Dr. Roach explains equine veterinarians like her cannot rely on local pharmacies for their orders. Most will fill scripts for small animal medications, but typically, do not serve equine customers. She was overstocking some medications while under-carrying others. Some meds needed to be discarded because they expired before she got a chance to administer them. All these calculations added to the already dense mental load of running a practice.

When her on-hand inventory or in-person pharmacies couldn’t meet her patients’ needs, the alternative was an online pet retailer, like Chewy. And Dr. Roach expressed her discontent with places like that due to their poor management of script and diversion of potential profits from independent veterinarians like her.

Sending scripts to Chewy meant fielding numerous phone calls and erroneous requests for scripts from patients that were not hers, sometimes from out of state. “It’s a huge time suck,” she confirms.

Having horse owners send scripts out to third parties meant losing visibility into when—or if—those scripts were filled, leading to potential gaps in treatment compliance.

Actions: Finding an online-first solution that fits practice and customer workflows

Dr. Roach had a brief period between founding her practice and introducing myAnimalRx—just 5 months. That was all the time she needed to acknowledge she needed a smarter way to handle prescriptions. As a loyal MWI customer already, knowing they offered the service made it an easy choice.

“One thing that really drew me to it was being able to keep my prices for my customers,” she says.  

myAnimalRx  practices set up their own online store, choosing what prescription and over-the-counter products they would like to offer and customized pricing for their customers. Ultimately driving revenue for the practice and providing clients the convenience of online ordering and next-day delivery in some areas. Additionally, the horse owners or trainers recognize the brands they are ordering and rely on that consistency.

As an equine practitioner who treats at boarding facilities with multiple horses and multiple owners, this feature was especially worthwhile for Dr. Roach. Clients could get items shipped directly to their barns, removing the hassle of remembering to take items sent to their houses to the facility. 

The ease of ordering is another check in the win column for myAnimalRx. Its flexibility can support a range of preferred workflows. Practices can design an experience that fits their clients and operations.

To encourage clients to order through myAnimalRx, White Pine Equine charges a processing fee for paper or email scripts, a growing trend among solo veterinary practices. The client can choose to send a script to a third-party pharmacy, but they must pay the fee. They also must understand that the practice will not communicate on their behalf with Chewy or other retailers. 

“It is usually a good opportunity to talk about the benefits of not using those places. So, it works out pretty well,” admits Dr. Roach. Although there are clients who still choose to pay the fee.

Dr. Roach praises the customer service her practice gets through myAnimalRx. “There's been a couple of times when there's been a medication that maybe wasn't on myAnimalRx that I wanted to be there,” she explains. “We can reach out to Adena [O’Hare], myAnimalRx product manager and usually that happens for us. It’s been super.”

Results: Revenue for the practice and reliability for the clients

From a monetary standpoint, Dr. Roach estimates using myAnimalRx has created $1,000 to $3,000 per month in additional revenue for her practice. Those numbers are affirming to a one-veterinarian operation.

Carrying less physical inventory has been a huge time and money saver for White Pine Equine. Dr. Roach remarks,

“Now what I have on my truck is medications that I want horses to start immediately or products that I get requests for often. The outliers, that I use only a couple times of year, I can rely on myAnimalRx to ship out. It’s made things a lot better for me.”

Using myAnimalRx has allowed Dr. Roach and her veterinary technician to expand how much equipment they are able to fit onto the truck, increasing their in-barn diagnostic capabilities. This of course, leads to animals being assessed and treatment plans being developed quicker.

Once those scripts are written, she can log in to track if they are being filled, giving increased insight into treatment compliance. She says, “My clients like the idea of ordering medications through me because they know where it's coming from. They know that they're getting the right thing.” 

Besides that reliability, another benefit for the owners and trainers is the next-day delivery. In some cases, it will take two days before they get the prescription, but even that time frame is shorter than what they can expect from other online retailers.

For her fellow equine practitioners, Dr. Roach has this advice. “After figuring out how to implement it into your practice, you're going to see the financial benefits and client benefits really quickly. You just get a lot more of that communication, consistency, and treatment when you're using myAnimalRx.”