Online drugs

[Gargamel]

Sad times in the house, we have a seven yr old Black Lab who has formally been diagnosed with acute osteo arthiritis in both front elbows. what we have though was some stiffness caused by a foot down a rabbit hole a while back, turns out to be quite a bit more serious.

We are told her days of walking more than about ten minutes are over...

Anyway, the Vet (who is excellent) has prescribed Metacam to help, we have a 60 day supply. Now the Vet has charged £50 for the medicine. Yet we can see it online from four or five companies at £15 for the same bottle.

Fakery aside, does this not seem an unreasonable mark up? The vet when we queried the cost has stated they aren't able to buy it at those prices ?

[bexVN]

He is telling the truth, It costs us more to buy in than they sell it for. I assume these places mass bulk buy to cur costs. Obviously your vet will have a mark up (You don't say what size bottle you have)

You can get a written prescription from your vet for about £10-15 and they will probably be happy to do a 3 month px initially stretching to 6 months if all is going well (that will be for you and your vet to discuss)

When you use an online site make sure it is British and preferably signed up to the vmd body. (veterinary medicines directory). They will have ensured it is a legitimate site.

Re exercise I would recommend hydrotherapy.

[stuartmmcfc]

I can't remember exactly the drugs or the prices, but my Mother was in a very similar position a few years ago with her Collie.
I ordered the same drug, online, from a British company at a fraction of the price. The only "problem" was that we did need a prescription, but her vet issued this with no problem.
The drugs were definitely genuine.

[Gargamel]

bexVN said:

He is telling the truth, It costs us more to buy in than they sell it for. I assume these places mass bulk buy to cur costs. Obviously your vet will have a mark up (You don't say what size bottle you have)

You can get a written prescription from your vet for about £10-15 and they will probably be happy to do a 3 month px initially stretching to 6 months if all is going well (that will be for you and your vet to discuss)

When you use an online site make sure it is British and preferably signed up to the vmd body. (veterinary medicines directory). They will have ensured it is a legitimate site.

Re exercise I would recommend hydrotherapy.

Thanks - I am glad you commented, could you tell me more about hydrotherapy. Being a lab and from a working line, she has always been an excellent swimmer, however the local ponds where we swim have sandy beaches and are shallow, so she runs in and surges in the shallow water, which is clearly now not an option.

Yes, VET offered to write a prescription for £9 -

Why don't they buy from the online sites ? Clearly I am missing something. I have no issue with them making a mark up, but over 300% on what the public can buy it for seems to be a broken market

[bexVN]

Certainly isn't 300%, probably nearer 50%. Reliability, we can order from wholesalers the night before (8pm) for next morning 8am. We can return items easily, we don't need to write out prescriptions as we would if ordering from online, they don't cover everything we need, splitting the order sites becomes time consuming and difficult to keep on top of. Our drug needs change day to day so weekly ordering is a pain (esp with limited stock room) etc

Hydro, would recommend a controlled environment rather than ponds etc, your vet may know of a good centre by you. Take a look on Chapel Farm Rehab Centre for an example of a good one (took my own dog here and got to know the staff well)