Price of Danilon has shot up.

[criso]

My vet was very good with prescriptions for my retired one. When out for something else, not necessarily my horse, he'd ask how he'd been, glance over the door and that was my check. Just got charged the £11.80 for the prescription charge and he'd put enough for 6 months on it.

 

[Gamebird]

It's probably worth pointing out that the vets are generally not adding massive mark-ups. It's mostly economies of scale. For us (a vet practice) to buy a box of Danilon from our wholesaler costs us more than it does for you to buy it from Viovet (assuming the quoted price includes VAT). So to match the price means that we either sell at zero profit, or at a small loss. Sometimes it is worth doing this to maintain customer loyalty.

Prescriptions take time to write - once written they need to be checked and signed by a vet, and the clinical record needs checking etc. A record needs to be made of the prescription, a duplicate filed etc. etc. All time and money. It doesn't sound much for one prescription, but can tie up a vet for a long period every day for multiple clients. And if they're tied up in the office checking prescriptions, this time has a cost to the business.

Unfortunately Brexit also has an impact as most of these drugs are manufactured in Europe, and the increased transport and import costs and checks need to be passed on to the customer.

It's not a perfect system, but it's certainly not the case that the majority of vets are applying huge mark-ups, or funding their golf club memberships by writing prescriptions. Times are tight for all businesses.

 

[criso]

The big companies can buy in bulk, really cut down their overheads and realistically only carry limited ranges of popular drugs. I wonder if you'd find more obscure medication at so many places and if the savings would be as great as things like Bute or danilon which they know they can sell alot of

I don't expect my vet to try and price match, mine admitted there was no way they could sell at the prices the big companies do.

I'm happy to pay the admin fee, I'm still ahead.

 

[milliepops]

the only thing i get a prescription for is Cartrophen as it's very much cheaper from evetdrug and I can plan ahead and then do a paypal Pay in 3 thing to spread the cost further.

I get stuff like Regumate direct from vets as the price diff is not that great and its quick and easy. i do appreciate the costs to the practice of having stuff in stock to hand out there and then.

 

[Floofball]

I've recently needed Bute for my lad, used Danilon as he can be a fussy twerp whilst having his treatment. It looks like he'll be needing it for a while till things settle down. My vet said the manufacturer of Danilon has hiked the cost price up, something to do with streamlining production of other products??? Can't remember exactly, but he said if I could get my lad to take Equipalazone it's half the price. I took 10 sachets to try and he ate them so got a box of 100 for £104. You can get them slightly cheaper online but by the time I've paid for a prescription there's not much in it so happy to get from the vet for now.

 

[meleeka]

It's probably worth pointing out that the vets are generally not adding massive mark-ups. It's mostly economies of scale. For us (a vet practice) to buy a box of Danilon from our wholesaler costs us more than it does for you to buy it from Viovet (assuming the quoted price includes VAT). So to match the price means that we either sell at zero profit, or at a small loss. Sometimes it is worth doing this to maintain customer loyalty.

Prescriptions take time to write - once written they need to be checked and signed by a vet, and the clinical record needs checking etc. A record needs to be made of the prescription, a duplicate filed etc. etc. All time and money. It doesn't sound much for one prescription, but can tie up a vet for a long period every day for multiple clients. And if they're tied up in the office checking prescriptions, this time has a cost to the business.

Unfortunately Brexit also has an impact as most of these drugs are manufactured in Europe, and the increased transport and import costs and checks need to be passed on to the customer.

It's not a perfect system, but it's certainly not the case that the majority of vets are applying huge mark-ups, or funding their golf club memberships by writing prescriptions. Times are tight for all businesses.

This has been going on since way before Brexit. My vets prices are often over double the online. Business certainly doesn’t appear to be tight for them at the moment (all our local vets are CVS, as is Animed Direct) I wouldn’t mind so much if the profits were put into the vets salaries and frontline staff, but it seems they aren’t.

https://www.cvsukltd.co.uk/wp-conte...Group-plc-Annual-Report-and-Accounts-2021.pdf

 

[criso]

This has been going on since way before Brexit. My vets prices are often over double the online. Business certainly doesn’t appear to be tight for them at the moment (all our local vets are CVS, as is Animed Direct) I wouldn’t mind so much if the profits were put into the vets salaries and frontline staff, but it seems they aren’t.

https://www.cvsukltd.co.uk/wp-conte...Group-plc-Annual-Report-and-Accounts-2021.pdf

The difference between vets and online retailers has been going on for a long time however the thread was started by someone whose medication from the vets has gone up and when I looked online, it was about 30% more than when I was buying 12 months ago.

I've recently needed Bute for my lad, used Danilon as he can be a fussy twerp whilst having his treatment. It looks like he'll be needing it for a while till things settle down. My vet said the manufacturer of Danilon has hiked the cost price up, something to do with streamlining production of other products??? Can't remember exactly, but he said if I could get my lad to take Equipalazone it's half the price. I took 10 sachets to try and he ate them so got a box of 100 for £104. You can get them slightly cheaper online but by the time I've paid for a prescription there's not much in it so happy to get from the vet for now.

When I was feeding bute, I was saving at least £45 a box and the prescription was £11.80. I got 3 boxes on one prescription. It's just over £70 atm so if it's a long term thing and you can get your vet to put more on one prescription, it would be worth doing

 

[tda]

I had some Bute recommended for one of my oldies, when I went to collect it they gave me a box of 100. Did mildly panic a bit as remembered a similar discussion about price of it on here, but was pleasantly surprised when the bill came, more or less the same cost as on viovet.

 

[criso]

Viovet are expensive for Bute, I've used petdrugsonline, vetimed, vetsuk for better pricing.

 

[Birker2020]

I was getting bute for 64p a sachet when my vet was selling it to me for £1.15 a sachet! So I used to buy a prescription at £18 and then 2 boxes with the 6 months the prescription lasted me for and save myself an absolute fortune.

I think I used evet from memory. Only found out you could do this at Your Horse Live when I spoke to one of the guys on the stand.