Absolutely DESPARATE about dog meds cost - UPDATE

olibrofiz

I just want to sit and cry.

Dog is on human medication, no animal alternative apparently. For a human to get it with a prescription its £66 for 30, 20mg tablets, vets are charging me £144. Ok, can't afford it but dogs in recovery so it's a short term rip off right?

I've just been to pick up some more tablets and they've informed me that oh, they can't get the 20mg, only 10mg, but they cost the same as the 20mg. So now £288 a month :eek::eek::eek::eek:, not counting the other meds she's on, and the regular blood tests, and the consultation fee each time.

Can't buy it online as I need a prescription, and as it's human meds, a vet prescription is useless I'm guessing???

I am also really :mad::mad: cos I've been saying, each time I go for her check-up, please can we get her off the expensive tablets, and he's been reducing the cheap ones :mad::mad:

Just don't know what to do. Had thought about trying one of those overseas 'don't need a prescription' sites but

Just really don't know what to do. Any sensible ideas? And no comments about putting the dog down please.

Francesanne

Wish I could give you some advice regarding medication but have no helpful suggestions.I'm sure you'll get plenty of helpful advice. Really just want to wish You and your girl all the very best. I love my dog very much and I'd hate to be in your dreadful situation but when you love an animal you'd do everything you can to help them. Take good care & hope she makes good progress.

meerkat2007

I don't know if this would be of any help at all, but I buy Piriton in a 500 tablet tub from an online pharmacy. Obviously no prescription required for that, but before they would send the tablets, they asked if he was on any other medication, so I told them that he was also on Rimadyl. They told me that they could supply it if I got a prescription from the vet, so this was an online "human" pharmacy supplying drugs on a vet prescription.

If I were you, I would email some online pharmacies and explain the situation to them - you never know, they might be quite happy to take a vet prescription for human meds for a dog. The worst they can do is say no.

Good luck!

ForrestG

I have a cat on human medication. The vet writes a prescription and we go to a chemist for the tablets. I hope that would work for you. Maybe you could have a chat with your local chemist to see what they say.

olibrofiz

Thank you, I must confess I haven't tried asking but will do now.

I'm just so :mad::mad: because they gave me 4 bottles of the 10mg two months ago and I kept saying over and over 'I need to pay for those', and them saying 'nope you've paid for them'. If they'd given me the cost then I would have pushed the vet hard to start reducing them. As it was I've just been going blindly on thinking they were the same price.

Now I've queried it they, like me, will realise that the 4 bottles weren't put on the computer and on top of this months bill of £469 they'll add one for about £560 to it. And I just don't have that money.

dmg24

Are you not covered by your insurance?

RacyRed

Hi,

My cat is on human medication and it is available at the online pharmacies.

Check with VetUK and so on. Don't worry if you cannot immediately spot the drugs you need in the lists or via the search box, many of them are known by codes, but if you fill in the query box telling them exactly what you are looking for they tell you which code it is.

I'm sorry to hear that your dog has been so ill.

Mutter_2

olibrofiz wrote: »

I just want to sit and cry.

Dog is on human medication, no animal alternative apparently. For a human to get it with a prescription its £66 for 30, 20mg tablets, vets are charging me £144. Ok, can't afford it but dogs in recovery so it's a short term rip off right?

I've just been to pick up some more tablets and they've informed me that oh, they can't get the 20mg, only 10mg, but they cost the same as the 20mg. So now £288 a month :eek::eek::eek::eek:, not counting the other meds she's on, and the regular blood tests, and the consultation fee each time.

Can't buy it online as I need a prescription, and as it's human meds, a vet prescription is useless I'm guessing???

I am also really :mad::mad: cos I've been saying, each time I go for her check-up, please can we get her off the expensive tablets, and he's been reducing the cheap ones :mad::mad:

Just don't know what to do. Had thought about trying one of those overseas 'don't need a prescription' sites but

Just really don't know what to do. Any sensible ideas? And no comments about putting the dog down please.

You've seethed so much, my screen's on fire.
Calm, calm down, you have a sick doggy in the house. Calm you too, need to take care of yourself.

I bet there's a simple answer to this but you're so stressed from looking after Pet, that this is is out of proportion. They'll sort it here.

stargate222

I'm sorry but it sounds to me as if you are being ripped off by your vet. I can't believe that the 10mg and 20mg are the same price. Also unless this is some kind of obscure medication (which I doubt as it is for humans) they can get 20mg if they tried. Are you using up their old stock for them? You've obviously told them them that you are worried about the cost so what do they do - double the price. Phone other vets and see how much it would cost to buy from them. Also you are ENTITLED to a prescription and it should have been offered to you as well so you can buy it elsewhere. Your vet would be able to tell you where you can go to get it (can you use it in a chemist).

Don't stand for this, a good vet would pull out all the stops for you. I think you need to seriously think about changing vets. I woul even go as far as questioning whether all the treatment is actually necessary.


Just out of curiosity what is this gold plated human medication?

olibrofiz

Thanks for your thoughts all. In order of posting:

DMG24 - Insurance, ahhh, that's another story. Let me just say that when you get pet insurance make sure it's per YEAR and not per CONDITION. We went through the £6000 in three weeks.

RacyRed - I'll try vetuk, thanks

Mutter - you could tell I'm a bit stressed then 'sick' doggie is tearing up the garden at the mo :rotfl: and doesn't look at all ill

stargate222 - yes, I think I'm being ripped off too. I mentioned buying the meds online and the vet just smiled and didn';t reply but I was upset at the time so overlooked that. I changed to this vets, last ones were awful, and these ones have been excellent, bar this recent blip.

The gold plated medication is Arava which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis in humans - in this case it's being used as it does something to the white cells and the bonemarrow and the immune system. Don;t ask, but it seems to be working :T

Paws

Vets charge a fortunes for drugs, what drugs are they and I'll see what I can find.

e2a just seen you have will be back hopefully!

http://www.thechemist.co.uk/search.aspx?keyword=Arava+&go.x=0&go.y=0

sold online here, cheaper than what you're paying I think.

Your Vet can write you a prescription and they should take it for human medicine iirc. I'd email the people in the link and ask, as I'm sure my friend gets human medicine but for dogs and they used to pick these up from the local chemist.