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Households with multiple sick rabbits- especially long term Metacam use

Sky-O

Wise Old Thumper
How do you guys get your Metacam?

I have four on it long term (permanently) and others who go on and off it sporadically.

Previously my vets have been comfortable prescribing 180ml bottle under one name but then being aware I would share it. They have been doing this for six months (go through about 180mls every two months or so) with no problems. I get a written prescription because the charges they charge are astronomical.

Now they are saying they can't do this anymore and that I have to have 100ml bottle for each bunny on it (which doesn't cover those who go on and off it but who I have been given permission to prescribe to). That's going to cost an arm and a leg because I'm going to need to buy 4 100ml bottles, like now, all of which come with a written prescription fee and the fee of the bottle itself. I'm looking at now having to pay just over £100 plus postage (if I bought it inhouse for four 100ml bottles I would be paying about £240ish).

Does everyone else have to do it this way? Especially those who get written precrisptions?
 
How do you guys get your Metacam?

I have four on it long term (permanently) and others who go on and off it sporadically.

Previously my vets have been comfortable prescribing 180ml bottle under one name but then being aware I would share it. They have been doing this for six months (go through about 180mls every two months or so) with no problems. I get a written prescription because the charges they charge are astronomical.

Now they are saying they can't do this anymore and that I have to have 100ml bottle for each bunny on it (which doesn't cover those who go on and off it but who I have been given permission to prescribe to). That's going to cost an arm and a leg because I'm going to need to buy 4 100ml bottles, like now, all of which come with a written prescription fee and the fee of the bottle itself. I'm looking at now having to pay just over £100 plus postage (if I bought it inhouse for four 100ml bottles I would be paying about £240ish).

Does everyone else have to do it this way? Especially those who get written precrisptions?


My vets have no problems what so ever giving me prescriptions so that I can buy Metacam over the net. They are very aware that I have 1 bun and 1 rat sharing Metacam long term and have never said that I need multiple prescriptions. They even give me their biggest bottle of Metacam when I need to purchase it from them to share between the two animals.

I have no idea why your vets want to do it this way :/ Seems a bit of a faff tbh and very unfair.
 
I get one huge bottle. Dylan is on it long term but the vet knows that anybun who needs it will be given it, the same with Baytril. He does charge quite a lot for a prescription and more for a repeat, but it still works out cheaper than buying meds from him.

He actually suggested me getting large bottles, given I have eleven buns.
 
My vet is happy to prescribe me whatever size I ask for, usually 180ml between all my buns. He knows who is on it and how much they take. I have 3 (used to be 4 :cry:) on it daily. I explained to him a while ago that, while I want the best for my buns, I really need to keep my costs down.

Recently I got a prescription for 180 ml, there was a delay in getting the medicine (my fault), and they gave me a 32 ml bottle to tide me over.

I get a written prescription, which I don't need to pay for, and get the metacam usually from VetUk.
 
Have they explained the reason for this?
Both of my rabbits have been on Metacam at the same time and penicillin injections. I was just given one label for the bottle that said give this much to Grimlock and this much to Samus. They shared the same prescription I guess with their specific doses on it.
 
I get the impression from my vets that there has been a general tightening up by whoever controls drug administration etc at a higher level -

We are currently having the same issues with Baytril (which we get through tons of as parsley has 2.4 mls a day every day of his life)

I use meloxivet rather than metacam anyway - but have told them this is in part because I hate the small bottles metacam comes in.
 
We get a 180ml bottle in one name to be used around all the bunnies via prescription. However our vets will only give us one bottle on a prescrition where as i know others get 3 plus bottles on one prescription. We get through 180mls every 3 weeks
 
So mixed, ok. Thanks for your responses :)

I'm not sure what I should do about this, to be honest.
 
How much are you paying per bottle? as where I buy it 100ml is £11.80 then there is a £9 prescription fee for us which makes it just over £80 for 4 bottles as no p&P cost. Plus of course once you have it you wont have to buy any for a very long time so it will work out the same price in the long run than if you bought one bottle at a time for all bunnies :D
 
I was paying £12.50 for prescription fee and £19 for a 180ml bottle.

For each 100ml bottle I will need to pay £12.50 for the prescription fee and £13 for the 100ml bottle.

By the time I have used 900mls of both, the 180ml way will have cost roughly £160 and the 100ml bottle way will have cost £225. That's a huge difference, for me, at least.

I guess if this is destined to happen everywhere then there's not much I can do, but if this is just mine being 'awkward' for some reason, then I may have to look at other options.
 
Have you asked why you can only get 100ml bottles, instead of 180 ml?

Usually my vet is happy is prescribe me enough to cover me for 6 months. Would you use 100ml on one bun in 6 months?
 
Have you asked why you can only get 100ml bottles, instead of 180 ml?

Usually my vet is happy is prescribe me enough to cover me for 6 months. Would you use 100ml on one bun in 6 months?

I would use 100ml in 6 months, but not 180ml in six months for one bunny (which is where the issue seems to arise, sadly).
 
I am really confused now :oops:

Were you getting more than one bottle per prescription before?

If you were always getting one prescription for one bottle and that one bottle was for all your bunnies then it would run out quickly. If now you need to get one bottle and one prescription per bunny then each bottle will last ages so long term you will be using the same amount at the same overall cost. Or have I completely missed the point :?:oops:
 
I am really confused now :oops:

Were you getting more than one bottle per prescription before?

If you were always getting one prescription for one bottle and that one bottle was for all your bunnies then it would run out quickly. If now you need to get one bottle and one prescription per bunny then each bottle will last ages so long term you will be using the same amount at the same overall cost. Or have I completely missed the point :?:oops:

It's a different bottle size.
 
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