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?

People like you doing this is why my vet insist on paper only and original copy only, so when my cat needed meds I had to post the original one to the online pharmacy. I thought they were ridiculously OTT but you are the reason for this and are literally causing other people stress.

Eventually it will get noticed, your vet will change their process and it will make everyone's life harder. Sorry, I get that its more expensive and I absolutely know why people ask for prescriptions but doing this is both fraud and a dick move.

Some animal meds are exactly the same as human meds others aren't so have to be ordered from online veterinary pharmacies (Google is your friend here).
You ask your vet for a private prescription most will charge you about £20+ for the prescription but it can have several months worth of medication on it and more than 1 type.
Even with the cost of the private prescription and the cost of the medication it will save you a fortune especially if its an ongoing issue that insurance wont cover (as in my ddogs case), I know that I've saved well over £20000 over the last decade just on medication costs alone which is a scary amount that I couldn't have afforded.
@PlanBFertility26 I get overheads and equipment costs etc but the mark up on medication is ridiculous. I mean I could understand charging 30-50p a tablet on something that costs the vet 15p each, but to charge £3.90 for each of those 15p tablets (as in the ops case) is criminal price gouging imho

And also to you. My vet literally changed process to original prescription paper only posted to the pharmacy, because of people doing this. It does get back to the vet and it does get them in trouble and it makes life harder for everyone so please dont do this. My cats meds took over a week each time I had to resend the prescription because of people doing shit like this and was an absolute faff for me when I already have my own disability and dealing with a cat with poor health, having to then do all this because people trying to scam some extra meds. Just dont!

@Knittedanimal, the prescription is on the vets headed paper.
most animal meds are the same molecule as for humans, its the dose that will change
Ex MOBIC is a anti inflamatory, my elderly Springer has a quarter of a tab when he has over done it.
I am not in the UK, so this may be irrelevant

Apart from the fact to tamper with a prescription is actually illegal, to do so and encourage people to do so is very irresponsible.
If someone was to do this for drugs for health conditions other than flea/worm meds there is the possibility that the pet could be underdosed/overdosed be given the meds when they are no longer needed, other conditions connected could be missed because the animal has missed the checks it should have had,lots of reasons -i'm sure you get the picture.
Because of people like you my practice sends the script directly to the online pharmacy.
Another thing you would be surprised how many calls we receive from the online pharmacies doing checks/spot checks on the scripts we send.

If the underlying issue is that vets have to pay more to the suppliers than the online pharmacies do, I'd hope that would come up in the current investigation. I can see why vets have to buy direct, as they need to be sure that their customers are getting the correct meds and not fakes.

The obvious solution would be for large vet companies to bulk buy and distribute around their own network (I cant believe that they don't do that already) and for independent vets to form a co-op that bulk buys and from which they can then order. If that isn't possible under the current legislative framework, perhaps that's something else that will come of the current investigation.

But there is no denying that there are some very dodgy practices, like charging £57 for a script (our vet is independent and charges £22), or not telling people that there are options (our last vet told me 20 years ago to get Piriton over the counter at the chemists, rather than pay him ££££££ for the canine equivalent - 'just don't say it's for the dog!')

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-reforms-would-require-vet-businesses-to-make-fundamental-changes-to-the-way-they-support-pet-owners

My dog is on the same medication, now £100 for a tiny tube that last a month, it goes up every month. Just checked online and it's £38, so going to ask for a prescription- wonder what they'll charge for that.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/oligarchy-pets-corporations-capitalism/
An American article but this is what is happening worldwide. My local vet was bought out by a big corporate a few years ago and I am reluctant to have another pet now .

I think even within the chain vets there is variation.
I use a Medivet which seems to have gobbled up all the local vets but they offered me a written prescription to buy online and charged £22 which isn't much different to independents.

Most veterinary practices have been bought by 2 or 3 big companies who cunningly keep the same name and often the previous owner is still listed as the owner on their website so it's hard to know if this has happened to your practice.

Most of the actual vets who work there also think it's scandalous that drugs cost so much.

One of our dogs developed severe itching and was put on apoquelle, which worked well but has some nasty side effects. Next time we went we saw a different vet who told us to use Cetirizine instead. It's a human anti histamine, cost 99p for 30 tablets in super drug and works just as well.

We also have a very old dog who's on lots of meds and currently has 4 prescription items. Our vets charges £20 per prescription item, which is another way they've developed of fleecing their customers, but still cheaper than buying the drugs from the vets.

I would also advise shopping around online. I had a prescription for her for Onsior tablets. At one site they were £1.47 per tablet. I checked a different site and they were 58p per tablet. As I was buying 180 tablets it saved me a lot by spending a few minutes checking other sites.

She's also on gabapentin, which is a human controlled drug so they will only issues a prescription for a month at a time. Human drugs tend to be fairly cheap. The vets charge 28p per tablet but I take the prescription to a local pharmacy where they are 12p per tablet.

All posters saying that there is some kind of government enquiry are right, but I don't know at what stage they are at. If you can find out who to contact, it would be well worth while sending all of this information to them as an example of overcharging and monopolistic control by (I think) about 70% of practices which are now chains.

Our vet charges £15!! for the prescription of meds they couldn't supply so we have no option but to pay 😤

I have a poorly lab too. She is 10! Her meds are more than that a month and in all honestly we just pay for meds when her insurance runs out. It did last year £15k in 7 months - we covered the rest. She is with a very famous vet :) in Surrey for orthopaedic care! My life would be awful without her so we just bite the bullet but I understand not everyone can afford it! The good news is that you found a way around and your dog is still with you!!! On the couch being cuddled!

While you might be making some valid points, I’m afraid you lost my sympathy when you said:

”Do I agree it should be my job to constantly remind people they can buy drugs online cheaper? No. My job is to diagnose and treat patients and inform owners.”

People turn themselves inside out to afford treatment for their pets. Many don’t even realise there are cheaper options. You can’t ask for something if you don’t know it exists. People might not mention their finances because they trust their vet and assume this is the only way to treat their beloved pet. The fact that you deliberately withhold this information is why the profession gets such a hard time.

It’s great that you’re kind to animals but that’s the bare minimum I’d expect from a vet tbh.

I understand vets are a business and the goal is to make a profit but we’re talking vast, vast profits here.

My vet charges £57.50 for a consultation. A consultation slot is 10 minutes. Six pets per hour. 6 x £57.50 - minimum. That means £345 per hour as a base, without the huge markup on any treatments prescribed or more intensive care. Per annum that’s an enormous amount of revenue.

If the pet falls seriously ill, the bill can run into a couple of thousand pounds within just a couple of days - literally just from basic vet care without any specialist input.

Caring about animals means helping owners afford their care. Inflated fees means some animals suffer because their owners can’t afford the unreasonable costs currently being charged.

I understand that vets can’t compete with online prices and that the clinic has to make a profit. But clinics are making huge profits - and it’s at the expense of animal welfare.

And I appreciate you’re the person that stuck your head over the parapet so I’m not aiming this at you personally, but if you’re openly saying you don’t see why vets should help pet owners afford necessary treatment, I think that’s deeply unethical.

No you aren’t. At all. BUT at least you went back in and got your money back. That’s the main thing.

The government were talking about passing a bill to better regulate vet pricing and it can’t come soon enough as far as I’m concerned.

Well done OP for getting a refund and sorting out a private prescription when you were so upset. Really hope your ddog will be ok longtem. Isn't it crazy that vets can just charge us xyz without even telling us a breakdown of prices (unless we ask for an itemised bill)? imagine a mechanic just saying 'that'll be £875' or whatever price and then looking a bit confused when we ask what work has been done. My local garage keeps me updated constantly when my car's having expensive work. Most vets do not keep us informed as well (re cost) plus it's the receptionist taking payments often and obviously they don't know exactly what treatment the pet has had - they are just telling us the cost and reading from the screen. At the vets I used to work for if customers wanted an itemised bill the accounts dept would need to prepare this and would get huffy about it as it was extra work. But vets didn't routinely ring customers to go through the cost of treatment BEFORE the work was done so obviously clients were utterly shocked at the spiralling costs when they came to collect their beloved pet. If vets are being run more as big business then they should act as professional businesses and take the time to explain/email/message clients before treatment is carried out so we all know exactly how much we'll be paying or if cheaper alternatives are available (ie private prescriptions or the multi use ones).

A little anecdote.
We live in the country, (not UK) My Cocker (RIP) had a repetitive problem with wild grasses getting into his ears.. (yes, yes, he was cropped around & in the ears etc, infact finally cropped all over. but even our Pointer would get them, & he had the shortest coat around, plus giraffe legs) the dog was checked over as much as was feasible. Grass cut where accesible etc
Anyway, at one point, having been to get these grasses extracted 3 times in a week, where there was no diagnostic per se needed, & we were in & out of the vets in 3 minutes. At 70€ a pop.
I said, “look I cant keep this up, I dont have the funds, this is going to go on for the whole season. Can you show me what tools are required? I’ll have to do it myself?” She refused, “its a specialist intervention”.
i looked her in the eyes & said “well what do you suggest? Put him to sleep?”
She looked sheepish & said she would do me a deal, I said “What like a pizza card? 11th pizza free?” She said it would be 15€ a visit.

If you don’t question the costs you’ll never know !

Well done OP

The thing is though, the poor receptionist that recieved the ear bashing, literally had no say in what the poster was charged. Neither did the nurses, vets, or any of the other staff at that clinic.

Good for the practice making a stand and ridding themselves of an abusive client!

It's very clear that some practices charge far too much for a written prescription , i think the government are suggesting around £16.00 should be the charge.

There is work involved in the process of producing the script - the pets history should be checked for updated weight , when last seen , is a vet check due ? quantity , strength of drug etc.
Then if done correctly each time a new script is created ie not a printed duplicate from a previous script , once complete usually double checked by a second member of staff ,the same checking protocol as actual meds, then admin staff sending the script to the online company directly which a lot of practices now do.

Numerous times in my practice and i'm sure many others the client makes an error of some sort when ordering their pets meds on online pharmacies requiring alterations ,sometimes a brand new script , usually provided at no extra cost out of good will at my independent practice.

Mostly smooth running but some written prescription production can be quite time consuming and there are many requests daily.
If clients could see the process i think they would be more understanding of why they are charged what should be a reasonable fee.

They said the drugs were needed but couldn't supply them! Shouldn't have charged us in this instance. Generally you pay to see the vet so don't see why they should charge again to write the prescription.

This is why vet practices are starting to email the written prescription straight to the chosen online drug company.

Vets are no longer allowed to advise things like piriton/paracetamol doses and would risk their licence if they did.

Is that a legal restriction, or one imposed by the industry RVC?

The VMD regulate the veterinary industry. Under certain circumstances vets can prescribe piriton but cannot advise you to get it directly from a chemist and pretend it's for you. The RCVS also advise against it but that's a recommendation.