Vets charge too much for animal medication.

[Friedchickenrocks]

Our dog's been diagnosed with Cushing's Disease, where the pituiary gland secretes too much hormone. We don't have pet insurance. She was drinking like a fish, peeing everywhere and ravenous appetite. Humans can get it too but it's rarer than in dogs. She's to be on tablets for the rest of her life and is 11. They're £96 for 30 and vet's now prescribing 180 for 6 months so almost £600. May get them cheaper online but am a bit reluctant to buy medication from the Net.

My 13 year old JRT has just been diagnosed with cushings. I got a prescription from his vets and ordered on-line. I had to pay for prescription and
still worked out nearly half the price.

my sil is a vet and okayed the online sites.

Agree it can be extortionate. My dog (now passed away) was prescribed eye ointment for an eye condition that would eventually lead to blindness. The vet charged £90 for a tiny 2ml tube that lasted 10 days. So £270 per month! Went through insurance, but after a couple of years the insurance premium went from £47pm to £151. After the breakdown of my marriage, I had to cancel the insurance and accept the fact that my dog would eventually go blind because even if I bought medication online, it would still cost £86pm, which I couldn't afford due to the change in my circumstances. She died 12mths later from cancer. I was devastated but somewhat relieved that I wouldn't have to face her going blind.
I'd love to rescue another dog at some point. But I'd only ever get one if my circumstances changed massively for the better. Its only something I'd consider if I had a significant financial buffer.

We paid £96 last week for one anti-sickness injection and 10 minute consultation.

I've used Animed direct for prescription meds . Much cheaper than the vet but I agree with previous poster in that the vet wanted to see the dog before every prescription and therefore had consultation cost .

I'd suggest you find out about the medication and do some search.

Our vet prescribed animal pain killer, but actually said it's the same as calpol. He told us which calpol to buy and we got it from Tesco, the vet would have charged us £19 for the same bottle, with a different label.

My bet charged me £50 for a bottle of ear drops that were in line for £25. So she gave me a private repeat prescription, got 6 months worth. I used Animef and it was fine, I had exactly the same covers about buying online,

Our vet charges £30 for a printed prescription per drug so they won't put two drug types on one prescription. Even so I still save a fortune getting the dog's regular meds from Pet Drugs Online. In fact it was the vet who recommended I use them. I think most vet practices are now owned by big corporations and profit is the priority. That seemed to be the message from the recent new stories

@Friedchickenrocks

Yes, thanks. Can get them for £333 plus the £16 he wants for a prescription. Shows vets are making a huge profit.
It's not that vets necessarily make a huge profit from them. They are restricted to buying drugs from limited sources and buy in very small quantities. Online stores can source from wholesalers anywhere and buy massive quantities so get huge discounts. It's not always someone trying to cheat you.

Why the reluctance to buy online? My vet friend told me to!

I used Animed (my vet recommended) and also PetDrugsOnline, both were great. You buy a prescription from your usual vet then send it to the online guys. Is MUCH cheaper long term.

Sorry about your dog. It all just sucks.

One of our dogs is also on gabapentin. It’s the one of his 4 drugs that we can’t get online as it’s designated as a controlled substance and therefore can only be sold “in person”.

My vet recommended a few as she was honest and said it's cheaper online. We use PetDrugsOnline and it's at least half the price and free delivery.

PetDeugsOnline has a note on their page about gabapentin. Think you have to ring them in addition to providing prescription, but it's doable.

Our vet charges £50 for a flea treatment tablet. That's one tablet that lasts for 3 months.

I'm so sorry op. I'm on the fence. I like my vet and they aren't rich (I know her personally) but equally i was forced out of paying for my dog's medication. She was diagnosed with Cushing after a series of unexplained seizures.

For the first year her medication and special food were covered by my insurance- although I paid upfront and they paid me back in a month. That was just about fine. It was £200 every month and £560 every third month when she needed blood tests.

The second year they increased my premium from £8 to £65. The third year to £127. Fourth year £152. That's when a redundancy hit and paying £152 a month and having to spend a period of ten days with no money and other bills bouncing until they paid me, it broke me financially and left me nearly losing my house. To me it's the drugs companies and insurance that are over charging.

So we stopped paying for medicine and special food and no more tests, and waited for her to pass. It's been 8 years since she had the special kidney protective food or the tablets. No blood tests. 5 seizures of about two minutes. Last year she had another issue and we took her to the vet. I asked how come she's not dead? Only to be told it wasn't a firm diagnosis as it was a potential pituitary gland in her brain that was the cause and they couldn't test without doubt so "shrug" who knows?!

Please don't stop medicating your precious pet because of my story. I had to choose between her or a roof over my children's heads. Or at least I thought I did.

If it is a medicine used for humans your local chemist will accept a vets prescription. My old cat was on rivaroxaban and ondansetron and the chemist was a fifth of the price my vet could sell them for.

Vets vary considerably in what they charge. Our vet wanted to charge £250 for an Animal Health Certificate. We got one for £99 from a different vet.

In the end, they went down the cheaper homeopathic route and stopped going to the vets. Sadly their dog died shortly after they'd changed over

Funny that.

@Fourfurrymonsters if it's not a specially formulated small dose, you can get the vet prescription dispensed at your local human pharmacy ( I've had 100mg to 400mg capsules). Though do check the prices as it can vary significantly between pharmacies what they charge for meds privately. I paid £5 at one and £13 at another, it's a pretty cheap drug thankfully.

As it's a controlled drug my vet could only do a prescription for 1 months tablets at a time but even with £15 fee it was half the cost my vets were able to supply it as they couldn't buy in anywhere near that cheaply. Some people's vets seem to do more than a month's tablets on one prescription to reduce costs but my vet felt the guidance wasn't clear enough to be sure that it was legally ok and its not worth risking their licence/criminal record.

Find the active ingredient and buy the human version online for long term meds like this.

I will try PetDrugsOnline. Can anyone recommend any other good ones please?

We did have pet insurance but buying the meds online was half the price so we did that as insurance paid a percentage (and I think our dog was on them for three years in the end). Needed a prescription though. There are plenty of reputable sellers, just do your homework. @longtompot Here in Aus you can sometimes get a compounding chemist to make up pet meds, not sure if they exist where you are.

Shows vets have massive running costs, equipment, nurses, receptionists, training, 24 hrs emergency hospital, x Ray machine, scanner, blood test machine, operating theatre, laundry, insurance, phone system, in patient hospital, cleaning, rates, rent, utility bills, replacement of old equipment...

Compare that to an online pharmacy? How unbelievably dense to compare the two. I'm so sick of this attitude.

Yes we used this company for tablets for our cat and it was recommended by the kind receptionist at the vet. Saved us a fortune!!

My dog, despite being inoculated against it, went down with kennel cough ( there are over 50 variants and inoculation doesn't cover all )
A 7 day course of tablets cost me just shy of £150 for 14, and they did nothing for it.
I returned to the vet with a now very ill dog who could barely stand and was losing weight due to not eating.
They wanted to try a different course of tablets at just over £200, or I could give him the human benedryl tablets.
I chose the benedryl tablets and the results were amazing. Back on his feet, running around and eating within a couple of days of having them.
I always use online ordering for prescriptions now.

Well her levels were fine with 2 months on Vetoryl 30mg so she'll give her 6 months now. Then no blood test for 6 months.