Vet medicine costs rip off!!

sulphate

jumpedtheshark wrote: »

For one of my dogs, every 2 months I pay my vet approximately £180 for blood tests, a follow-up appointment and a paper prescription, which I fill at a human pharmacy online. Between my two dogs, my vet receives over £1,000 a year from me for appointments and blood tests. It is an independent, family practice, not a chain vet. I am also happy to pay the fees because they are a good vet practice. But let's not 'run down' the need to resort to online pharmacies for medication. One of my dog's three medications costs £8 approx every 8 days, whereas it would be £35 every 8 days from the vets. How many could afford that?

I've never had dogs, but I would think £1,000 a year on vet bills is pretty good for two dogs. I have rabbits and one of them has cost me/my insurance company around £1,000 just in the last six months.

As for how many can afford it, many people choose to purchase pet insurance or budget for expensive vet bills/savings when they have pets. It is part of having an animal after all.

As someone else said, the cost of medication is exorbitant but often we only realize this when we come to purchasing some for our pets, we don't realize it beforehand thanks to the NHS.

To be honest, I really think that complaining about the cost of medication from a vet practice vs the cost of medication from an online retailer is like comparing the cost of a book from Waterstones vs Amazon.

GwylimT

My dog is epileptic so he has a lot of medication, I don't personally buy it online, vets are only allowed to use certain suppliers to guarantee the safety of medications, I'm not willing to risk exposing my dog to an inferior medication. Independent practices tend to be more expensive as they don't have the buying power to get lower prices, one medication my dog takes is piriton, the price I pay from boots is only 3p less than the purchase price my vet has to pay.

teddysmum

Animed (Direct) is run by a vet and very reliable, as are several other online companies.

Shoshannah

jumpedtheshark wrote: »

I feel a little picked on here when all I was pointing out is that, by charging the prescription fee, it is the vet that is responsible if there is anything wrong with the prescription.

True, but it cannot be the vet who is responsible for any problems with the medication eg storage, dispensing etc, unless they have supplied the medication.

But let's not 'run down' the need to resort to online pharmacies for medication. One of my dog's three medications costs £8 approx every 8 days, whereas it would be £35 every 8 days from the vets. How many could afford that?

I don't want to run down online pharmacies. I am more than happy to write prescriptions for people who want to get their meds online, as the most important thing to me is that the animal gets their medication. I don't mind where it's from, as long as it's a reliable source. Lots of medications are expensive and online retailers are able to supply them at prices much lower than most practices, I appreciate that.

I don't feel aggrieved when people choose to buy meds online. I do feel aggrieved when people start making direct comparisons between online prices and practice prices, when they are not and cannot be the same thing, and making out that vets are rip-off merchants.

I know there are bad ones out there who do take people for a ride, as there are in every profession. But veterinary care is expensive, practice finances are as complicated as any business and not all vets are rich.

My car is over twenty years old, my TV was £20 off Ebay. Yes, I have a roof over my head and I can afford to eat, and for that I am grateful. I am £40,000 in debt for my signature, for the ability to sign that prescription and the accountability it also brings. But I can't get a mortgage, I don't have a pension and I don't go on holidays.

So I suppose I do get a bit fed up with the complaints about veterinary fees from people used to the NHS. Funnily enough, when my own cat gets ill, it costs me money too. I paid well in excess of £2000 for my old cat in his last year of life, keeping him well. Luckily, I have savings (less now, obviously).

redrufus

I have two dogs that are brothers and both have CHF.... Both over time have had X-rays and been to the cardiologist for scans and both are on Vetmedin & Furosemide.... Heart meds are not cheap at all...
£2-£3k to see a cardiologist seems very extreme, I went to one of the best in the country and for a scan and x-rays it was around £700... This was all paid for by my insurance company though for one dog but unfortunately my other dog isn't covered for heart probs.
Your vet cannot decline you a prescription, but they can only prescribe you so much as by law they need to see your dog every 6 months.
Just to add I'm a veterinary assistant/nurse and I can but my heart meds cheaper online than our practice can buy them in at cost price!! Also our practise does not actually make much profit on meds but on the services that we offer.
I hope your dog is doing well, Vetmedin is a very good drug. x

rustyboy21

Vets do a fantastic job, they are more qualified than most Doctors. They have to diagnose illnesses on patients who cannot tell them where they are in pain.


Consumers now expect the same level of service for their animals as they do for humans. If you saw the Tiger in the house program on BBC the other week, who would have thought they could do Cataract surgery on a Tiger, which used exactly the same equipment that was used for my Cataract surgery a few months ago. The Bionic vet is another one that shows what equipment and expertise Vets are now trialling out for animals which has come from the medical world. They have to buy this machinery and equipment, which if you could see the prices and route to market, they cannot buy it off Amazon or Ebay ! A blood testing machine will cost many £100's an MRI scanner many Thousands. Where do they get the money from? They don't get a penny from Govt, so it will come from us, their patients owners.


So yes it may cost more than an online retailer to get the medicines and the prescription, but who do you go running back to, blaming them for it, when it is the dodgy online seller, who has sold you fake drugs which have had an adverse reaction to.


You will blame the Vet, its the easiest route to go, they must have prescribed wrong, it cannot be the UK website, which is actually run from the far east in a little shack with a pill making machine and child labour, using Talcum powder and paracetamol, instead of the proper drugs you have paid for.


Lay off Vets, they do a great job.

Energize

This is why dispensing practices are bad. It creates a conflict of interest where the vet is encouraged to prescribe more drugs because it makes the practice so much money or charge for a prescription to make more money. Doctors for example do not charge for prescriptions.

In some countries this form of dispensing practice is banned and medical practices cannot dispense medication.

rustyboy21 wrote: »

So yes it may cost more than an online retailer to get the medicines and the prescription, but who do you go running back to, blaming them for it, when it is the dodgy online seller, who has sold you fake drugs which have had an adverse reaction to.


You will blame the Vet, its the easiest route to go, they must have prescribed wrong, it cannot be the UK website, which is actually run from the far east in a little shack with a pill making machine and child labour, using Talcum powder and paracetamol, instead of the proper drugs you have paid for.


Lay off Vets, they do a great job.

You must be joking, registered pharmacies in the UK sell medications online which are 100% legitimate, they are highly regulated and charge much less than the vet practices for medication.

GwylimT wrote: »

My dog is epileptic so he has a lot of medication, I don't personally buy it online, vets are only allowed to use certain suppliers to guarantee the safety of medications, I'm not willing to risk exposing my dog to an inferior medication. Independent practices tend to be more expensive as they don't have the buying power to get lower prices, one medication my dog takes is piriton, the price I pay from boots is only 3p less than the purchase price my vet has to pay.

All pharmacies get their medication from from the same manufacturers. Do you think pharmacies on the street that sell human medication really cheap are getting their drugs from dodgy suppliers? No they are not.

Piriton is an old anti-histamine that you can buy without a prescription and costs next to nothing at your local pharmacy.

There is simply no explanation for the excessive amount of money vets charge for medication. With most generic medications the net price is very low for a small purchaser, so buying power simply does not explain the very high cost.

Beckyy

Vets do do an amazing job, but there's no denying most charge through the nose for medication.

I would always buy a prescription (which I'm normally charged £10 for anyway!!) and get the medication from a reputable, more reasonably priced, place if possible.

Energize

Shoshannah wrote: »

Heart medications are notoriously expensive. How much do you think you would pay for these medications for yourself if we had no NHS? The mark up on drugs may be higher than we'd like, but it's drugs or services. Something has to pay the bills. If you want cheaper drugs, you'd have to pay more for services such as consultation fees.

The medications he is prescribed are actually very cheap.

The net cost of frusemide is about 80p for 28 tablets. So a pharmacy would charge about £3.50 for a private prescription.

I'm happy to pay more for consultation fees, if you have an area of the business that is not making money and needs to be supported by another that is simply bad business practice, the very high cost of the medications simply angers customers whereas charging more for consultations would not.

rustyboy21

If you charged more for consultations, then people would be put off taking their sick animals to the vet, ending with unnecessary harm to the poor animal. It would not work.
You don't seem to be refuting the fact that vets have to equip their practices with machines etc which cost a fortune and they do not get any subsidy what so ever from any organisation. So where do they get the money to pay for it? You seem to think that they should just pay for it, not pass on the costs and be happy that they have patients coming to see them.


Most people try and stay away from vets, as it upsets the animals going. You try and only go , when there is an issue. The vet has a debt around his/her neck from training/education of maybe £40k+ , then the costs of opening the practice. The cost of staff, insurance, registration, equipment, property management etc. They have to factor all of this in to their pricing.


You seem to want your cake and eat it. You want to see a vet, but don't want to p[ay a higher margin for the medication. You are willing to pay more for the consultation, but that in itself will put people off going to the vet in emergencies.


You spout off about the pricing of tablets available online or with a private prescription. How do you get the private prescription? You say from the pharmacy. How does the pharmacist know what is wrong? I have no issue with people getting a prescription from the vet and then filling it out elsewhere. As long as they accept that there is going to be a charge for it, which some on here don't like. Again, why should they do it for free. The issue I have is that you are carrying on about the prices for certain tablets. Yes they are cheaper, but a pharmacy will get them a hell of a lot cheaper than a vet would, they are buying in bulk, have rebates from the drug makers, special pricing etc. A vet may order 6 bottles of metacam every 2 weeks. A pharmacy wholesaler, who also sells online will buy 2 pallets a week. Your comparisons are wrong.


It amazes me that people quibble about drug prices. They get the price of a drug online and think that it should be that price everywhere. The internet in the wrong hands is a dangerous tool. The world is turning slightly horrible when the fact is certain people moan about prices of things that mean life or death to humans/animals, but don't bat an eyelid paying through the nose, for the latest smartphone, tablet, tv etc. All wrong.