How on earth can there be such a difference in the price of medication for a puppy?

[saltire]

As some of you will know, our puppy broke his paw a few weeks ago. The bill for that was over £2,400. Anyway, last week(Thursday) he had to go back to the place where he ahd the metal frame fitted to get it removed. The total cost at this place was £350, this was for an x-ray, removal of frame and antibiotics. A dressing was applied to an open wound and he was home again, discharged from this place.
Yesterday he went to our local vet down the road to get the dressing removed. He got another course of antibiotics and a course of anti inflamatorys. the total cost was £22.50

The difference in the price of the medication was unbelivable. The first place, specialist vets, it was £21.93 for a weeks supply of antibiotics, our local vet, same tablets, weeks supply - £2.00.
Same with the anti inflammatorys, £68.50 for a weeks supply at first place, £16.00 at local vets

Maybe the specialist vet is prescribing branded drugs, whilst your local vet is using the generic equivalent?

Also, I did read somewhere, ages ago, that some vets charge more for drugs than say pharmacies (but not all pharmacies carry veterinary drugs) because that enables the vets to use profit on the drugs to subsidise expensive treatments and try to keep them affordable. That's no consolation when you've already paid thousands for surgery though. at over £50 difference for the same drugs.

I don't know if there is a difference, they both say Rymadil on the box and both look the same.

Sounds like the specialist vet is putting a huge markup on the drugs .

If you do a google search on the name of the drugs, you will find online vet pharmacies, which may be cheaper than your local vet. I've never used any of them, but see what you think. You are perfectly entitled to ask your vet for a prescrption, and get the drugs wherever you want.

I hope your puppy is getting better.

Roskva - he is getting better, there has been ahuge improvement since Tuesday morning when teh dressing was taken off. He is also weight bearing now, which is good, because our vet wanted to send him back to the specialist to get checked out, and TBH I was dreading it. He was at the specialist over a week ago and they still haven't sent the claim forms into petplan, so we are currently £350 down this month

I'm glad he's doing well, Saltire. It's heartbreaking when a pet is injured. My dog had to have emergency surgery last year after he got a bone from a dead bird he found in a hedge stuck in his throat. Fortunately he recovered with no lasting damage (and he still hasn't learnt not to forage in hedgerows). That's a lot of money to be out of pocket - don't they understand that it leaves folk short if they don't send the claim forms off promptly .

I am sure that when a vet find s out you have insurance they bump the price up massively

I know mine bumps up the price for out of hours emergencies. Guess when my little monster decided to swallow rubbish? 7pm on a good friday