Advice on vet prescription please

Ianwzzz

My golden retriever has just been put on 200mg of Tramadol a day and 37kg of Loxicom for the rest of his life. I got the first lot of medication from the vet but the price was really high compared to online. The Loxicom from the vet was £79 and online is about £25 for a 200ml bottle. My vet charges £8 for a prescription, so the saving will be huge.

My question is - how much of both drugs will the vet prescribe at a time ?

I was also told by someone that a vet prescription can be used up to 8 times. Does anybody know if this is correct ?

rita-rabbit

I thought you had to have a prescription for each time.

sheramber

Your vet will have his own timescale for a consultation to continue issuing a prescription. Some are three months, some are six months.

So you may to include a consultation charge into the cost of the prescription.

The vet will decide how many months he prescribes for and normally the online supplier will send it monthly.

You should ask your vet surgery how they work and what they charge.

My vet has a notice that states a prescription costs £11 and the vet needs to see the animal every three months.

jrtfan

My last dog was on a combination of Tramadol and Loxicom too for a while.

I agree with sheramber, that it's best to check with your Vets themselves to find out their procedures and charges. The only thing I would add - and this is not a qualified opinion by any means - is that there could be a restriction on how much Tramadol can be given on prescription at any one time (due to being a 'human' narcotic drug). If so, maybe you could obtain your Loxicom online and the Tramadol from your Vet? They'd be the best people to ask, though.

With my dog (who was terminally ill, btw) my Vet provided more Tramadol as and when necessary (ditto the Loxicom). It wasn't an issue because my dog was being seen for a check-up each week, so I never really needed any more than 7 tablets at any time.

gettingready

As above - I get 3 months worth of Zara's tablets on one prescription.

Depending what is it, I either order from https://www.animeddirect.co.uk or from https://www.vetuk.co.uk (prices will vary) and as prescription is normally valid for 3 months - I order 1/3 every month or the whole lot at once , again depending on the cost.

Depending how your vet writes the prescription may be "so and so - repeat monthly for 3 months" or "total of ....".

Overall always cheaper this way - just make sure you order from a reputable, UK based pet pharmacy.

By the way - with Tramadol, I sometimes used to give my one to Zara as this is the same as human one and I got mine on GP prescription as use it myself occasionally.

teddysmum

My vets do 3 months'supply prescriptions as they use Cascade rules.
However,you don't have to use up the whole prescription at once and the online seller will hold it until you have used up all that has been prescribed or 6 months have passed.


It is also worth checking a few sites,as though some tend to be cheaper than others, one cheaper for drug A may not be cheaper for drug B. There is also postage to be considered as some, like Animed, don't charge, while others have a minimum spend requirement.

easilyamused

If you get a paper prescription from your vet, also try taking it into your local pharmacy and seeing how much they charge for it.
I get 120 x 50mg Tramadol tablets for about £8 from my local Boots store. My vet recommended I do this after I questioned how much they were charging for tablets - she explained that the cost they charge is worked out by the volume they deal with, which is relatively small.

I was also told by the Pharmacist that because Tramadol is a controlled drug, the prescription is only valid for 28 days and can only get 30 days worth of medication at a time, with no repeats.

http://psnc.org.uk/halton-st-helens-and-knowsley-lpc/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2014/05/Controlled-Drug-changes-to-the-legal-classification-of-Tramadol-28-5-14-2.pdf