The cost of prescriptions from our vet

Gosh these vets know how to charge 😳

The law demands that, in order to prescribe medicines or supply prescriptions, your pet must have been seen by the vet within the past 6 months. This is not down to the vet although course it is to the vets’ advantage.

Unscrupulous vets will carry on advising monthly flea treatment all year round just as they still send reminders for annual vaccination boosters, long after the official guidelines changed all this.

We also didn’t vaccinate the dogs after they were 8 years old - again the (wonderful) Vet said that the regular shots in their previous years had built up sufficient immunity to protect them for the rest of their lives. A footnote:- that we never had any of our dogs (or cats) insured - we just bit the bullet, as and when.

Wasn’t there a feature on vets charges recently on the news?? Some of them do sound to be exploiting pet owners and the COL is difficult enough without added costs for keeping pets healthy.
I often wonder how the wildlife rescue centres cope with vet charges.

You need a consultation anyway for vaccinations and I think most insurance companies expect pets to be vaccinated. A lot of people are rethinking having flea and tick treatment throughout the year. I have vaccinations and wormer because of lungworm but don’t use flea or tick treatment, having said that I have a short haired do so it’s easier to spot parasites straight away. And, of course, cats can pick up fleas when out and about. I think there’s government legislation going through regarding vets charges.

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA), alongside other veterinary organizations, supports a guideline recommendation to charge no more than £16 for providing a written veterinary prescription.

Mine's just put the charge up from £20 to £25 but next time if it hasn't gone down (I think these charging guidelines are relatively new) I am going to mention the guidelines.

I also resent the consultation fee(which can't be done at the annual check up & vaccination appointment at our vets). I'm perfectly capable of weighinng my dog myself. So I did buy online instead of getting at the vets & having to have a consultation last month. Same drug for fleas / ticks except the vets sold a combination for worms too, whereas I need 2 seperate ones with these, but worming tablets are cheap & effective anyway, & my dog eats tablets like treats.

Oh my word Gin I’ve totally misread your post and see you already get your meds online. However, we used to treat every 5-6 weeks (working dogs) and our Vet (she was a farm Vet) had no issue with giving us a ‘script for hundreds of tablets.

Get (buy) a prescription from the Vet and then buy the meds online. I’d consider changing Vets if yours doesn’t co-operate.
We changed our Vet years ago, as it had been taken over by a multi-national and the Vet agreed prices had been hiked to pay for all the new machinery and upgrading.
At one point we had 10 dogs and bought worming tablets in ‘industrial quantities’ which worked out at £1 a tablet. I’m sure it’ll be more now, but even if it’s triple that, still a bargain.