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.

Yes will order there too. Cheapest quote and free delivery.

Was charged £25 for missing an appointment last week but no bus came in over an hour which wasn't my fault. I didn't know they were on diversion. It's not as if I just decided not to turn up. So they're not exactly over helpful to me after going there 11 years so why should I pay them more for her tablets.

I use animed for my dogs insulin. Its is £40 pm v £90 pm from the vet.

We did that and they wouldn't budge. They said the prescription had been filled out incorrectly but it had exactly what was required on it, so not sure what their issue was.

It's also not the vet's fault. You not showing up means that appointment time was not available for someone else. Persistent no-showers with our vet now have to pay the consultation fee at the time of booking, and fair enough too.

I’m sorry what?

homeopathic. For a dog?

not to open that can of worms but surely the only conceivable way a homeopathic “medicine” can work is the placebo effect….

I had and elderly horse with Cushings, he was insured but they would pay for illness as he was over 20, the cost of his med were eye watering.

WoodBurningStov
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.
There was a DSPCA vet on the other day saying there’s been an increase of animals having to be treated because people are giving calpol and other human medicines. She said not to do it. Your vet okayed it so obviously grand in your situation but you don’t want other people trying their hand at medication for their pets. Sorry, just a warning because she was so strong on it

@Icantpaint They treated the symptoms of the cushings rather than the cushings, if you see what I mean. He was really quite ill by that stage and they just wanted to try to ease his suffering as he couldn't tolerate the strong vet medication, it was actually making him worse.

Vets are Businesses, Businesses make profits or they close.
I have several vet friends and the vast majority are overworked and underpaid, the only wealthy ones came from money originally anyway.
I dont blame you for wanting to save money and get your prescription elsewhere but its not the vets fault the medication is the price it is.
Also, if you had insurance it may well have been covered.

My old boy had Cushings. We bought it online from a company our vet recommended. We had to pay about £18 for a 6 month prescription from our Vet. I can’t remember who we used now.

I would have loved to support my lovely vet and got his meds from them, but the price difference was huge. It was massively cheaper online.

Our older pony on meds £140ish for 60 but our vet will price match the Internet so get for £98. They have "equi tax" added as the dog version is £57!

UPDATE. Just been to vet and they wanted £583 for 180 tablets. Can get them for £333 for Pets Online and vets will fax the prescription to them So extra £16 for prescription. £234 saved which is a lot really.

My dog has regular gabapentin supplied by pet drugs online. The written prescription has to be posted and there is a limit to how much can be prescribed at a time. I call them, put in the order, post prescription next day delivery and they send the drugs out. It's still even with prescription and postal charges cheaper by far

So you need a vets visit and then ask them to give you the prescription? You can’t just order on that website without a vets visit first?

They require a vet's prescription by law. The vet faxes it to them. I ordered first but it said awaiting prescription.

DH used to work for a pharmaceutical company. At a training day a presenter asked ‘why do we charge such high prices for our products?’ Various people cited high production costs, high development costs, cost of talented staff etc. DH, being a total cynic, said ‘Because we can?’ - ‘That’s right’, said the presenter ‘Because we can’

Glad you managed to get your dog’s medication for less money. I always mention a written prescription to my clients. I just want to say please can owners try not to take it out on their vets. I make less than £15 an hour before tax which I’m very grateful for but I get a lot of comments about “flashy cars” etc. I drive a 10 year old Citroen C1…

Lots of owners are incredible and I know financially times are really really tough for many but we really aren’t out to squeeze money out of you. We don’t set the prices, those at the top do that have never worked in a vets before.

@longtompot

My cat's on Gabapentin as well.
I have to get it every month from the vet - they won't let me have any more than a month's worth as it's a controlled drug apparently. Just paid £26 today!
I get a 3 monthly prescription for Prednisolone & it's not too costly.

Try weldricks pharmacy. Massive saving on my dogs lifelong medication

Picked up medication yesterday for dog with Mitral Valve Disorder.

Vetmedin - £115
Cardalis - £70

... Pet drugs online price:

Vetmedin - £28
Cardalis - £23.40 (actually has two more tablets than what we got from the vet)

He's just newly diagnosed so trying to get him on all the meds ASAP but that's the last time I'll be buying them from the vet practice at those prices.

Plus the £75 consultation fee and £300 blood tests...

Interestingly I saw a sign in the vets whilst I was waiting saying the registered business address was "The Chocolate Factory, Bristol". I only noticed it because I thought it was a weird name for a vet practice registered office. Googled the address and they seem to own virtually every single vet surgery in the UK so 🤷🏻‍♀️

It is prohibitively expensive. Online is cheaper, but still expensive and the vet charge for the script is ludicrous.

Our dog was on heart meds and I’d use the prescription on 2 different sites while it was valid.

Between IVC and CVS, yep most of the small animal practices in the UK belong to them, hence the interest of the competition commission.

Most of the vets I know had to get relatively big/smart cars to do their job. If you're a mixed, farm or equine vet you need to get all your stuff for work in that car and it you want it under the load space cover you're talking minimum Focus for farm animal and probably Mondeo size for Equine or mixed. DH was also put under pressure by a previous employer to replace our 6 year old Mondeo (which we actually kept for another 6 years) because it was "too old" for the image of the practice. He was old and established enough to point out that his salary/car allowance barely covered fuel/insurance/servicing on 30k work miles a year but shows the attitude from the corporate higher ups. Policy has moved more towards providing a work van over making vets provide their own vehicles recently but there was a phase when starting salaries dropped from 28k + tax free house + company car to 28k with neither and have not really kept pace with inflation since the drop...

Ah so that'll be why ours insists on faxing it direct, so you don't use it more than once.

That’s interesting…I’ve just checked and it’s £20.39 we’re paying for gabapentin from the vet each month (300mg twice per day so 60 caps). We don’t get charged a prescription for that as it’s on repeat once monthly. So paying for a separate script (£27.40) plus postage to get it online would actually work out more expensive than the vet for us as they can only legally give us one months’ supply at a time.