To still be angry 3 days later…

I am so glad you got your poor dog’s medication at a more reasonable price @Somethingintheheavens. If you take the medication you have purchased out of my vet’s premises they won’t take it back under any circumstances. I am still quietly seething at paying £26 for a single travel sickness tablet for my dog.

It's a racket; breeders churn out dogs with health defects, the vets extort money out of you to fix the health defects.

Sorry to hear about this @Somethingintheheavens and about your poor dog, and I hope she is on the mend now. I haveno suggestions o how to let go of the anger to be honest, but it will fade eventually... it's still only been 3 days.

However, shit like this is the reason why DH and I will never have any more pets. We have had pets (cats, rabbits, and hamsters) since the late 1990s, and our last cat died last year, aged 18 (the second from last died 2 years earlier, aged 17.) We noticed over the past 5 or 6 years or so that the vet bills were going up and up and up, and when our last 2 cats got to 16-ish, they suddenly started to go downhill health-wise.

With both cats, the vet said they wanted to do multiple tests and scans and x-rays and all sorts, and they may need to go onto meds for the rest of their life, and have certain treatments and all sorts. Long story short, it was going to cost 100s of pounds a month, and 1000s over any given year. That had never happened with any pet - ever, in the 25-ish years DH and I had had them, OR when our parents had pets when we were younger.

Pre late 2010s, when pets became very old, and they started to become ill, the vet would put them to sleep, yet now, they seem to want to milk every last penny out of the owner. Doesn't matter if they can't afford it, or if it's not in the best interests of the animal. It's all about the ££££ $$$ ££££!

My friend's 19 year old cat was diagnosed with a mass on her stomach in October, and the vet wanted to operate on her. The operation was going to cost £7000. She wasn't insured as she couldn't get insurance as the cat was so old. She said she wanted to have her put to sleep, as it makes no sense to put a very old cat through that, and the vet even said there was a chance the surgery may kill her. (I bet if it did, they'd still want their £7000!) They tried to talk her into the surgery for her cat, but she stood strong and refused.

Yes I know NAVALT (not all vets are like that!) but many are now, and it's really sad, because it's putting people off having more pets, and soooo many animals now will not be able to find a home, because so many people are being put off by the bloody vet bills! That is the main reason DH and I won't have any more. I would love another cat, but can't risk the ever-rising vet costs bleeding us dry. The price the vets charge for the meds alone are hilariously high. It's farcical!

And as has been said, not everyone has the luxury or good fortune of having multiple vets to choose from, and it's really, really difficult to find one that doesn't charge the earth! Many of the bills are more than humans pay for private health care!

Oh and pet insurance isn't worth the paper it's written on most of the time. There's soooo many things it doesn't cover, or it will only cover so much for so long, and once the cat or dog gets to about 8 or 9 years old, the premiums go up hugely! So much so that many people can't afford the pet insurance!

Some vets are just appalling. Well done, OP, on calling them out on it.
My vets are very lovely and will tell me when I can get something online for less than they would charge me, which I really appreciate — but I’ve definitely been with vets in the past who have NOT been like that all.
I know it’s very overwhelming atm but I think that’s partly because it’s been such an ongoing saga — and having sat there thinking you might have to have your beautiful girl PTS, only to find out you were effectively being shafted, it’s no surprise you’re feeling angry. I’d be livid.

It won’t be the vets you’ve seen, who’ve helped you get to the diagnosis, who will be setting the price, so try not to hold it against them personally. For the most part the vets themselves really care about the animals they’re treating but it’s the corporations they work for charging huge margins.

OP wouldn't have known that this was an option, though - hence she didn't do it that time.

I got angry just reading that, OP. I would struggle to process that "taken for a mug" feeling, too, and I'm proud that you went back for a refund!

We were charged £30 for 10 paracetamol tablets. We also refused to pay and returned the tablets. Absolute daylight robbery.

I'm sorry to read about your dog, but I can relate.

Vets have recently gone the way of dentists and hiked up their prices. My cat is on medication (£52 per month's worth) and the same I was being massively overcharged until I got into a screaming match with my vet of 15 years over the cost and now insist that she writes me a prescription (she charges me £15 for this) and I order the drugs online from Vetmedi.co.uk.

I don't earn a great deal of money but I'd rather go without, than for her not to get her medication as it would be a matter of life or death.

It is very sad as I imagine some people may just abandon their pets when they get ill and get too costly... but if you've chosen to have a pet, you deserve to give it the best life it could possibly have, imo.

You have every right to be angry and well done for calling the vet out on it.

I think I would also go with being pleased you picked up on it and got the refund!!

Surely you’re entitled to pay for the prescription and then buy online?

I recently met a journalist on a specialized pharmaceutical monthly magazine and asked why medication for animals was so expensive compared to the same product for humans.

She told me it’s because there is government (NHS) intervention and pharmaceutical sector control over the price of human medications but none over animal use. So the companies (and vets) can charge any price they like!!

Not at all unreasonable & you handled it so well x I’m still mad 16 years later when I think back to my very poorly doggo. The vets stabilised her on human rheumatoid arthritis meds, 20g? Pills, 1 a day, £200. Went to collect another months supply & they’d changed to 10g pills but same dosage, wanted to charge me £400 as it was ‘costed per tablet’. Refused to pay the extra. Got a prescription & they were £92 from chemist. They also spent my £6000 insurance limit sending samples off to the USA for testing - found out later the vet was doing a paper on this illness, so basically used my insurance to pay for his research.

I've just found this out. My 15 year old cat has never cost me much and has never been insured. Now he needs a regular drug. The first one was £65 for one month.
I soon asked about a prescription to use elsewhere and was charged £22 (Medivet) and the drug is £16 online.

I actually didn't know vets did this - but now you've said this, I am 100% sure that my vet does. So you may be fuming but you've been really informative, OP - thank you!

Sadly this is common place and not a new thing… I worked in a vets practice 20+ years ago and the mark up was eye watering then, it’s worse now but thankfully people are becoming more aware of the problem.
I buy all my things online and use the wormers etc that used to be POM but are now available over the counter like Advantage/drontal/Scalibor collars and get a prescription for anything I need long term, the price of getting prescription can vary greatly from vet to vet as well.
Wishing your Goldie a long and happy life, thankfully you took out a life long insurance policy instead of annual one, so many get caught out!

My dog used to on be on regular meds that my old vets dispensed at a reasonable cost. Then I moved and new vets charged over a hundred pounds for one week’s meds. I went on line and discovered I could get a six month supply for less with a private prescription. Total rip off.

We have constant hedgehog incidents as they frequent the garden but as the dog gently picks them up we only have fleas to deal with once the dog has released the pissed off hedgehog.

Just be overjoyed that you don't have to have your golden girl euthanised. Nothing else matters.

You're right to be angry. When our dog died a couple of years ago, we went through a process of trying out different meds (ended up as a degenerative brain thing that couldn't be stopped), and they gave me the prescription and name of a website to buy what I needed rather than going through them. At every stage they explained the cost of things and let me have time and space to think about it. Our insurance was great but it really helped that I felt we had options.

You must've been very sad and stressed about your dog too so I completely understand you being angry about it.

That's disgusting

they would let you put her down rather than tell you about the prescription options.

pir vet checked on Amazon for me wether it was cheaper for an ear cleaner from there or the vets when I went in last year for my cocker. I'm so sorry.

I hear you.
my dogs meds are £210 every 3 months online plus the vet makes me pay £30 for 1 prescription + £8 for each extra item.
But if I buy from the vet?? It is £500-600.

Our vet is very pragmatic about it, they dutifully sort out all my online prescriptions for me and there is no pressure to buy directly from them.

I’ve got over being angry about it and now deal with the mega faff every 3 months of online ordering. It’s a nightmare back and forth between vet and online store because the vet won’t give me the prescription it has to be uploaded blah blah blah. But it is worth it.
I also found out one of them is a human supplement I can buy on a pharmacy website no prescription needed.

If it helps I did have a complete breakdown on a journey to wales for a holiday when I realised we were running out of a cream and asked my husband to pick it up from the vets on the way. Our diagnosis was still fresh and I’d not cottoned on yet - I asked him casually - how much was that cream.
£54!!!!!
I ranted for a good hour of that journey.
its £17 online.

Deep breaths. At least now you know.