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Vets & meds.....Highway robbery??

Bluesmum

Wise Old Thumper
Ok...so my supplier of SS has put their prices up...so I've been doing a search around to find the lowest prices for Karen (rhianna) and I, I usually buy in MASSIVE bulk and she buys it off me, that way we can both take advantahe of the best prices.

While I was looking I decided to have a sneaky around for metacam....Maurice is going to be on it for the forseeable future...so it seems to make sense to find it at the best possible value.

I was shocked and horrified to find out that it's so cheap online. The vets charged me £41.18 for a 100ml bottle....which from vet uk (first place I looked) I could have got for 13.54 :shock: :shock: I thought it might have been a little cheaper...but that much really surprised me.

I know that they will charge me a prescription fee....but still....thats rediculess!

Has anyone else found this?
 
It's £16.99 for a 180ml bottle at Pet Drugs Online ( with a Prescription) but I agree with what you are saying about what the
the vet charges An how cheap it is here :(
 
I can well believe it. When we got metacam I looked on internet out of interest and we could get it for 3 times cheaper on the internet. Vets can be a rip off although you'll get the few who do good prices
 
The last bottle I got was a 10ml bottle from my vets it was £10 some pence and from pet drugs online same bottle is £3.98p
 
I do think there is a huge price difference but I don't view it as a rip off. Ultimately, an online drugs supplier needs a large cupboard and an Internet connection. Your vet needs a public premises, staff, ludicrous amounts of expensive diagnostic and surgical equipment, an enormous phone bill, the list goes on.

The vet's overheads are therefore far higher and they have to cover their costs across the range of products and services they sell. If everyone got a written prescription and went to an online supplier instead of their vets, the vets would just have to put up their consultation, vaccination and/or surgery prices to offset the lost income from the online sales. Vets (not all, but most) also tend to reinvest much of their profit in improving their practices and keeping up to date with training and equipment, the online supplier just takes a profit. I don't mind paying a bit over the odds to know that it helps my vet to have the best equipment available for when my animals need it.
 
A couple of times i've considered getting a prescription and then buying online but usually when we need it it's needs to be started quick, not time to order it. Possibly if I had a bunny on it for an extended period of time I'd get a prescription. Our vets charges £5 for a prescription though, probably to cover those things santa mentions. They are very good and have often in the past not charged me for things so it's not a problem for me.
 
I do think there is a huge price difference but I don't view it as a rip off. Ultimately, an online drugs supplier needs a large cupboard and an Internet connection. Your vet needs a public premises, staff, ludicrous amounts of expensive diagnostic and surgical equipment, an enormous phone bill, the list goes on.

The vet's overheads are therefore far higher and they have to cover their costs across the range of products and services they sell. If everyone got a written prescription and went to an online supplier instead of their vets, the vets would just have to put up their consultation, vaccination and/or surgery prices to offset the lost income from the online sales. Vets (not all, but most) also tend to reinvest much of their profit in improving their practices and keeping up to date with training and equipment, the online supplier just takes a profit. I don't mind paying a bit over the odds to know that it helps my vet to have the best equipment available for when my animals need it.

Yes i see what you mean i just think some vets do have rip off prices in general because there's such a range of prices for vaccinations even in the same area and they're the same product. But if i think the vet is worth it then i'll still use them
 
well my emergency vets appointment including euthanasia for darling Floppy cost me £189.36 last night!!!!

checked pet plan and although I knew they didn't cover euthanasia or cremation, they won't even cover the consultancy appointment or out of hours fee!!

I would have paid anything to make Floppy well but that is outrageous!!!
rip off indeed,,
 
well my emergency vets appointment including euthanasia for darling Floppy cost me £189.36 last night!!!!

checked pet plan and although I knew they didn't cover euthanasia or cremation, they won't even cover the consultancy appointment or out of hours fee!!

I would have paid anything to make Floppy well but that is outrageous!!!
rip off indeed,,

oh no I'm sorry :(
 
well my emergency vets appointment including euthanasia for darling Floppy cost me £189.36 last night!!!!

checked pet plan and although I knew they didn't cover euthanasia or cremation, they won't even cover the consultancy appointment or out of hours fee!!

I would have paid anything to make Floppy well but that is outrageous!!!
rip off indeed,,

I'm surprised by this. We had to use the emergency vet when Sprocket had bloat and pet plan covered it. Why did they refuse to cover?
 
I checked my policy and it said no cover for consultancy appointments for euthanasia?

That's what my bill said....
 
I checked my policy and it said no cover for consultancy appointments for euthanasia?

That's what my bill said....

I would check with your vets and petplan...your appt wasnt just to put floppy to sleep...that was just the last resort...the vet tried to save him first ((hugs))
 
Oh that sounds terrible! Couldnt the vet write it up in a different way, like "bun brought in for emergency treatment due to x, but after examination only couse of action was pts" or something like that? There must have been a good reason for you needing to see them out of hours. I can't imagine that you knew at the time that being pts was the only option?? Poor you, it's difficult enough without worrying about costs.. :(
 
Thanks ! I was intending to hone tomorrow anyway to cancel his policy but was going to ask EXACTLY what it covers, they never put it in plain English do they?

it's not the money that matters in this case although it helps but it's outrageous that euthanasia is a last resort and ultimately for an insurance company it costs less to euthanise than to pay out for treatment. I can't understand why they don't cover it. it's certainly not an easy quick fix solution to make, it's a totally devastating one...
 
Some vets charge ridiculous amounts for meds, others seem to be fair with their pricing. My own vets is fine and in general a couple of £'s more than buying online.

For those of you who have pet prescriptions have a look at animed.co.uk, I've not found anyone cheaper so it may help you all:wave:
 
breakdown of Costs
examination - out of Hours consultation 36.87
Out of hours fee. 83.77
euthanasia. 35.00
Routine cremation. 34.19
vAT 31.64
total £189.83
 
When my Bridge Bun Dylan was on daily metacam I found buying it on-line was considerably cheaper, even taking into account the cost of the prescription. I got my vet to write repeat x 2 or x 3 on it, but he charged more for that!!
 
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