FMy dog is required to start on some expensive medication for her heart
condition, and I have found them on the Internet MUCH cheaper than what
the vet is selling them to me at. I am in the UK.

I told my vet I would rather buy these on the Internet and could she
write me a prescription. After a lot of debate with her assistant, they
said they would have to get back to me because they don't think they are
allowed to write me a prescription and if they did, they might have to
charge me about £7 or £8. I had asked a while back for another reason and
was told by another employee at the vets that it would only cost £5 for a
prescription and it wouldn't be a problem.

Is writing a prescription a common thing for you to get your pet's
medication elsewhere and how much should the vet charge? Also, if they
give you a prescription, for how long would the medication last? Ie would
I have to pay for another prescription again in another 2 weeks.

Are there any websites you can recommend? I have so far found
http://www.hyperdrug.com and http://www.hyperdrug.com.

My dog also takes the following (with charges by the vet)

Frusemide 20mg ½ in morning and ¼ at night

Vetmedin 1.25mg capusles twice a day (around £14 for 28)
Fortekor 2.5mg once a day (around £6 for 14)

Sometimes I think we can be pound foolish and penny wise. By purchasing
medications from the vet you add a small bit of income to the vets
practice, insure you are not getting counterfeit drugs, insure you are
getting the right drugs etc. A veterinarian can afford to do major
surgery for about 1/100th of what it would cost to have a human doctor
perform the same human surgery because they have some additional income
to offset the costs of keeping the doors open. Take away a few bucks
here and few bucks there and you need to be prepared for paying the
*real* cost of that next surgery. I view this as the option of - pay me
now or pay me later - personally I'd rather pay a little extra now than
pay a huge bill later.

"Steve Crane" wrote in message
oups.com...
Sometimes I think we can be pound foolish and penny wise. By purchasing
medications from the vet you add a small bit of income to the vets
practice, insure you are not getting counterfeit drugs, insure you are
getting the right drugs etc. A veterinarian can afford to do major
surgery for about 1/100th of what it would cost to have a human doctor
perform the same human surgery because they have some additional income
to offset the costs of keeping the doors open. Take away a few bucks
here and few bucks there and you need to be prepared for paying the
*real* cost of that next surgery. I view this as the option of - pay me
now or pay me later - personally I'd rather pay a little extra now than
pay a huge bill later.

I have calculated the cost of all this and it will cost over £20 a month
more to buy it from the vet than online. While this might take away a
small amount of income for the vet, in my own case I am on a low income
and cannot afford to be paying this extra £20 when I have the option not
to.

Have you explained to the vet that you are on a fixed income and that buying
it on line will help you provide the care your dog needs by making the
medication affordable where otherwise it might not be. I did this with
Barneys orthopedic when we switched him to Deramaxx I told him look I can
buy 6 months worth on line for 158.00 and you charge me 45.00 a month. I
just can't afford that kind of expense I can however afford the 27.00 a
month if I buy it online. After explaining this to him he was willing to
price match the online prescription price if I bought it from him and
purchased 6 months at a time through his office. This worked out great for
me and he continued to price match the current prices online for the next 2
years until Barney passed away from cancer.

Maybe your vet can work something similar for you if you explain the
circumstance as I did.

Good luck
Celeste





"FJDx" wrote in message
...
"Steve Crane" wrote in message
oups.com...
Sometimes I think we can be pound foolish and penny wise. By purchasing
medications from the vet you add a small bit of income to the vets
practice, insure you are not getting counterfeit drugs, insure you are
getting the right drugs etc. A veterinarian can afford to do major
surgery for about 1/100th of what it would cost to have a human doctor
perform the same human surgery because they have some additional income
to offset the costs of keeping the doors open. Take away a few bucks
here and few bucks there and you need to be prepared for paying the
*real* cost of that next surgery. I view this as the option of - pay me
now or pay me later - personally I'd rather pay a little extra now than
pay a huge bill later.

I have calculated the cost of all this and it will cost over £20 a month
more to buy it from the vet than online. While this might take away a
small amount of income for the vet, in my own case I am on a low income
and cannot afford to be paying this extra £20 when I have the option not
to.

Is writing a prescription a common thing for you to get your pet's
medication elsewhere and how much should the vet charge?

Laws/regulations in the UK probably differ from the States. Practices
regarding writing scripts for RX meds vary greatly between practices here.
If our clients don't want to purchase them from us we give them a script but
caution them to keep a close eye on what they get through the mail. We've
seen some major errors. We'd much rather a client fill at least with a local
pharmacist if it's a human drug at least, that way questions and problems
can be addressed face to face. Some vets charge to give out scripts. We
don't.

Also, if they
give you a prescription, for how long would the medication last? Ie would
I have to pay for another prescription again in another 2 weeks.

Here in order for a vet to write a prescription they *legally have to have*
a valid doctor/patient/client relationship. That means that the doctor must
have examined the dog for routine drugs once a year, maybe twice depending
on what the drug is for. Some meds require routine blood work to measure the
effect on the body and vets can't refill a med after 'x' weeks or months
until this is done because it can put their license to practice in jeapardy.
Just because you fill a script outside a vet's office doesn't mean that it
will be a lifetime prescription. Vets must document that they are following
protocol for a pet when refills are needed. Drug 'A' may have been wonderful
last year, but this year unbeknownst to you, the kidneys have become
affected, or the skin condition being treated is no longer a fungus but is
now bacteria related. Without hands on and eyes present, the vet can't know
if he/she is prescribing the correct meds.

Why are vets' meds more expensive than on-line? Quantity for one. We buy in
hundreds, not tens of thousands. When pharmacies buy in mass quantities
their cost is much cheaper. Our overhead is also more costly.

Are there any websites you can recommend? I have so far found
http://www.hyperdrug.com and http://www.hyperdrug.com.

My dog also takes the following (with charges by the vet)

Frusemide 20mg ½ in morning and ¼ at night

Furosemide is relatively cheap here (generic for Lasix). You may be able to
get it at a regular pharmacy at a price that you can better handle. But
because it's a diuretic, the dog has to be monitored. One of the problems we
have with on-line pharmacies is that clients get used to the mail getting
their meds and then forget or just don't go to follow-up appointments. Then
when they run out on a holiday weekend and can't get into their vet, it
becomes about more than money. There are some products that are great to get
on-line. Prescription meds for myself or pets I'd rather have filled
locally.

Vetmedin 1.25mg capusles twice a day (around £14 for 28)
Fortekor 2.5mg once a day (around £6 for 14)

Not familiar with these drugs. May be British versions. But I'm not a vet -
just a practice manager. Best of luck. I agree with whoever recommended
talking directly with the vet and being open about cost being a factor. We
try to help these folks out and sometimes match internet prices just to make
life a little easier. But each practice is different.

-Sharon

For about two years Max has been on Actigal, actually the generic equivalent
Ursodiol (a bile salt). My vet encouraged me to go to a local pet apothecary
because the dose for Max, 150 mg, was not manufactured.

Because the apothcary wanted a small fortune, about $40, for a month's
supply, I searched the WWW and found an online pharmacy that sold 300-mg
capsules. The online pharmacist told me that it would be easy to measure out
1/2 of a capsule. (In contrast, the pharmacist at the pet apothecary tried to
scare me by asserting that one mg too much or too little would harm my dog.)

Well, I bought a bottle of 100, 300-mg capsules for about $135 from the online
pharmacy. Those 100 capsules lasted 200 days! More recently, I decided to
visit local, non-chain pharmacy and the pharmacist sold me the same
generic for $112 for 100 capsules.

Who would have thought that the local, neighborhood pharmacy
would offer the best deal?

--Marshall

Who would have thought that the local, neighborhood pharmacy
would offer the best deal?

Back before children and the practice I was a pharm tech at a privately
owned local pharmacy for 9 years. Though large, it had a history owned by
the same family for decades. We would bend over backwards for our clients.
That's what separates the chains from the small businesses. There are none
left where we live now, though the Rite Aid locally is managed by a client
and his wife and he used to run his father's pharmacies. They will work hard
to accomodate out clients needs for their pets prescriptions. Most people
don't look far enough and ask enough questions to know that mail order
pharmacies may not be their best bet.

-Sharon

Marshall Dermer said in rec.pets.dogs.health:

Who would have thought that the local, neighborhood pharmacy
would offer the best deal?

I buy phenobarbital from Safeway. Convenient and cheaper than
other options.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

In article "Sharon too" writes:
Who would have thought that the local, neighborhood pharmacy
would offer the best deal?

Back before children and the practice I was a pharm tech at a privately
owned local pharmacy for 9 years.

Hm . . . in Chicago, around 1961, I worked at a drug store. Here is
bit of what I wrote about that experience:

Mitchell Jacobs: Registered Pharmacist

Mitchell Jacobs was born in Green
Bay, Wisconsin and graduated from
Marquette University. He was the
proprietor of "Lunt-El Drugs," a tiny,
dark, dusty store beneath the elevated
tracks on Lunt Avenue. I worked for
"Mitch" from about my twelfth birthday
until I was sixteen years old.

The work was educational. I
learned, among other things, how to:
interact with the public, make sodas,
mop floors, make coffee, wrap packages,
count change, the purpose of condoms
and sanitary napkins, count in
multiples of 27 (A pack of cigarettes
cost a mere 27 cents!), and serve
nickel Cokes as well as the ever popular
glass of seltzer water. Deliveries from
the store introduced me to little Mrs.
Fishman who generally requested
suppositories and always offered a
ten-cent tip, Mr. Murphy who favored
elixir terpin hydrate with codeine
twice or thrice weekly and always
offered a huge quarter tip, and the
folks who appreciated more mundane goods
like cigarettes, cigars, and ice cream
but didn't reliably tip.

The soda fountain featured Sealtest
Ice Cream ("Get the best; Get
Sealtest!"); Mitch was always proud of
the ice cream's high butterfat content.
I best remember the Mondae Sundae
glasses. Their bottoms were tall and
somewhat narrow like soda glasses while
their tops opened wide like sunday
glasses. The bottom, therefore, could
be filled with a mixture of seltzer and
chocolate syrup while the top could be
filled with a huge scoop of ice cream
covered with chocolate syrup or hot
fudge, nuts, whipped cream, and a
marischino cherry. One would eat the
top sunday portion until the ice cream
fell to the glass's bottom, forming an
ice cream soda!

I'm afraid to think of the amount
of fat I consumed at Lunt-El Drugs! On
the other hand, because most of us
didn't know the relation between fat
and cardiovascular disease we enjoyed
every creamy spoonful.

Kindly George Benson, Mitch's
assistant, taught me how to solder and
how to mop a floor without first
sweeping it! Everyone thought George
was a pharmacist, but apparently he
wasn't. One day I came to work and
learned that George was not returning.
It seems that Mitch's "understanding"
with the city inspectors had broken
down.

When I began working for Mitch, I
earned sixty cents per hour. I don't
ever remember him paying any young
person the minimum wage. I remember
his once complaining that I had not
worked fast enough and I asked, "What
do you want for sixty cents an hour?"
He sternly told me that my remark would
cost me several raises.

I was too young and naive to
immediately seek employment elsewhere.
When I was sixteen, however, I
immediately began working for
Walgreens. My pay leaped from 75 cents
per hour to the minimum wage, $1.25 per
hour.

I kept the "conversation" with
Mitch from my mother who was a single
parent and semi-skilled sewing machine
operator who looked forward to the day
when she would earn $100 weekly. My
mother had enough worries.

Then there was camphorated tincture of opium! :-)

--Marshall

"FJDx" wrote in message
...
FMy dog is required to start on some expensive medication for her heart
condition, and I have found them on the Internet MUCH cheaper than what
the vet is selling them to me at. I am in the UK.

I told my vet I would rather buy these on the Internet and could she
write me a prescription. After a lot of debate with her assistant, they
said they would have to get back to me because they don't think they
are allowed to write me a prescription and if they did, they might have
to charge me about £7 or £8. I had asked a while back for another
reason and was told by another employee at the vets that it would only
cost £5 for a prescription and it wouldn't be a problem.

Is writing a prescription a common thing for you to get your pet's
medication elsewhere and how much should the vet charge? Also, if they
give you a prescription, for how long would the medication last? Ie
would I have to pay for another prescription again in another 2 weeks.

Are there any websites you can recommend? I have so far found
http://www.hyperdrug.com and http://www.hyperdrug.com.

My dog also takes the following (with charges by the vet)

Frusemide 20mg ½ in morning and ¼ at night

Vetmedin 1.25mg capusles twice a day (around £14 for 28)
Fortekor 2.5mg once a day (around £6 for 14)


Thanks to all for your replies. As it turned, the vet phoned me and said
she would put all meds onto one prescription and only charge about £5 for
the whole lot. I guess she took pity on poor me and my dog!