When buying (full price) products online, what is your expectation for expiration dates? In my mind I feel like 6 months should be the minimum but maybe I am off base. I ask because I just bought my fall and spring dewormers. The spring ones are dated 2/2022 
. I doubt they will be completely inert if I worm in March/April as usual but still pretty annoying.
I am guessing it will not even be slightly inert a month after the expiration date.
It is September, I do not find receiving something that expires in February of the next year to be out of line.
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My expectation would be that it is in date. Especially a single use product.
Now if I buying a bottle of 180 pills, to be given once a dayâŠit would be nice if the expiration date was more than 180 days away. But, I wonât be to bothered if it isnât. After all, you might be buying it for 3 animals, each getting a pill. The supplier couldnât know that.
Rx drugs are different.
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I expect food and drugs to not be expired. If they are going to be âshortly expiredâ Iâd expect that to be noticeable, especially if itâs something that canât reasonably be used up before that expiry date is REALLY a problem.
Buying a dewormer now comes with a general expectation that itâs going to be used now, not 6 months from now. They canât help that youâre stocking up for later use, and they canât possibly know that, or every expiry date past tomorrow or next month would be an issue.
Iâm not sure why this is annoying? Besides, using it in March or April, as long as you store it properly, isnât a problem
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I guess I didnât realize it was that unusual to buy things ahead of time. I literally always order my fall/spring together. I know they sell dewormer yearly packs (even though rotational shouldnât be a thing anymore). With all the covid related supply chain issues I donât really feel like tramping around to 15 different tractor supplies to find what I need. I guess this is a personal pet peeve haha.
This question does make me wonder what the typical stamped shelf life of the various dewormer products is. In other words, from the date of manufacture to the date stamped to use by is how long?
(I am not asking how long it is actually good for, I am asking how long it is tested good for that they stamp on the packaging.)
I bought my Fall Equimax about a month ago, and it will be another 2-ish months before I use it, potentially 3. It really isnât unusual to stock up for the ânext timeâ, but Merial and Bimeda donât really care, they simply make the stuff and stamp it. Feed stores/online stores donât care either, they stock according to what they feel the demand will be, and will (hopefully, theyâre supposed to) always operate on a FIFO basis - first in, first out. Itâs not their fault if thereâs a slow down on buying dewormer and then people are âstuckâ with the older stuff thatâs expiring in 6 months instead of 12 or 18.
The Equimax I got at TSC in mid August-ish has an 08/2022 date on it, and I got the last 4 on the shelf at that time. So, at least 12 months and likely more.
The Strongid I got at TSC in June had a date of 12/2023, and the Exodus (because there wasnât enough Strongid) was 11/2022, so the Strongid was at least 2.5 years and the Exodus at last 1.5 years
Iâll buy lots of stuff for use later, you should see my people food pantry!, but I never expect the supplier to give me anything other than âin dateâ.
Iâm the lady who digs to the back of the shelf at the storeâŠ
It would be nice to know though, if properly stored, I wonder how long various types of wormer last after their âuse byâ date? I know bute declines in a somewhat erratic fashion, but it wonât hurt, it just wonât help. But, I could see paste wormer going bad.
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Most retailers consider 30-45 days short dated and pull product from the shelves. Its a first in-first out situation. We canât know you are buying product to last until next summer unless you let us know.
Sometimes, we canât get product that is dated that long in advance. If you need a certain date out, best to call and find out if they have it that long dated.
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I do not administer any medication that is past its expiration date. I assume that any reputable equine pharmaceutical manufacturer did appropriate product stability testing, and beyond the expiration date there may be degradation in the medication reducing its efficacy. In addition, you unfortunately never know how it was treated and stored before it made it to you.
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You donât know how an in-date drug was stored either.
The vast majority of drugs, and probably all of the ones we can get OTC, donât become dangerous or less effective the day or week after the expiration date.
Retired pharmacist here. I always got a hoot out of products⊠especially plain old pills that had a very set expiration date. Like 9/16/2021. Gimme a break. Now for something like biological, I would be a bit more precise. But no, the drug doesnât just go poof on the expiration date. That is the date the manufacturer can guarantee that the labeled amount of drug is presentâŠwithin a determined range (for example 110-90%). I personally will keep and use meds that are up to 6 months after the use by date IF they have been stored correctly.
I agree that storage conditions are very important. If you have a med box in the barn and the heat was like here for the summer with 2 solids months of upper 90âs and 100âs, you might want to throw it out even if it is still in date.
Susan
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Our local free human medical clinic will accept meds that are up to 1 year past their date.
My storage comment was directed to those operations that sell wormers through Amazon and eBay. Particularly at those who are individuals who somehow obtain almost-expired packages from somewhere, and sell them out of their homes. If you have spent any time shopping on Amazon you have come to recognize the difference between Amazon.com as the seller, and an individual selling items on Amazon. I have to believe that the name brand sellers like SmartPak, Dover, ValleyVet, etc. buy direct from the wormer manufacturers and do a decent job of storage before the syringes are shipped out to me.
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