Discounted Pet Medicine can Save you Money!

A Personal Article in Allotment Growing

Discounted Pet Medicine can Save you Money!

We share our lives with a pack of geriatric cats and it’s a sad fact of life that as your pet, be it dog, cat or even a horse gets older, you are more likely to need veterinary help.

Even young animals get fleas and ticks so you are going to need pet flea and tick medicine. The good news is that you can now buy your pet flea and tick medicine online cheap.

Now I’m not suggesting you would want to buy all your pet’s medicine online. Often your beloved dog or cat needs a course of antibiotics or just an injection of anti-inflammatory and he needs that without delay. So your vet carries stocks of those drugs and acts as a pharmacist and supplies them on your visit.

But if your vet diagnoses a long-term illness such as heart problems or liver or kidney problems then your pet is likely to need long-term if not life-long medicine. This can become a serious expense and hard to afford.

Your vet will apply the same profit margin to long-term drugs as to that one-week course of antibiotics and often a dispensing fee as well, which I think is a bit unfair when you are talking about long-term pet medicines. A 50% profit margin on a small amount gives the vet a small cash profit on the pet medicine but that same profit margin on a high-cost, long-term pet medicine gives him a profit often far in excess of the consultation fee.

Our cat is on a drug called Fortekor (Benazepril hydrochloride), which is usually prescribed to cats for chronic renal insufficiency (kidney problems) or to dogs for heart failure. We pay about ten pounds online for 14 tablets and he takes half a pill a day, which saves us over £180.00 per year on the price we were paying from the vet.

He also takes Destolit and Prednisolone each day. Three weeks supply cost me over £17.00 from the vet but the same quantity online was less than £5.00.

Animal drugs and medicines are more expensive than the same drug in its human variety because of the licensing system and there is no way around this. Your vet can only prescribe a human drug for your pet if there is no licensed suitable animal medicine. One of the cheapest eye ointments is Chloramphenicol, which you can buy as a liquid under the Optrex brand without prescription. The cost of the human drug in ointment form is less than 50p but the animal licensed medicine runs at nearly 10 times that.

Anyway, there is nothing we can do about that short of changing the law!

How can you save money on your pet medicine?

If your pet has regular medication you are entitled to ask your vet for a prescription to be dispensed by a pharmacist. The vet will write a prescription, in much the same way as your family doctor and then give it to you. From the 31st October 2005 no charge should be made for writing the prescription.

A recent government report has recommended the vets write prescriptions as a matter of course for treating animals. It is also in the vets’ professional code of contact that they should not reasonably refuse to issue one at the request of a client.

Although you can buy pet vitamins and some drugs from pet shops, you can only buy Prescription Only Medicines (the packet will have POM on it) from a pharmacist or veterinarian with a prescription

The online pet medicine suppliers often provide a blank form for your vet to complete or your vet will just fill in his own form.

A veterinary prescription needs the following details:

• Name & Address of Vet
• Professional Qualifications
• Date and Details of the Animal/s to be treated
• Name and Address of the Owner
• Details of the medication, including drug, dose and quantity
• How many times the prescription may be repeated (if any)
• The Phrase "For animal use only, for an animal under my care" or similar
• Signature of your Vet (in ink)

If your vet does not offer you a prescription automatically, just ask. If the vet refuses he is in breach of his professional rules of conduct and you could report him. I’d certainly get another vet in those circumstances. After all, a decent vet will understand that you want the best for your pet but that doesn't mean you can afford to throw money away by paying more for your pet drugs than you should.

When you have your prescription, just compare prices between different suppliers as you would for any other product online. Place your order and then post them your prescription. They will despatch your order on receipt of the prescription.

My experience with Petmeds is that they are very fast and helpful if you have any questions. Sometimes they may need to speak to you before supplying your pet medicine. This happened to us when we ordered a catabolic steroid for the cat. And no, the vet wasn’t joking – there is such a thing as a catabolic steroid.

I suspect they were checking we weren’t crazed body builders looking to boost our muscle mass by taking animal steroids. Now they know we are just looking to cut some cost by buying our pet medicine online cheap.

Resources

Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

This is the home page for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS). The RCVS is the regulatory body for veterinary surgeons in the United Kingdom and ensures that standards within the veterinary profession are maintained, safeguarding the health and welfare of animals and the interests of the public.

All About Pets

All About Pets, the national pet care information service from The Blue Cross animal welfare charity - Lots of help and information about caring for and the healtcare of your pet. Covers, cats, dogs, horses, hamsters, rats, mice, guinea pigs and rabbits.

The Blue Cross is a registered charity and receives no government funding. They rely entirely on the generosity of pet lovers to help support All About Pets and other vital animal welfare projects. Any contribution would be most welcome.

Petmeds

Online supplier of discounted pet medicines including prescription medicines and care products.

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