To still be angry 3 days later…

[Somethingintheheavens]

I’m not even sure if I’m angry or if I’m still upset tbh.

I Have a golden retriever who is 2, they have a very rare medical disorder that took us nearly a year and nearly 10k to be diagnosed (thankfully they have very very good insurance).

Anyway after several different interventions we finally have a diagnosis (sort of, as it’s rare they don’t have a name for it but we know what the condition is and therefore now how to treat it, as a result she now has the medication and treatment - practically healthy - if she doesn’t have her medication she loses control of her back legs and is in significant pain.

her insurance has now ran out so I’m paying for the meds out of pocket for 3 months (most of the money was used up on MRI’s etc) - I went to her vets on Monday and got her new meds for the month - £390!! I had no idea they were that expensive as previously it had all been on insurance.

I paid and then got into the car and burst into tears - I don’t have £400 a month! And I sat there realising that after everything she’s been through, despite now being a ‘normal’ healthy dog, I might have to put her to sleep because I won’t have her back in the pain she was in before.

I then googled the prices of her meds - the medication that they had charged me £300 for a month is 15p a tablet (she is on 3 different types of mediation)

£15 for 100 tablets which is what she needed.

I went back into the vets (looking like an absolute wreck at this point) and demanded a refund, arranged a private prescription and the meds were delivered yesterday.

But I’m still seething. I have spent an absolute fortune (well the insurance company has) with these vets - I feel so let down and angry over it.

i knew meds were more expensive via the vets but that is insane - and now I am left with all those emotions (despite the situation being resolved) and I don’t know how to let go of it.

so AIBU to still be so so angry? And if so, what do I do to get rid of it?

Can I just put a word in for the vet here. My old dog was going to need medication till the end of his life and after it was prescribed I went online and found it was something I could buy with a prescription. When he went for his next checkup I asked the vet for a prescription and told her I could not afford to buy it through her. She was absolutely fine about it. I told her how much it cost from an online pharmacy and she said that that was a fraction of what she had to pay from the wholesaler to keep it in stock. During the pandemic they actually advertised on their website that they would issue prescriptions if necessary because she understood that the prices she had to charge were beyond what most people could afford.

I think your vet sounds reasonable to have agreed to a refund. But I quite understand what a horrible shock it would have been and the thought that it would be part of your future must have been added to it.

In the past few days I’ve saved an article or radio programme about it, so it’s definitely being talked about.

I’ll come back and give you a link OP if I find it.

Pet owners guilt. We all suffer from it.
We paid £80 a month for dog's pills..
Sadly we lost not 1, or 2 but 3 of our ddogs last year. Utterly horrific. Paying for pts over and over felt such robbery on top of our grief.. They had had thousands from us over the years... I wanted sympathy and some reduced costs!! Sadly not to be. Business is business and all that. .

So sorry, please tell us you can now afford it at the cheaper cost forever ?

I only need to pay until July when the insurance renews so I have Absolutley no problems paying it now.

this was what she was investigated for and what they thought she had - however after an MRI they realised that the blood vessels under her spine are incredibly big so when she gets excited (2yo golden retriever 😬) they expand and it cuts into the spinal cord causing compression.

The vets have literally performed a miracle with her, she now has epidurals once every 6 months and is on 3 different meds and you would never know she had an issue!

Unfortunately now that most vets are owned by US corporations this sort of thing will be more and more commonplace. They are corporations with a focus solely on profit.

And if anyone ever says that we should move to the US style system of healthcare just bear this in mind.

I do kinda need to know what the hedgehog incident was 😂

Please could you tell me how you get a private prescription? I didn’t know this was possible!

I’m so sorry about your losses, that’s truly horrific

Basically all vets have to offer it but they (or a fair few anyway) don’t advertise it… you just ring and ask reception like you would getting a repeat prescription of meds - you just ask for a private prescription and then fill it at a online (or human depending on the meds) pharmacy, I’ve used hydro meds and they seem good so far!

I had absolutely no idea this was a thing. Thank you, I will see if I can get cheaper.

Vets are well-known piss-takers

Trust me OP I've been there. I feel angry too. The mark up on the drugs were huge and they didn't tell me I could get a prescription and get them online.
I'll bet this is the reason why a lot of healthy animals get put down.

Neither did I! Please update if you find out and let us know the difference!

Well this is it isn’t it? And the thing is I did my due diligence - I had 11k worth of insurance on a lifetime plan blah blah and yet was still stung by it… annoyingly I’ve since worked out had I got all my prescriptions privately we would still be 3k away from the insurance limit 🤬

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002pwsm - this is an eye-opening watch! Our vets are pretty good at asking whether we want the meds made up or a prescription, thankfully, but the difference is astronomical.

You sound like a fab owner, OP - thank goodness your specialist has found a way to keep your girl pain-free.

Thank you for this! Will watch tonight!

shes an absolute nightmare dog tbf, would never get another golden retriever - but she’s mine and she’s just a baby so I’m determined to do everything possible for her.

Change vets. Our vets would tell us what we could get online without having to go through our insurer.

They were part of a big group as so many vets seem to be but I think the local vets were so much more pragmatic about what people could afford.

I’m glad your had the nous to look up the actual cost. Very canny of you!

Husky puppy tried to pick one up like a football and got a mouthful of spikes and a pierced tongue and cheeks and need a vet to extract said hedgehog (hedgehog was unharmed but pissed off) atleast she learned to leave the spikey footballs alone, unlike a Bassett hound i once owned with a bee allergy who wouldn't stop trying to eat bees, you have no idea how embarrassing it is to have to take a bus and a trip through a busy town with a Bassett whos face, ears and jowles have inflated like balloons just to get to the vets as a teen and get the receptionist saying "oh Fred have you been eating bees again" 🤦‍♀️🤣🤣🤣

YANBU
Disgraceful behaviour by the vets. I would name and shame on any local WhatsApp.
Your poor beautiful dog- I’m seriously fuming on your behalf 😡

I understand your anger. I have come to the conclusion that vets are a money making racket nowadays. They profit from peoples' fear and misery about their beloved pets. Much the same as private dentists do.

vets are a scandal at the moment- there’s supposed to be a government investigation into their business practices but no idea when it reports.

Yes that’s expensive for a prescription . Our vet charges £18 for a prescription with 2 refills. I have expensive meds for our cat, that are 3 times the price if bought directly through the vet’s.