Milwaukee journal sentinel pets12/18/2023 ![]() Herfel had chemotherapy, and was doing well until 2015, when Sierra again began sniffing and acting frightened. ![]() He did surgery to remove her spleen and a performed a complete hysterectomy. He confirmed that she did indeed have stage 3C ovarian cancer. David Kushner at the UW Carbone Cancer Center. The second opinion appointment led her to Dr. “I would not be here today if she didn’t react like that,’’ Herfel says. That reaction caused Herfel to get another opinion. “She put her nose on my lower belly and was sniffing me so intently I thought I had spilled food on my shirt,’’ Stephanie remembers.īut then the dog ran and hid, as if she were upset, and curled into a ball in the back of the closet, like she was afraid. She went to the emergency room but was told that it was likely a benign ovarian cyst. In autumn 2013, shortly after she moved from California to Madison, she started experiencing the whispering symptoms of ovarian cancer, including pain and bloating in her lower abdomen. Herfel, 52, inherited Sierra in 2011 when her son, Sean Perez, joined the U.S. In case you missed it, here’s the short version. “My message is to get your symptoms checked out, I hope that I could save another women’s life." “I’m just trying to ride the wave,’’ says Stephanie, who set up a new email account to manage all the inquiries. Oz, The Now, local television in Madison, and is going to Nashville with her husband, Jim, and Sierra, to tape an episode of the Pickler & Ben show. So we scramble to try to get it from wherever we can,” Gay said.Since then, the story of how Sierra sniffed out Stephanie’s ovarian cancer has gone around the globe. “Every once in a while, we will come across something that someone has been ordering for their pet for five years, and then all of the sudden the pharmaceutical company will say it is not available. “We are probably the smallest internet pet pharmacy in the United States.”īur they haven’t faced too many supply chain challenges. So that keeps us on our toes daily, trying to stay in competition with companies that are much, much bigger than us. “We’ve had new internet pet pharmacies come on board that are cutthroat in pricing. “Being an internet business is extremely competitive,” Gay said. We tried our darnedest to stay open and had precautions to keep COVID out because we were just extremely busy during that time getting people the meds that pets need.” “During the pandemic, when it first hit, we were running double shifts into the night because of the incredible demand. “People just like to have things delivered to their door. “It’s just a way of life for anything anymore,” Gay said of shopping online. While they work directly with consumers, Gay said they also strive to create good working relationships with veterinarians across the country when they need to get authorizations for prescriptions.Īddress: 1900 James St., Suite 11, Coralvilleīusiness has grown steadily over the past 15 years, he said. “We have a really strong line of supplements that are non-prescription if people are interested in trying that out for different situations for their pets,” Gay said. It has been headquartered in Coralville since the beginning - although was operating under a non-compete for the Iowa market until recently - and now employs 15 to 20 people and ships prescriptions to 49 states. The company is an online pet pharmacy for dogs and cat offering prescription and non-prescription medicines and supplements. ![]() “Now we ship out anywhere between 500 and 900 packages a day.” “We started out with three people back then and had just a couple orders that first day,” Gay said of that start in 2007. I didn’t know anything about operating an online pharmacy or an internet business by any means, but I wanted to give it a shot.”Īfter taking a business class at the University of Iowa, Gay applied for his first state pharmacy license and VetRxDirect was born. This occurred at a time, he said, “when many consumers were starting to look at online purchases for savings and convenience. “I’m a vet and I didn’t agree with their marketing, so I thought I’d try to do something for my colleagues to paint us in a better light.” “During halftime, I was dozing off on the couch when a commercial came on for one of our competitors and they basically bashed the veterinary profession,” he recalled. ![]()
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