Drugs from Vets!!!!!

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dianeholmes

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My horse has respiratory allergies and needs steroid inhalers. The vet prescribed one and since the bills have been going to the insurance company I have not asked too many questions - well the insurance for that condition ends 30th June so I decided to see what I was committed to. I am still recovering!!!

From Boots with a private prescription it is £48 a week!! Same sort of price on the internet. I got a contact in the NHS to see how much they paid - £38 was the answer. Then the biggest shock of all - I asked the vet practice and they are charging a whopping £110 for the self same thing!!!

There is no way I can afford this at any of the varied range of prices! They are making tailor made vaccinations for most of his allergies so fingers crossed they work and they arrive before the 30th June!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yours - still having nightmares about the bill
 
dianeholmes said:
My horse has respiratory allergies and needs steroid inhalers. The vet prescribed one and since the bills have been going to the insurance company I have not asked too many questions - well the insurance for that condition ends 30th June so I decided to see what I was committed to. I am still recovering!!!

From Boots with a private prescription it is £48 a week!! Same sort of price on the internet. I got a contact in the NHS to see how much they paid - £38 was the answer. Then the biggest shock of all - I asked the vet practice and they are charging a whopping £110 for the self same thing!!!

There is no way I can afford this at any of the varied range of prices! They are making tailor made vaccinations for most of his allergies so fingers crossed they work and they arrive before the 30th June!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yours - still having nightmares about the bill
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At a guess the cost of the drugs to the practice would be £58 unless they're part of one of the big groups (XL vets is the main equine one I think). Most practices are small fry to a big drug company, especially compared to Boots or the NHS...
 
Thank you wishfull this is what I was going to say. The bigger companies get huge discounts from drug companies and can therefore reduce their prices, vets have to get theirs either through a drug rep or through a wholesaler and don't have the same discounts. You can ask for a written prescription (there will be a charge, we charge £8 per drug) and you can get it from wherever you choose. Also please be aware your vet will require a visit every 6 months in order to continue to prescribe the drug for you written or otherwise as this is the law.
 
I just paid £18.15 inc vat and postage for a box of 10 Norodine sachets online - instead of £60 plus from the vet. But, they were just about equal on Ventipulmin, so we bought from the vet as we appreciate they are trying to run a business.

I try to weigh it against imminent further bills and allow for the vet procedures, which I'll be better able to afford if I have shopped around a little where possible.
 
A plea from the other side!

Yes drugs are eye wateringly expensive sometimes - but they are eye wateringly expensive to buy from the wholesaler too. And as someone has pointed out the NHS has massive buying power compared to the veterinary market. Additionally we are required BY LAW to prescribe and use veterinary licensed products even if a cheaper human alternative is available.

Internet pharmacies will not answer the phone at 2am when your horse has colic, nor will they stay up all night with your sick foal.

Yes, vet practices put a mark up on drugs, but please be aware that we have to make a profit as a business to be able to provide our services to you. X ray machines, ultrasound scanners, blood analysers etc do not fall out of the sky, they have to be leased or purchased and maintained. Staff have to be paid and that is not just the vets. Business rates, building maintenance, I could go on and on.

So what you pay on your vet bill actually goes towards providing the whole service that we offer. So sometimes, you pay far far less than the actual cost of a procedure if you take into account the cost of the equipment required.

For example, we had an ultrasound scanner in the clinic at college that cost £70,000. Yes, £70,000. You'd need to scan a hell of a lot of horses to make that one pay for itself.

So before you start on a rant about vet fees please take a moment to consider what you are actually paying for. Try getting your GP to come out in the middle of the night or at the weekend.

Gripe over!
 
Try Hyperdrug, they're online but a contact number is on their website too. They have just saved a friend £28 every 10 days on her dog's meds over the vet- and for them she didn't need a prescription.
use for my wormers, and flea stuff for our assorted animals and they come in much cheaper for them too:)
 
Laura, totally hear what you are saying and although i know i can get some things cheaper online, i have never done it. I have only really needed one offs though. If diane is going to save £60 per week then obviously she would be mad not to. Or at least £50 if the vet charges £10 for the script. Instead of paying £440 per week she will be paying 200. I am all for supporting my vet as I value the service I get from him but most of us aren't wealthy enough to by pass that saving on a point of principle. I am sure the vet will understand the logic and not hold it against her.
I think we get a good service from our equine vets at a resonable cost, considering they come to us and, as you say, at all times of the night if necessary. My dogs vet is a different story. They are way more expensive and I go to them and they don't have anything like the equipment that my horse vet has, or the custom built premises etc.
 
We use Hyperdrug for the routine stuff for the dogs and have found them to be very good.

One of our GSDs had a skin allergy and was on Atopica. I spoke to the vet & asked him for a prescription so that I could buy online. He asked me how much I was paying and then agreed to match it.

So it might be worth speaking to your vet to see if they can do the same
 
I don't do it as a rule, but my horse isn't insured now (they have made plenty out of the insurance company when they all were, though!) and the difference between the £36.30 online cost v £121.00 from the vet is just too much for me to absorb. Bear in mind I have paid for two visits and consults, two prescriptions, Ventipulmin and am lined up for x-rays and a likely GA and surgery. The other time I pulled rank and bought from a pharmacy was for Pergolide at 1/3 the price again. The vet still had the money from x-rays, a failed endoscope, lots of antibiotics and finally euthanising her, all paid for BEFORE I got my bills. Lately, I have been in credit for a double deduction in error from my credit card which I was happy to leave un-refunded.

Online pharmacies won't come out at midnight for colic I grant you - but my vet doesn't turn up for free either at any time, let alone in the wee small hours.

I try to be a good client and have great faith in my vets. Maybe they could buy their meds online?
 
Part of what vets are paying for in drug prices is convenience - few practices can store much, so they have a lot of things delivered when they need them - which can be day if necessary (and no production problems, which seem to happen quite frequently as animal drugs are less important than human drugs, so are the first things bumped from the schedule). At a guess, the price scales depend on total of orders over a year, so if the practice were to buy particular drugs online, all the other drugs (which might well have less mark up from the drug company if they are older/not licensed in food animals) would be more expensive due if the annual sales dropped below that level.

The drug cascade is another issue, as lauraandjack mentioned - first port of call has to be a drug licensed for use in that animal, then licensed in other animals, then human, then unlicensed. Quite often the human drug would be cheaper, but can't be given as there is a licensed veterinary drug available. Licensing is also a bit arbitrary - drugs produced in the same factory, or even on the same production line, but marketed under different brand names can have different licenses - one of the bits/equivalents of Domesedan/Torbugesic (can't remember which) requires the horse to be signed off as not for human consumption. The other equivalent drug has a very short meat withdrawal.
 
get a script to take elsewhere. i wouldnt pay nearly double the cost just to get it from the vets! only an utterly rich idiot would to be honest?!
agree they have big overheads and they cant get the drug as cheap as bigger buyers- but that doesnt make it right for someone to pay that much more just to get it from them, when there is a vastly cheaper alternative way....just to 'support their practice'.
 
Because my local tackshop has stopped selling wormers (she feels the cost of the certificate is too expensive to bother with), I asked my vet for 3 tubes of Pramox. That cost me £75+. I then found out that I could get them from a farm supply shop (small business, not part of a chain) for £16 each. I shall not be buying wormers from the vet again.
 
In defence of vets, they really cannot compete with the large companies. My vets are very good about issuing prescriptions if they think I can get drugs cheaper, and they suggested it for my ponys pergolide, and will issue a prescription with 2 x repeats which gives me nearly 9 month supply. Also just before Christmas when I had a panic when my usual chemist couldn't get pergolide my vet actually phoned round their local chemists and found me an alternative supply.
 
many thanks for these interesting responses! My vet is part of XL Vets and it is a human drug. My vet apologised when I told him how much it was on line - I have not seen him since I asked the practice what they were charging!! He did also say it was along acting steroid and if it has to continue beyond the insurance cut off there are cheaper options.

I am hoping the vaccinations will work for the pollens and i can manage the sugar beet out of his life so fingers crossed the inhalers are a short term response.

I am aware of the business nature of vets but this practice has a reputation for being expensive when compared with others. I have always used a specialist equine vets but when I moved I started using the local one with the best equine reputation and they are charging more for everything including vaccinations and they are no where near as well equipped as my previous vet which did surgery, MRI, scintigraphy etc.
 
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