Would you be furious?

carthorse

carthorse

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I was just about to pay my vets bill when I mentioned to a friend about the price of the inhaler and medicine that we were given. She works for Lloyds chemist and said they sell them for £9.40. I was charged by my vet as Equine inhaler £99. It clearly says on it adult mask glaxo aero chamber plus. I was furious and phoned the vet. The lady was a bit snotty and said it says equine inhaler to which I said but you supplied a human one costing £9.40 at my local chemist. She said she would check with the vet but no one has phoned back yet.
I am sure if they think you are insured they charge more. They did 2 seperate endoscopes and had 2 seperate samples sent away but found nothing so gave her the inhaler [after two lots of ventipulman and 2 lots of AB] Bill is £1300 and she still had the slight cough so I put her on Clarity and she hasnt coughed since. She never did get much of the inhaler as I dropped the spray stuff on the floor and she trod on it [that was £65]
I am sure the insurance are going to query it and we have to pay excess and 15%.
 
I would be cross and I would inform the insurance company I was once charged £1 a tablet for tablets that cost my brother a doctor 2p to buy .
 
Many drugs are identical for horses/animals as for humans, and can be obtained much more cheaply from a Pharmacist. Luckily both my equine and small animal vets like to tell me when I could save money here.:cool:
 
I would be annoyed - my vet would have suggested I bought one from the chemist, if there isn't an equine alternative.
I don't think I'd want to use a practice that felt the need to make money out of customers in this way.
 
However, pharmacies are not allowed to supply you with things if they believe it is intended to be used on animals (unless there is a veterinary prescription)...
 
pixie said:
However, pharmacies are not allowed to supply you with things if they believe it is intended to be used on animals (unless there is a veterinary prescription)...
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that's why you say it's for a friend!
 
Ouch! I would persist with asking to be charged the actual price! Next time, ask if you can get a prescription and buy online meds or at the chemist's, I've saved loads doing this for the dogs.
 
Not necessarily the vets ripping you off. Their wholesalers often charge much higher prices than pharmacy wholesalers. I've seen this from both sides as I work in vets and oh is a pharmacist. More often than not the vet wholesaler charge twice the price, so very is paying more for it in first place.
 
This is why I lose faith in vets (and also more recently human dentists, charging me for more work than I don't need :mad:) it's so hard to trust, because of course they've got to make a profit but the average person doesn't have massive knowledge so you have to trust the vet blind that they are doing the right thing by you and your horse.

I would call back and insist to speak with the vet before settling the bill. No need to get angry, just state facts as they can't argue with that. There's no excuse for ripping you off so drastically.
 
pixie said:
However, pharmacies are not allowed to supply you with things if they believe it is intended to be used on animals (unless there is a veterinary prescription)...
Click to expand...

That is why you do not tell them what you are buying sudocrem or hydrogen peroxide for.....

As for the OP - yup, I would be pretty peeved!
 
Probably an error on whoever charged up your account. An aerohippus should be about that much, this is an equine inhaler. When I worked for a vets we had both those and the human ones. The human one should be around 20. Perhaps they charged you for an aerohippus instead, but this should be rectified by the vet. As reception or nurse you are handed an often illegible scribble to decipher and charge up, as you yourself are not present at the consult you have to go by the notes which probably said equine inhaler. Give them a few days to get hold of the vet in the office with the docket, to rectify it.
 
moana said:
Many drugs are identical for horses/animals as for humans, and can be obtained much more cheaply from a Pharmacist. Luckily both my equine and small animal vets like to tell me when I could save money here.:cool:
Click to expand...

Unfortunately you cannot be prescribed human drugs if there is a licenced animal equivalent. Its yet another interference by the EU and is called Cascade. It personally cost me tens of thousands of pounds, more than £300 per month, every month for a drug that if I could have still got as a human one would have been only £32 per month. I know for a fact this has cost horsey lives as many vets refuse to prescribe it on the grounds of the financial burden to the owner.
 
Carthorse, I think you are quite right to complain. You may have to pay the full price for the medicince but the 'glaxo aero chamber plus' is readily available from chemists, as you say at a much cheaper price, I don't think you necessarily need a prescription for that as it's not a drug. Just a method of getting a vapourised medicine into the patient. If your vet isn't one that helps its customers when things are this different in price by suggesting that they can but direct from a chemist or online at a cheaper price then I think that they are definitely ripping you off.
 
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