How much does your vet charge to write a prescription?

c6h4m1

:beer: to Snowman2 from me, too!

I was just curious - when my animals need a prescription I get it done by my vet who is excellent but it's nice to know the charges I'm paying are similar to others.

Hintza

I think a lot of you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Most vets will not have the buying power to get the drugs at the sort of prices these big outlets can, they will buy in bulk and offer them at great reductions which vets just cannot match.

You then expect the vet to sign the prescription and give that to you for virtually nothing, thus depriving themselves of a source of income. The net result of which will either be higher consulting charges or fees for prescriptions to offset that loss.

We are very lucky in that we have a large animal vet who doesn't take new customers unless by recomendation. I can just see him telling us to bu$$er off if we asked for a prescription.

I might add that we do not have insurance on any of our animals and I imagine that neither do most of his clients.

So I tend to agree with Anne_Marie77 on this one.

Mrs_pbradley936

I think it would depend of whether or not the medication is a short duration i.e. anti biotics for a week or for a chronic condition meaning that the pet has to take it every day for life. For the former then I would not mind paying a steep fee but for the latter a steep fee every month or so would have me looking for a cheaper alternative.

suki1964

Once again Im just thankful I no longer live in the south of England. Just had my lad in the vets for his booster, a consult and a Malaseb script - and got change from 30 quid

Mind I would willingly pay more if only to pay to get the [strike]pond[/strike] pothole slap in the middle of the drive filled in

orlao

I hear what you're saying Hinza:D but you wouldn't take the same line if you were buying a TV would you? I'll happily pay a high price for professional knowledge but not for what is basically admin....issuing meds.

I have no problem in paying for a consultation and TBH I expect that the professional decision/diagnosis to be covered under that charge....issuing a prescription takes no longer than printing a label to stick on a bottle or packet of meds. If vets charged slightly more, maybe £5, than the on line price I would buy from them for an easier life......but, just taking my cat as an example, her meds are £24.85 a month online and £44 from the vets!

My now ex vets were just plain greedy.....my pets are flea treated with Avocate....they want to see all of them every three months and £10 per animal per item before they would issue a prescription which funnily enough makes their avocate the same price as online PLUS 4 x consultation fees @£29!!!!

However for the last couple of years they were happy to issue a prescription despite only seeing the little dogs annually for jabs

While there are vets operating like that I'm afraid more and more vets will be looked at with suspicion by pet owners.

If I had a vet like yours for the small animals I too wouldn't rock the boat....my horse vet will say to me that you should take a script for some items as he can't beat the price especially for long term meds, large animal vets seem to be much more sensible:D SOME small animal practices appear to mistake our money for theirs and think we "owe it" to them:mad:

Hintza

I think my point is that what these big big players will get massive discounts, I'm not meaning just a fiver here or there which the vets will be totally unable to compete with.

We are hugely lucky with our vet. We have to give the Border a pill a day @ just under £1 a shot and I know we can get it cheaper (not hugely so though).

I know that a lot of you who are down in the South have huge vets bills but a lot of that will have to do with property prices. You do have my sympathy. Funnily our vet consults out of a converted garden shed for the dogs etc since most of his work is farm related, so that must play a big part in the low prices.

c6h4m1

You've obviously never had the choice between getting a prescription and paying around £30 per month for drugs, or getting the drugs from the vet at around £300 per month Hintza? With one drug I have had to use for one of my animals the difference really was that much. In fact before it was possible to get a prescription from your vet, I had to have one animal put to sleep because I simply couldn't afford the drugs for her - around £150 per month and no way of getting them at a more affordable price.

I never said I have a problem with paying for a prescription and I expect the vet to see my animal at least every 3 months when it is due for renewal - fortunately my vets are very reasonable with their charges.

ann_marie77

OP, I must apologise it would appear my previous post has caused a bit of an uproar and changed the debate of your question. I am sorry about that.

Although Orlao, I do think you seemed to jump rashly onto my comment, which was meant to reassure the OP and not critise them.

I assure you all that I have no objections to anybody trying to keep the cost down, as I understand the worry and difficult choices you have to make when you cannot afford to prolong treatment. This has happened to my family quite recently with a much beloved dog.

We have also bought medication online for on-going medical problems and flea treatment rather than paying higher prices at the vets.
In reference to my comment about a good vet being worth his weight gold, I only meant a good vet would want a regular consultation with the animal to ensure that the medication, which was prescribed, is still best suit to the animal in question and therefore the prescription cost would be absorbed into that fee.

Back to OP, the best advice anyone could give you is that if you are worry about the costs is to talk to your vet about the different options available. If that means the vet writes a prescription for an extended period of 3-6 months for you to buy online then so be it.

If you are still worried about the cost of the prescription cost for a true comparison you really need to compare the prices in your local area, best way here is to get out the yellow pages and phone up the different vets and ask for a price list for things like, consultation, prescription, medication costs, etc. Although if you are happy with your vet a prescription charge may be something you need to budget for.

I can only hope this clarifies my opinion on this and please do accept my earlier apologises, as I didn't mean to offend anyone.

snowman2_2

ann_marie77 wrote: »

Although Snowman2, I do think you seemed to jump rashly onto my comment, which was meant to reassure the OP and not critise them.

What did I say? I only said we didn't charge for prescriptions and I think you replied AFTER me. Are you getting me muddled up?

ann_marie77

snowman2 wrote: »

What did I say? I only said we didn't charge for prescriptions and I think you replied AFTER me. Are you getting me muddled up?

Oops sorry Snowman2, my mistake I meant to reply to orlao. When I read initally read the post, I assumed the poster was using a signature like some on here do. I will edit my post so it reads properly.