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?

Focus on the positive. You were angry at the cost. Went back to the vet. Got a refund and prescription and have saved a lot of money because you want your dog to live! Let the anger go.

I'd be furious too - our vets always tell us when a private presciprtion would be cheaper!

Wow well done you - success!
but yes, awfully overcharged, that’s taking the mickey.

Another tip on the vet prescription is if you need it for flea treatment for more than 2 dpets they can prescribe one script @£15 at our vet but you get multiple doses. Called it a herd prescription or similar!!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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!

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.

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 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!!

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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.