Vet charges for prescriptions

Joe54 · 10 January 2018 at 10:42PM

I have just paid £44 for tablets for my dog who has had a couple of seizures. However she needs these tablets every month & that is all they last 1 month.

If I ask for a prescription for 3 months 1 Will I get it and 2 how much will I have to pay compared to a 1 month prescription.

Carrot007 · 10 January 2018 at 10:49PM

Joe54 wrote: »

I have just paid £44 for tablets for my dog who has had a couple of seizures. However she needs these tablets every month & that is all they last 1 month.

If I ask for a prescription for 3 months 1 Will I get it and 2 how much will I have to pay compared to a 1 month prescription.

If it's like my vets then the charge is just for the tablets. As in if they dispence them there is no prescriptions charge.

So I guess you would pay three times as much.

You could see if you could get it cheaper elsewhere and ask for a prescription. They should prescribe as long as they recomend without a vist (three or six months at a guess). But then they will charge for a prescription so check you are still saving.

krlyr · 10 January 2018 at 11:00PM

The regulations around prescriptions are a little wooly. There is no minimum or maximum period they can write the prescription for but the pet must be considered "under vet care" - some cap this at three months, some may go to six months. My vet will issue my girl's medication as long as they have seen her within 6 months.

The charge has no specified amount either. It must be "reasonable" and a vet cannot discriminate against a customer who asks for a prescription, but there is no cap. My vets used to charge £6 but I guess got more requests which ties them up with more paperwork and upped it to £12. For some stuff, it's not worth it as the savings are less than the fees, but for other medication it's still worth it. But the charge should be per prescription, so there should be no difference for 1 month or 3 months, if it's one piece of paper.

Joe54 · 10 January 2018 at 11:04PM

Thanks Carrot007 - However I am confused. My dog doesn’t go to the vet for this particular complaint although she has been often enough in the last couple of years. My wife just telephones for a repeat prescription & I collect & pay for it whether the dog has been seen by him or not.

Also we used to pay just under £20 for a months supply but the cost more than doubled a few months ago & when I queried this they said that medication in general had gone up beyond recognitions.

Joe54 · 10 January 2018 at 11:08PM

Thanks Krylr - I will try to get 6 months supply. Or even 3 would be a huge saving.

CommitedToChange · 10 January 2018 at 11:21PM

If you're getting the tablets from the vets then it is not a prescription you're getting. You are paying for the tablets directly. Cost per tablet will not change no matter how many you order. Your wife is not ordering a prescription, she is ordering the tablets.

You can probably order them online possibly cheaper per tablet but then you would need your vet to write a prescription to order them and that will have a set charge from the vet.

Don't confuse vet prescriptions and human prescriptions.

ElusiveLucy · 11 January 2018 at 10:33AM

Check the cost of the same tablets online then work out how long the prescription would need to be for for it to be cost effective to ask for one.

I use it for Advocate flea treatment for my cats - my vets charge double what it costs online, but if I get a 12-month prescription it works out cheaper ordering it online. I'm sure there are some medications where vets will only prescribe for shorter periods, so that will be a deciding factor.

elsien · 11 January 2018 at 10:40AM

Joe54 wrote: »

Thanks Carrot007 - However I am confused. My dog doesn’t go to the vet for this particular complaint although she has been often enough in the last couple of years. My wife just telephones for a repeat prescription & I collect & pay for it whether the dog has been seen by him or not.
.

They've still seen the dog though for other complaints, and had the chance to check for any side effects or contra-indications even if you've not gone for that specific thing.

MABLE · 21 May 2018 at 2:42PM

I had to take my cat to the vet after having a allergic reaction to a booster. He was prescribed Isaderm gel. The cost £37.00 for a 15g tube. However on the internet its selling for £10.00. This is a complete rip off.

If I wanted a prescription this would have cost £20.00 but I needed the gel asap so could not wait to be sent through the post.

However I got the vet to reduce his consultancy fee from £40.00 to £20.00 because this was caused by the booster injection.

System · 21 May 2018 at 4:28PM

One of my dogs is on long term medication. Appalled at the cost i looked for the drug online. As expected its much cheaper but when i looked into it further, i found my vet would charge me £18 dispensing fee just for the prescription.

The consultation fee was more than enough i would have thought.

mac.d · 23 May 2018 at 10:02AM

Judi wrote: »

One of my dogs is on long term medication. Appalled at the cost i looked for the drug online. As expected its much cheaper but when i looked into it further, i found my vet would charge me £18 dispensing fee just for the prescription.

The consultation fee was more than enough i would have thought.

If it's long term medication, you can request that your vet gives you a prescription that will cover for up to 6 months of the medication, instead of paying for a new prescription every time you order the medication online. I had to go back into my vet 3 times to get them to do it properly, that's a nice revenue stream for them disappearing!

Vet charges for prescriptions

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