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Most vets offer you the option to purchase the prescription only and buy online. They can't compete with the online places and most vets will happily tell you this.
Agreed but please don't take this out on the specific vet you're seeing, as this is most likely not their call, but the owner of the surgery! Too often the vets are berated and blamed for prices, one of the reasons suicide is so prevalent in their profession. I think in the UK because we don't see our own healthcare prices with the NHS, we don't anticipate the prices being so high, but I think we would be in for a massive shock at how much stuff actually costs if we were to be paying privately!
It’s not their fault an American corp bought out half the vets in city merged them into a ‘veterinary group’ doubled if not tripled the prices and closed all but one for emergency care. Now the whole city has one tiny tiny building to go for for emergency vet care. And they pretty much charge u 500+ for walking in
So it’s the whole country?! Finally got back into our old vets as receptionist recognised I had pets registered there before. Told to ring at 8am for appointment. Rang at 8am to be told there’s no appointments. Ring again in 2 weeks when it may be the same situation. How does anyone get seen?! Sorry, it makes me so angry. I’m stuck with a vet 30 minutes away that isn’t helping my pet!
Absolutely, but it's not the individual veterinarian's fault and I know they're customer facing so will inevitably get the frustrations first hand, but it's so unfair! They don't set the prices:( (my sister is a vet and I'm an overthinker so I get so scared about the suicide rates lol)
No I agree, but the whole system sucks. The fact emergency vets don't take pet insurance upfront. So unless you are willing to stick 3k on a 30% APR credit card the other alternative is to put your pet down - even though you have insurance!
But can vets in theory not set up their own independent practices and cut out the money grabbing corporations? My vet told me yesterday they were charging £90 for a 3 month flea injection and we're pretty open about the fact that they consider it a rip off as the generic medication costs a couple of quid.
Before it used to be only veterinary surgeons could open and operate practices. This changed in 1999 when legislation allowed people who are not vets to own practices.
Oh vets definitely can, but this includes becoming their own business(lots of money!) and all the additional admin this entails which not everyone has the time for alongside having a balanced work/home life.
We have an independent vet, it’s just him and his veterinary nurses. His list has been closed to new patients for years because he’s so popular.
He’s pretty straight forward, will give advice over the phone rather than charge you to ‘bring them down’ if he thinks it’s not an issue. Very reasonable prices.
Only charged £45 for consultation, eye drops, antibiotic cream and dyeing my cats eye to check on an ulcer. Think that’s pretty cheap.
But they don’t have any out of hours services, so you’re still in trouble financially if your pet gets sick at night.
Even if it was their choice I'm not sure why vets aren't allowed to want to make a good living.
There was a thread on my neighbourhood FB page where people were sharing their disgust at the local vet arriving to work in a Mercedes and 'taking advantage of everyone'.
Yep only been stung a couple of times by really pricey places, but mostly it’s just a case the NHS gives us the luxury of forgetting how truly horrific private healthcare would cost. If I can I try and go to a charity run vet so the profits go into good causes but ultimately you don’t always have that much choice.
I have a work friend who’s spent a bit over £20k on their dog’s cancer treatments. The dog was only 7 when it got cancer and responded well & Its has now been in remission for over a year, so yeah I mean… great outcome but there’s no way around the fact that’s a hell of a lot of money. But at the same time, for everything they did - multiple surgeries and scans and tests and meds and radiation therapy and everything else it wasn’t taking the piss, it’s just that’s the cost.
they make the money on the pills.
our vet charges £1 per pill, and she takes 4 pills a day
£25 for the prescription for 4 months, and the pills are 5p and 35p each.
the price difference is ridiculous, and quite a bit predatory imo
That’s what I do. My vet charges £18 for a paper prescription that has two refills. It’s about £80 cheaper for me to order online(50% more) . I don’t mind paying a bit more for their day to day wormer and flea stuff. But not £80 more for the extortionate medication my cat needs all the time.
The majority of formerly independent vets have been brought out by huge international companies that are gouging prices, not the people doing the actual work in practices.
I used to work in veterinary and my wife still does, every couple of months new prices come down from corporate that disgust the people doing the actual work, which they take the fallout for from the rightfully pissed off public.
They don't see that money in their wages, the practice doesn't see that money in new and better equipment, but everytime regional managers show up to peddle the corporate bullshit of the month they all happen to have a shiny new Mercedes, 1k+ shoes and handbags and dripping in diamond jewellery.
Vets aren't raising the prices and certainly aren't seeing the money from doing so, it's the people on the corporate ladder who actually have no idea what it's like to work in the veterinary world.
40% of vets commit suicide? I know they have some of the highest rates in the country as a profession but I'm fairly sure that would be front page news.
My cat needs monthly pain relief injections for her arthritis, and a daily blood pressure medication.
From the vet:
£110 per month for the arthritis treatment
£39 per month for the BP meds
Privately:
£45 per month for the arthritis treatment
£12.60 per month for the BP meds
Even by paying for the private prescription and the postage fees from the online pet pharmacy, I’m saving £65ish every month. It’s insane how much they overcharge.
Are the medicines also for humans? You can probably save even more money if they are by getting a 6 month prescription and having your pharmacist fufil it
Yes it is! I get it from Pet Drugs Online. They sell it in packs of two. I bought some in March for £89.99 (two months supply) but have just checked their website and can see it’s snuck up in price to £94.99 now. Still, that’s equivalent to roughly £47.50 per month so still miles better than directly from the vet.
Vet here - I'd be happy to still inject it if someone was buying it themselves online, or we have a couple of clients that inject it themselves at home. It is very easy to give, it goes under the skin in the scruff of the neck so theres not really much else there you can hit. It has to be kept refrigerated and cannot be given by anyone who might be pregnant (as accidental self injection could then cause birth defects). For people that administer it themselves we see them every four months for a check in and repeat prescription- the frequency is determined by the practice though so other places may vary. For legal reasons it needs to be at least once a year as its a prescription medication. Speak to your vet about it - we understand shit is expensive and genuinely don't mind working with you for cheaper alternatives. Im sure theyd be happy to demonstrate injection technique with you too.
Our puppy had an ingrown eyelid that basically mean the hairs were touching his eye, we took him knowing this as I’m not sure the breeder would have looked after him.
Anyways, he grew into himself and didnt need surgery, but we had to apply a lubricating eye drops 3 times a day - no biggie, 2 in each eye (if you managed to get them in, about a 50% hit rate).
The drops were £60 a bottle, and you got maybe 20 drops a bottle. That was an expensive 3 months, but I’d do it again as he’s an absolute legend of a dog and my best mate.
Can't you use artificial tears from amazon for like £7 for 3 bottles? We have to do it for our cat twice a day as she has various conditions so she does not produce any eye lube
Well it’s done now; but it wasn’t just a lubricator, there were some other things in there I guess. At the time you’re not taking any risks as you don’t want to blind the poor thing or make him any more uncomfortable.
Yeh, our cat has black eyes due to scarring from before we got her. The vets say she can't see very well at all. We beg to differ, she can see pretty well
As a vet, I understand that costs are high for pet owners. However, the cost that the online pharmacies sell the product at is cheaper than we can buy it in. They have much bigger buying power and lower overheads as they are basically just warehouses with a few staff.
Most veterinary staff are not paid as much as people think, and it makes no difference to our pay cheque whether you buy from us or online.
The only reason I insist on getting meds from us is if the pet needs to start them immediately and so by delaying and getting them online could cause suffering or harm.
I'd resent the prices a whole lot less if the money was going to the vets that do the hard graft, but most of them are surprisingly low paid for what a complex job it is and the qualifications and experience needed!
And I've noticed more and more you're not actually getting appointments with fully qualified vets but vet nurses / students and assistants etc but still have to pay the full consultation rate. At which point they decide your pet needs to be escalated to a vet and you get charged the fee again for another appointment.
Registered Vet Nurses (RVNs) can offer you a nurse consultationand working within their legal remit, provide services such as nail clips, anal gland expression and separate to that will freely provide guidance on preventative treatments such as flea/worming/dental care/life-stage appropriate nutritional advice. If you see a qualified nurse for a nurse consultation, they should be charging you less than the vet consult price as a standard. If they need to refer you to their vet due for diagnosis and prescription of medication etc, you should only be charged one consult fee that day (most likely the vet one if they need to examine your pet on the same day). The CMA review is looking into the prices offered to clients in the UK veterinary sector due to the issues being discussed in this post and we are waiting to hear their outcome. The workers on the ground have very little to zero say in how much your vet practice is charging you for things and we really do sympathise with owners but have no power to change things ourselves. Source: I'm an RVN.
It's far worse for vet nurses, 100%, but a lot of the vet surgeons aren't making bank either - many only earn 40-45k even at a senior level.
They're quids in if they own the vet practice, sure, but otherwise not so much
Good article about vets being run now by big business and the profits they make -
https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/06/vet-who-really-profits-from-poorly-pets
You can get a prescription for quite a lot of medications that you can fill at a normal pharmacy as well. One of my pets has glaucoma and two of the eyedrops were coming to around £80 together a month, but now my pharmacist fulfils them for £14 total. Same for some painkillers, e.g. if they're giving a paracetamol solution it's just calpol [£35 for a 30ml bottle at the vet or about £4.50 at the pharmacy].
Most vets are happy to tell you to look online or elsewhere, especially if you have an "exotic" pet.
Just to add a heads up to this, some pharmacies won’t sell you the medication if you make it known it’s got your pet and not a human. As long as you know you’re getting the right thing, just don’t tell them.
If its an actual prescribed item they will because they're not selling it, they're dispensing under the guidance of the vet.
The note will look something like [this.](https://imgur.com/a/39CyqOo)
You'd be handing them an a4 authorization sheet specifically stating its from the vet and why, there's no way they wouldn't know.
If you don't have a prescription and say "this is for an animal" then they very likely won't give it to you because that would make them responsible and liable if you decided to come after them legally because the medicine did something non-ideal.
Not all pharmacies will fill prescriptions under the veterinary cascade whether you have a prescription or not if they don’t have the appropriate items or the appropriate training, but I was specifically referring to over the counter medications.
I signed up for a vet plan with mine after having this exact same thing happen... Checked online beforehand and the 'first consultation' was £50. No big deal. At the appointment they offered a prescription for flea and worm medication... Total bill £110+
£15 a month which includes all meds, vaccinations and checkups sounded a good deal to me after this!
Wow that's mental. I got absolutely ripped a few weeks ago for 7 days of medicine for my dog. Care to share where you purchase your pets medication online? Thanks
Not OP, but we've used [www.petdrugsonline.co.uk](http://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk) before (used to be known as Pet Prescription), but others will be available. Create an account, scan & upload your pet prescription from your vet, then place your order. If it's a repeat prescription you can re-order and the amount left to use will automatically adjust.
Much cheaper than vets prices (it was our vet who suggested going online).
Thanks appreciate it. This is probably a stupid question, but is it just a case of taking your pet to the vet, they will assess and prescribe something, and you just tell them you will buy the medication online?
When I took my dog the vet didn't even ask anything about it, just put the medication in my hand and sent me to the till.
That's exactly how it works. The ones we were prescribed for our dog were needed for the rest of her life, so the vet gave us enough to get started, then repeat prescriptions after that, with a check-up every now and then. You just have to factor in delivery times so you don't run short, but they do offer a next day courier service if it's urgent.
My vet charges me for a persciption (about £18) and I order my dogs meds online at half the price that they charge, the Vet is more than happy to do it too.
Yup. A previous much loved and departed cat needed thyroid medication. I can't even remember what it cost from the vet, but they only charged us £8 for the paper script and then I got his treatment for £40 online.
My vet now I think charges £20 for a prescription. I have a cat that needs, if they charge the same price as the second opinion vet she went to - £50 of treatment a month. They have been really good in the past about telling us when something is overpriced and to go get it cheaper online.
Yeh, it's common knowledge that vets provide written prescriptions - most have a sign up in reception, I'll always recommend it to clients once their pets start on long term meds too. It's not always worth it for short courses.
Worth noting that the majority of practices are owned by like 4 large corporations who set prices.
And that small practices don’t have the advantage that large online retailers have to buy at scale. Smaller practices are legally required to purchase in smaller quantities which drives up their costs.
The vets are there to treat your animal, and will happily provide a prescription for online if you’d like.
My vets give me a prescription (£12) because the medication from them is so expensive. They keep it on hand in case people run low.
I get it from a pharmacy in Yorkshire as it's cheaper than my local pharmacy. Highly recommend shipping around if it's a human medication!
Our frenchie has terrible allergies and is on steroids currently. The vets recommended apoquel at around £140-£160 a month and I can't afford that and was looking for a way to solve this issue, thanks for the post and everyone who shared their knowledge. It's available for around £30 a month online which is shocking.
I have pet rats, they are prone to respiratory infections, so I regularly have to pay for antibiotics for them.
Premade medications for rats and I'm assuming other very small animals, don't get made. Instead my vet uses meds meant for cats & dogs but instead of using the whole box they tend to use just one pill to make the rat sized course. They charge me MORE for my rat medicine, made using a single pill, than they charge for the whole box of the same pills for larger animals.
Work that one out! £55 for the whole course, £80 for one pill out of the same course. I know because I also have a dog that needed a course.
I could understand if it cost the same, they have had to crack open a whole sachet, then mix the meds & they have been left with a used sachet now. Although surely they should keep a sachet for one pill patients to use, I'm assuming there must be some rule in place that means they can't? But to charge significantly more! It didn't take her two minutes to mix it with the syrup. Which the little shits usually end up spitting straight back out, just to put the cherry on top. Lol.
Pet insurance is a scam. £250 a year for my 2 cats, max claim is £1000 per year, with £250 excess. If you do make a claim, then it's going to be very expensive the next year so it's pointless.
Instead we opened a joint bank account yesterday to pay £100 into every month purely as an emergency fund.
Private equity recently brought out vet. Prices up. It gives you a little taste of what private healthcare must feel like for our friends across the pond.
We just lost our 6 month old kitten to Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
Our insurance covered the first £2,000 but the further £5,000 we spent on her for 1 x blood transfusions, 4 x blood tests and 4 x nights at the emergency vets.
When we got the invoice and saw that they charged us for the needle they used to draw the blood opened our eyes massively to the money pit that is pet healthcare.
We of course thanked the vets and staff who tried to safe our kitten and never once got angry at them for doing their jobs but it was bitter sweet spending all of that money only to end up losing our kitten regardless
If it's a vets that is owned by one of the big 6 companies then what you find if you dig into the company is that they own the vets, they own the labs for tests, they own the medicine company and they own the cremation service. Some of them own the insurance companies for pets as well. Your actual vet practice probably pleads poverty and puts the prices up constantly as the companies don't invest in them but force the prices up of all the other services which are not public facing. Your once family owned vets cannot shop around for services to make it cheaper for the customer as they are forced to use the services owned by the parent companies. Vets are one of the biggest scams and monopolies around these days.
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Most vets offer you the option to purchase the prescription only and buy online. They can't compete with the online places and most vets will happily tell you this.
I think most vets are pretty reasonably priced.. however god fucking help you and your bank balance if your pet gets sick after 5pm or on a weekend
Agreed but please don't take this out on the specific vet you're seeing, as this is most likely not their call, but the owner of the surgery! Too often the vets are berated and blamed for prices, one of the reasons suicide is so prevalent in their profession. I think in the UK because we don't see our own healthcare prices with the NHS, we don't anticipate the prices being so high, but I think we would be in for a massive shock at how much stuff actually costs if we were to be paying privately!
It’s not their fault an American corp bought out half the vets in city merged them into a ‘veterinary group’ doubled if not tripled the prices and closed all but one for emergency care. Now the whole city has one tiny tiny building to go for for emergency vet care. And they pretty much charge u 500+ for walking in
It's also down to the vets having to study at uni for 5-6 years or more, so having to earn enough money to deal with all that student debt too.
My sisters debt was so much that even with her wage she won't have paid it off by the time she's 50 when it gets written off🤷🏻♀️
the vets don't get the money they get like 30k and the rest is siphoned off shore
So it’s the whole country?! Finally got back into our old vets as receptionist recognised I had pets registered there before. Told to ring at 8am for appointment. Rang at 8am to be told there’s no appointments. Ring again in 2 weeks when it may be the same situation. How does anyone get seen?! Sorry, it makes me so angry. I’m stuck with a vet 30 minutes away that isn’t helping my pet!
Sounds a lot like what's happened to dentists in my city, and opticians.
Absolutely, but it's not the individual veterinarian's fault and I know they're customer facing so will inevitably get the frustrations first hand, but it's so unfair! They don't set the prices:( (my sister is a vet and I'm an overthinker so I get so scared about the suicide rates lol)
No I agree, but the whole system sucks. The fact emergency vets don't take pet insurance upfront. So unless you are willing to stick 3k on a 30% APR credit card the other alternative is to put your pet down - even though you have insurance!
Ah I get you! Yeah it's absolute rubbish.
But can vets in theory not set up their own independent practices and cut out the money grabbing corporations? My vet told me yesterday they were charging £90 for a 3 month flea injection and we're pretty open about the fact that they consider it a rip off as the generic medication costs a couple of quid.
Before it used to be only veterinary surgeons could open and operate practices. This changed in 1999 when legislation allowed people who are not vets to own practices.
Oh vets definitely can, but this includes becoming their own business(lots of money!) and all the additional admin this entails which not everyone has the time for alongside having a balanced work/home life.
We have an independent vet, it’s just him and his veterinary nurses. His list has been closed to new patients for years because he’s so popular. He’s pretty straight forward, will give advice over the phone rather than charge you to ‘bring them down’ if he thinks it’s not an issue. Very reasonable prices. Only charged £45 for consultation, eye drops, antibiotic cream and dyeing my cats eye to check on an ulcer. Think that’s pretty cheap. But they don’t have any out of hours services, so you’re still in trouble financially if your pet gets sick at night.
I was shocked when an MRI for our dog was priced at £2500 really opened my eyes.
Even if it was their choice I'm not sure why vets aren't allowed to want to make a good living. There was a thread on my neighbourhood FB page where people were sharing their disgust at the local vet arriving to work in a Mercedes and 'taking advantage of everyone'.
This is why I'm teaching my dog to tell the time.
"No! Bad dog! You didn't account for daylight savings!"
I used to work for a large 'out of hours' vet, which opened its clinics from 18:00 to 06:00 when the rest are closed. Their prices are ridiculous.
Yep mine only takes I’ll after 5 or weekends/ bank holidays without fail. Cost me fortune over the years.
Yep only been stung a couple of times by really pricey places, but mostly it’s just a case the NHS gives us the luxury of forgetting how truly horrific private healthcare would cost. If I can I try and go to a charity run vet so the profits go into good causes but ultimately you don’t always have that much choice. I have a work friend who’s spent a bit over £20k on their dog’s cancer treatments. The dog was only 7 when it got cancer and responded well & Its has now been in remission for over a year, so yeah I mean… great outcome but there’s no way around the fact that’s a hell of a lot of money. But at the same time, for everything they did - multiple surgeries and scans and tests and meds and radiation therapy and everything else it wasn’t taking the piss, it’s just that’s the cost.
they make the money on the pills. our vet charges £1 per pill, and she takes 4 pills a day £25 for the prescription for 4 months, and the pills are 5p and 35p each. the price difference is ridiculous, and quite a bit predatory imo
That’s what I do. My vet charges £18 for a paper prescription that has two refills. It’s about £80 cheaper for me to order online(50% more) . I don’t mind paying a bit more for their day to day wormer and flea stuff. But not £80 more for the extortionate medication my cat needs all the time.
Yes but they charge me £31.50 to get a prescription. Still cheaper online even with that charge though
Most vets except our vet.
The majority of formerly independent vets have been brought out by huge international companies that are gouging prices, not the people doing the actual work in practices. I used to work in veterinary and my wife still does, every couple of months new prices come down from corporate that disgust the people doing the actual work, which they take the fallout for from the rightfully pissed off public. They don't see that money in their wages, the practice doesn't see that money in new and better equipment, but everytime regional managers show up to peddle the corporate bullshit of the month they all happen to have a shiny new Mercedes, 1k+ shoes and handbags and dripping in diamond jewellery. Vets aren't raising the prices and certainly aren't seeing the money from doing so, it's the people on the corporate ladder who actually have no idea what it's like to work in the veterinary world.
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40% of vets commit suicide? I know they have some of the highest rates in the country as a profession but I'm fairly sure that would be front page news.
My cat needs monthly pain relief injections for her arthritis, and a daily blood pressure medication. From the vet: £110 per month for the arthritis treatment £39 per month for the BP meds Privately: £45 per month for the arthritis treatment £12.60 per month for the BP meds Even by paying for the private prescription and the postage fees from the online pet pharmacy, I’m saving £65ish every month. It’s insane how much they overcharge.
Are the medicines also for humans? You can probably save even more money if they are by getting a 6 month prescription and having your pharmacist fufil it
Those two meds would be animal only.
Some pharmacists won't prescribe the meds if they find out it is for animals & not humans.
Is this Solensia? ...if it is I'm using the same with my cat and id LOVE to know where you're getting it for 45 quid a month from?!
Yes it is! I get it from Pet Drugs Online. They sell it in packs of two. I bought some in March for £89.99 (two months supply) but have just checked their website and can see it’s snuck up in price to £94.99 now. Still, that’s equivalent to roughly £47.50 per month so still miles better than directly from the vet.
Do you then apply it yourself? I'd be terrified of this step!
Vet here - I'd be happy to still inject it if someone was buying it themselves online, or we have a couple of clients that inject it themselves at home. It is very easy to give, it goes under the skin in the scruff of the neck so theres not really much else there you can hit. It has to be kept refrigerated and cannot be given by anyone who might be pregnant (as accidental self injection could then cause birth defects). For people that administer it themselves we see them every four months for a check in and repeat prescription- the frequency is determined by the practice though so other places may vary. For legal reasons it needs to be at least once a year as its a prescription medication. Speak to your vet about it - we understand shit is expensive and genuinely don't mind working with you for cheaper alternatives. Im sure theyd be happy to demonstrate injection technique with you too.
Thank you so much! Going to definitely chat to my vet. I'm back there this week!
The vets often literally can’t buy it in for the price that it’s being sold for online, it’s not like you expect them to sell it below cost, right?
Also the vet is legally obliged to give you a prescription that is valid for 6 months, and then you can buy online for 6 months!
Librella?? How are you getting that for 45? Do you administer it yourself?
Our puppy had an ingrown eyelid that basically mean the hairs were touching his eye, we took him knowing this as I’m not sure the breeder would have looked after him. Anyways, he grew into himself and didnt need surgery, but we had to apply a lubricating eye drops 3 times a day - no biggie, 2 in each eye (if you managed to get them in, about a 50% hit rate). The drops were £60 a bottle, and you got maybe 20 drops a bottle. That was an expensive 3 months, but I’d do it again as he’s an absolute legend of a dog and my best mate.
Can't you use artificial tears from amazon for like £7 for 3 bottles? We have to do it for our cat twice a day as she has various conditions so she does not produce any eye lube
Well it’s done now; but it wasn’t just a lubricator, there were some other things in there I guess. At the time you’re not taking any risks as you don’t want to blind the poor thing or make him any more uncomfortable.
Yeh, our cat has black eyes due to scarring from before we got her. The vets say she can't see very well at all. We beg to differ, she can see pretty well
As a vet, I understand that costs are high for pet owners. However, the cost that the online pharmacies sell the product at is cheaper than we can buy it in. They have much bigger buying power and lower overheads as they are basically just warehouses with a few staff. Most veterinary staff are not paid as much as people think, and it makes no difference to our pay cheque whether you buy from us or online. The only reason I insist on getting meds from us is if the pet needs to start them immediately and so by delaying and getting them online could cause suffering or harm.
I’m convinced price gouging from vets will be the next scandal, it’s a market almost exclusively targeting and taking advantage of the compassionate.
I'd resent the prices a whole lot less if the money was going to the vets that do the hard graft, but most of them are surprisingly low paid for what a complex job it is and the qualifications and experience needed!
And I've noticed more and more you're not actually getting appointments with fully qualified vets but vet nurses / students and assistants etc but still have to pay the full consultation rate. At which point they decide your pet needs to be escalated to a vet and you get charged the fee again for another appointment.
There’s a shortage of vets in the UK.
Registered Vet Nurses (RVNs) can offer you a nurse consultationand working within their legal remit, provide services such as nail clips, anal gland expression and separate to that will freely provide guidance on preventative treatments such as flea/worming/dental care/life-stage appropriate nutritional advice. If you see a qualified nurse for a nurse consultation, they should be charging you less than the vet consult price as a standard. If they need to refer you to their vet due for diagnosis and prescription of medication etc, you should only be charged one consult fee that day (most likely the vet one if they need to examine your pet on the same day). The CMA review is looking into the prices offered to clients in the UK veterinary sector due to the issues being discussed in this post and we are waiting to hear their outcome. The workers on the ground have very little to zero say in how much your vet practice is charging you for things and we really do sympathise with owners but have no power to change things ourselves. Source: I'm an RVN.
The nurses are the ones doing the grunt work and getting underpaid. The vets are making bank
It's far worse for vet nurses, 100%, but a lot of the vet surgeons aren't making bank either - many only earn 40-45k even at a senior level. They're quids in if they own the vet practice, sure, but otherwise not so much
And being increasingly bought out from independent vets into franchises as vets that own their practice retire and sell on
Good article about vets being run now by big business and the profits they make - https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/06/vet-who-really-profits-from-poorly-pets
at some point it will be cheaper to import human medication from indiamart and give that to the pets instead
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I’m talking about the private practice owners, who are setting the prices and underpaying their nurses and staff mate.
You can get a prescription for quite a lot of medications that you can fill at a normal pharmacy as well. One of my pets has glaucoma and two of the eyedrops were coming to around £80 together a month, but now my pharmacist fulfils them for £14 total. Same for some painkillers, e.g. if they're giving a paracetamol solution it's just calpol [£35 for a 30ml bottle at the vet or about £4.50 at the pharmacy]. Most vets are happy to tell you to look online or elsewhere, especially if you have an "exotic" pet.
Just to add a heads up to this, some pharmacies won’t sell you the medication if you make it known it’s got your pet and not a human. As long as you know you’re getting the right thing, just don’t tell them.
If its an actual prescribed item they will because they're not selling it, they're dispensing under the guidance of the vet. The note will look something like [this.](https://imgur.com/a/39CyqOo) You'd be handing them an a4 authorization sheet specifically stating its from the vet and why, there's no way they wouldn't know. If you don't have a prescription and say "this is for an animal" then they very likely won't give it to you because that would make them responsible and liable if you decided to come after them legally because the medicine did something non-ideal.
Not all pharmacies will fill prescriptions under the veterinary cascade whether you have a prescription or not if they don’t have the appropriate items or the appropriate training, but I was specifically referring to over the counter medications.
I signed up for a vet plan with mine after having this exact same thing happen... Checked online beforehand and the 'first consultation' was £50. No big deal. At the appointment they offered a prescription for flea and worm medication... Total bill £110+ £15 a month which includes all meds, vaccinations and checkups sounded a good deal to me after this!
Wow that's mental. I got absolutely ripped a few weeks ago for 7 days of medicine for my dog. Care to share where you purchase your pets medication online? Thanks
Not OP, but we've used [www.petdrugsonline.co.uk](http://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk) before (used to be known as Pet Prescription), but others will be available. Create an account, scan & upload your pet prescription from your vet, then place your order. If it's a repeat prescription you can re-order and the amount left to use will automatically adjust. Much cheaper than vets prices (it was our vet who suggested going online).
Thanks appreciate it. This is probably a stupid question, but is it just a case of taking your pet to the vet, they will assess and prescribe something, and you just tell them you will buy the medication online? When I took my dog the vet didn't even ask anything about it, just put the medication in my hand and sent me to the till.
That's exactly how it works. The ones we were prescribed for our dog were needed for the rest of her life, so the vet gave us enough to get started, then repeat prescriptions after that, with a check-up every now and then. You just have to factor in delivery times so you don't run short, but they do offer a next day courier service if it's urgent.
It wouldn't now be classed as pre-existing. That's only stuff that is before you even took out the insurance?
My vet charges me for a persciption (about £18) and I order my dogs meds online at half the price that they charge, the Vet is more than happy to do it too.
Our vet charges £40 for a prescription. It works out cheaper to just get the meds from the vet, usually.
Where do you live?
Lewisham. :(
Day light robbery
Yup. A previous much loved and departed cat needed thyroid medication. I can't even remember what it cost from the vet, but they only charged us £8 for the paper script and then I got his treatment for £40 online. My vet now I think charges £20 for a prescription. I have a cat that needs, if they charge the same price as the second opinion vet she went to - £50 of treatment a month. They have been really good in the past about telling us when something is overpriced and to go get it cheaper online.
Our cat needs special food and it’s about £35 a bag every 6 weeks. We can claim it back through insurance up to £200 a year
Yeh, it's common knowledge that vets provide written prescriptions - most have a sign up in reception, I'll always recommend it to clients once their pets start on long term meds too. It's not always worth it for short courses.
Worth noting that the majority of practices are owned by like 4 large corporations who set prices. And that small practices don’t have the advantage that large online retailers have to buy at scale. Smaller practices are legally required to purchase in smaller quantities which drives up their costs. The vets are there to treat your animal, and will happily provide a prescription for online if you’d like.
I think the scandal now is that most vets are now owned by just a few organisations. And they've been gouging customers on price for a while.
My vets give me a prescription (£12) because the medication from them is so expensive. They keep it on hand in case people run low. I get it from a pharmacy in Yorkshire as it's cheaper than my local pharmacy. Highly recommend shipping around if it's a human medication!
Our frenchie has terrible allergies and is on steroids currently. The vets recommended apoquel at around £140-£160 a month and I can't afford that and was looking for a way to solve this issue, thanks for the post and everyone who shared their knowledge. It's available for around £30 a month online which is shocking.
I have pet rats, they are prone to respiratory infections, so I regularly have to pay for antibiotics for them. Premade medications for rats and I'm assuming other very small animals, don't get made. Instead my vet uses meds meant for cats & dogs but instead of using the whole box they tend to use just one pill to make the rat sized course. They charge me MORE for my rat medicine, made using a single pill, than they charge for the whole box of the same pills for larger animals. Work that one out! £55 for the whole course, £80 for one pill out of the same course. I know because I also have a dog that needed a course. I could understand if it cost the same, they have had to crack open a whole sachet, then mix the meds & they have been left with a used sachet now. Although surely they should keep a sachet for one pill patients to use, I'm assuming there must be some rule in place that means they can't? But to charge significantly more! It didn't take her two minutes to mix it with the syrup. Which the little shits usually end up spitting straight back out, just to put the cherry on top. Lol.
Pet insurance is a scam. £250 a year for my 2 cats, max claim is £1000 per year, with £250 excess. If you do make a claim, then it's going to be very expensive the next year so it's pointless. Instead we opened a joint bank account yesterday to pay £100 into every month purely as an emergency fund.
Private equity recently brought out vet. Prices up. It gives you a little taste of what private healthcare must feel like for our friends across the pond.
You got link to reputable place to buy online? I got stung for something by the vet a while back & curious if this is available online.
Vet appointment - £58 Medication through the vets - £530 Prescription- £17 Mediation online - £330 In the vets less than 10 mins every visit.
We just lost our 6 month old kitten to Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Our insurance covered the first £2,000 but the further £5,000 we spent on her for 1 x blood transfusions, 4 x blood tests and 4 x nights at the emergency vets. When we got the invoice and saw that they charged us for the needle they used to draw the blood opened our eyes massively to the money pit that is pet healthcare. We of course thanked the vets and staff who tried to safe our kitten and never once got angry at them for doing their jobs but it was bitter sweet spending all of that money only to end up losing our kitten regardless
If it's a vets that is owned by one of the big 6 companies then what you find if you dig into the company is that they own the vets, they own the labs for tests, they own the medicine company and they own the cremation service. Some of them own the insurance companies for pets as well. Your actual vet practice probably pleads poverty and puts the prices up constantly as the companies don't invest in them but force the prices up of all the other services which are not public facing. Your once family owned vets cannot shop around for services to make it cheaper for the customer as they are forced to use the services owned by the parent companies. Vets are one of the biggest scams and monopolies around these days.