Still Waiting for my Vet to send me over a written Prescription.

I can understand you're feeling annoyed, but at the moment people are being pinged by the Covid app and very short-staffed, and this may be the problem at your vet's.

I paid nearly £6 for something to be delivered quickly by Royal Mail and it hasn't arrived. I am cross, like you are, but Covid infections are rising rapidly, and if people have to self-isolate, well so be it.

I hope your pets are ok.

Hello Sparklefizz thank-you for replying. I know what you mean about the Covid app and many places being short staffed.

At my vets there was good ratio of staff and three vets on hand on the same day. The reception was also well staffed and there seemed no shortage of vet nurses at front desk.
I have to take the dog that had the operation back on Monday just to check on the site of the stitches so on Monday I shall seriously be asking what is going on.
In the last ten days I have paid a large amount of money
in the practice and expect the service I have paid for.

I have heard that Royal Mail have been experiencing problems although there are now many that will not have to self isolate as long as they test daily. I do hope your delivery
arrives soon.

I expected the supermarket to be low on food yesterday but it was well stocked and no shortages so that is something at least.

I hope your dog gets on ok at the vet's tomorrow 3nanny6
It's always a worry when our much-loved pets have something wrong.

Please don’t be nasty to the vet or the receptionist. There may well be circumstances you don’t know about which delayed the prescription and if you’re going there tomorrow anyway you can surely collect it.

Vets are hard working people who have studied for years to qualify to do a very difficult job. They do their best for our pets and don’t deserve to be treated with disrespect. You say you are ‘spitting feathers’ not only because of the delayed prescription, but because of the cost of the operation. These things never come cheap. It’s like private healthcare instead of the NHS.
Perhaps you should have had pet insurance but with one dog having had an operation (depending on the reason) and the other on medication that may no longer be possible or feasible.

Germanshepherdsmum ; thank-you for your reply. I may not know if there is something going on as to why the prescription
has not been sent over. It would have at least been courtesy for them to tell me why.

I am sorry you have misunderstood me giving complaint
about the cost of the operation as no matter the cost of anything for my dogs I would find the money somewhere even if I had to borrow it and then pay it back that's what I would do.
In regard of pet insurance I had that until both pets were aged 9 and 8 years and never used/claimed on it once.
The pet insurance as usual went up again yearly as I had never used it I cancelled it that was a couple of years ago.
My dogs have had several treatments at this vet and I have
always held them in high regard. What my dogs need they will get.

In regard of the prescription it has to be sent to my e-mail and then forwarded to the on-line people I use. It is a medication that can only come from the vets prescription as my dog is diabetic. I am getting low on this medication now
and will be needing it quite soon and if I have to buy it from my vet it is three times more expensive than on-line. Considering how much it has cost me this last 10 days I am in need of some co-operation from my vets as good will works both ways. My vets have studied for years and they do a good job. but I am an owner of two dogs that I have cherished loved and done only good for it would be a different story if I did not care for them.
Sorry for the rant but yes they have p====d me off a bit.
No your problem I know.

Hi 3nanny6, how very disappointing for you and the fact that it is delaying getting much needed medicine for your doggie. Service in this country is appalling and this is yet another example so I totally agree with you. I too have dogs and cannot believe the exhurberent prices that vets charge clients, when online vet med suppliers are often half the price, even after paying for a prescription. Though I have brought this fact up often with my vets, you get the same excuse.. "we can't buy it at that price". Think it is about time that there was a massive shake up of vet costs. After all, whilst you and I would move a mountain for our dogs, other people won't and then animals suffer x

You sound like me 3nanny6, I’d spend my last penny on my lovely dog. I haven’t had pet insurance because I know some vets don’t like some insurers who quibble about everything and I wouldn’t want that to affect treatment. I’m lucky I can afford the vet’s fees and am so sorry for those who can’t hence I support the PDSA. The cost of drugs from the vet is very high, I know they can’t compete with the online companies and wish something could be done about that.
Good luck with your two!

Thank-you to all for replying and there is not much more I can say. Susysue ; you are right in saying that the charges from the vet can be exhurberent, it is that which forces people to go online particularly with my dog because the diabetic condition
cannot be reversed so she will need that medication for the rest of her life. She is a happy soul though even though her sight has been affected and most would not continue with a dog that needs life-long medication but as she has no pain and functions well I cannot let her go until she possibly may deteriorate.
I will post tomorrow and let you all know how things go and if they at last get me the prescription.

Sorry to be picky but what is this new word exhurberent both of the previous posters have used?

Sorry mawbe, meant extortionate!! My brain gone to mush!! Or maybe it's the paint fumes after much fence painting!! 3nanny6, thinking of you and hope it goes well x

Good word though (I was wondering if it was “exorbitant”) - one to reserve for Scrabble!

Hello Susysue and MawBe and all others that posted to me.
Sorry I did not get back about any progress I had at the vets yesterday as I went there and then had the dog out and was so tired when I came back I was almost fit for nothing.

In regard of the word MawBe I think it would be fair to use exorbitant as that is what it has been to me for paying the vet.

The excuse for the prescription not arriving was that it had been sent but they did not know why I had not received it.
I knew this was going to happen and I had to buy my medication for my dog from him. Lo and behold the prescription arrived in my email at 6.30pm last night.
I am now near broke but my freezer is full and so are my cupboards so we will not starve. I will have more money coming in early next week so I suppose alls well that ends well.
A friend has phoned the R.S.P.C.A. and apparently they give half price medication for pets if they are on a life long prescription so they may be my next people to call.
Take care all.

3nanny6, sorry to hear your latest trip to the vet has once again proven to be exorbitant!! I am rapidly losing faith in various professions eg vets, lawyers etc who just seem to enjoy ripping people off!! Hope you manage till next week x

Sympathy 3nanny6 and I hope your doggie is doing well.
Having pets is a bit of a cleft stick isn’t it? Of course you want the best for them but vets’ bills have risen out of all proportion over the last 10 years or so. So you have to have insurance - and that is why they can charge so much - and insurance premiums go up accordingly. I have had PetPlan for our dogs since our first Labrador 42 years ago. Back then it was probably less than £10 a month. To be fair, we had thousands of £££ worth of treatment when our first greyhound 20 years ago had a brain tumour and weeks of radiotherapy. But now they cap the amount they will pay out in one year (in PP’s case at £4000) and if you have an elderly dog the excess for each claim is £120 and they only pay 80% after that.
However unless you have a spare £10k in a sock under the bed for a serious illness or accident it is too risky to be uninsured.
I paid out over £6000 for the lovely Hattie’s treatment before she had to be PTS because there was no way I would refuse to treat my dog on financial grounds alone.
To be fair, our vets - now taken over by a bigger firm- are mostly excellent although they have subcontracted out of hours/ weekend care to another “emergency “ practice where you pay a couple of hundred just to get through the door. But apart from that, they do give a personal and caring service .
I am sorry yours have failed you in this respect.

Susysue, as a retired solicitor I take great exception to your offensive comment that various professionals ‘seem to enjoy ripping people off’. When you consult a professional you pay for the expertise they can give from years of study and practice. Do you expect them to be paid at the same sort of rate as the cashier at Lidl? You would probably have perceived my fees as as a partner in a City law firm doing very specialist work to be extortionate but I can assure that I have never, ever ‘ripped anyone off’ as you call it, nor would anyone in the practices I have worked at. The same applies to vets, who have studied for many years in order to qualify and do a very difficult job often at unsociable hours.

The excuse for the prescription not arriving was that it had. been sent but they did not know why I had not received it I knew this was going to happen and I had to buy my medication for my dog from him. Lo and behold the prescription arrived in my email at 6.30pm last night

Goodness, that's quite underhand behaviour - basically you were coerced into buying the medication from the vet.

Yes Riverwalk that is underhand behaviour to use - I would not let my dog be without the medication she needed so I had to buy it.

In regard of vets in general we know they charge at high rates so it is our choice to keep pets and be able to get medical care for them when needed.
With my dog who is diabetic which was diagnosed at the vets
I have been speaking about I enquired on the day what will be the cost of medication, syringes and tests she will need, I was told in good faith it would be relatively easy to pay and not cost more than perhaps 50pence per day. I was thinking long term and thinking of financial outgoings.
As this was what I had been told I made the decision to carry on treatment and in fact not to PTS.
The correct dosage had to be found and she needed more than the vet first thought. Let's just say her treatment is much more than 50 pence a day. The vet has put his prescription charges up twice in three years and his medication is over £60 pounds.
I love my dog but realistically not to have had the full cost
run-down from the beginning I may have made other choices. Also it will make any loss if I lose her harder to bear
as I have made so much more a fuss over her in the last few years and not having her around will now be heart-breaking.

I do understand 3nanny6. Just ordered another repeat prescription for my beloved old lady. I dread the day when I lose her. You will be glad you didn’t have your friend put to sleep on financial grounds. You can’t put a price on the love and companionship you’ve had from her all these years and when the time comes - which I hope is a long way away - you will be comforted that you did all you could to keep her well and happy for as long as humanly possible. I so feel for those many, many people who just can’t do it, and for their pets.

You are right Germanshepherdsmum, the love and companionship we get back from out pets cannot be counted
in the terms of money and a price cannot be put on it.

I too feel sad for some of the people who cannot keep going with the costs involved. Places like the P.D.S.A and even the R.S.P.C.A have had to make a lot of cutbacks on the subsidized help they used to give as they have been hit with cutbacks in funding themselves. The funding for these charities is nothing like it used to be.
Take care.

Germanshepherdsmum

*Susysue*, as a retired solicitor I take great exception to your offensive comment that various professionals ‘seem to enjoy ripping people off’. When you consult a professional you pay for the expertise they can give from years of study and practice. Do you expect them to be paid at the same sort of rate as the cashier at Lidl? You would probably have perceived my fees as as a partner in a City law firm doing very specialist work to be extortionate but I can assure that I have never, ever ‘ripped anyone off’ as you call it, nor would anyone in the practices I have worked at. The same applies to vets, who have studied for many years in order to qualify and do a very difficult job often at unsociable hours.

Ahh, another high handed lawyer, full of their own self importance!!! I too studied for a degree so get off your high horse!!! And any of us who have had the misfortune to have to use lawyers eg conveyancing, family law, civil law etc will know exactly where I am coming from with feeling "ripped off" How the hell your profession think any of you are worth £250 upwards AN HOUR is beyond me. Plus you all sit there, with a stop watch on for every minute you engage with clients on the phone etc. Even an email costs about £18. Absolutely ridiculous... no empathy for clients situations, just money grabbers. Don't know how you sleep at night!!

That was a nasty and totally unwarranted attack on me and on my profession Susysue. You don’t know me or the type of work I did. I can say with certainty that you would not have met me professionally. I’m not going to try to explain how long it takes for a solicitor to qualify post-degree or the high overheads law firms carry. Your ears would be closed. What I will tell you, though, is that lawyers undertake enormous amounts of pro bono work and that you would find the likes of me for instance representing vulnerable people such as victims of domestic abuse who can’t afford fees and don’t qualify for legal aid; doing shifts at neighbourhood law centres advising those too poor or too afraid to go to a solicitor and helping people who can’t read or write to fill in forms to claim benefits; mentoring kids from disadvantaged backgrounds who would like a career in the law. I’ve spent my entire working life helping people like that alongside my ‘day job’ and still do. It’s a privilege to hold a qualification which enables you to help others and to be able to do that is both satisfying and humbling.
So perhaps you’d like to think about that. And I can tell you that 15 hour days and a head filled with clients’ problems, deadlines and the like leave you too tired to sleep well.

DD’s pet insurance provides an online vet service 24/7. This has saved her a lot of time, money and worry where she has been able to have a video consultation without paying out lots of money at out of hours time to see her vet. Obviously the cases have been relatively simple.

Germanshepherdsmum

That was a nasty and totally unwarranted attack on me and on my profession Susysue. You don’t know me or the type of work I did. I can say with certainty that you would not have met me professionally. I’m not going to try to explain how long it takes for a solicitor to qualify post-degree or the high overheads law firms carry. Your ears would be closed. What I will tell you, though, is that lawyers undertake enormous amounts of pro bono work and that you would find the likes of me for instance representing vulnerable people such as victims of domestic abuse who can’t afford fees and don’t qualify for legal aid; doing shifts at neighbourhood law centres advising those too poor or too afraid to go to a solicitor and helping people who can’t read or write to fill in forms to claim benefits; mentoring kids from disadvantaged backgrounds who would like a career in the law. I’ve spent my entire working life helping people like that alongside my ‘day job’ and still do. It’s a privilege to hold a qualification which enables you to help others and to be able to do that is both satisfying and humbling.
So perhaps you’d like to think about that. And I can tell you that 15 hour days and a head filled with clients’ problems, deadlines and the like leave you too tired to sleep well.

You must be the only one then as all that I have come across including family lawyers in domestic abuse cases don't give a flying xxxx and certainly know of none who give their services voluntarily... and as for 15 hour days!!! Lucky if they are in an office 9-5pm. If you want to talk about stressful jobs, perhaps you would like to shadow my daughter doing her 12 hour night shifts in a busy city emergency med dept with junkies out of their heads, mental health cases who either want to strangle themselves or her with whatever they can find... need I go on. Maybe you are a lawyer who was the mother Teresa of the legal profession but by God you are in the minority

I’m not unusual Susysue. A great many lawyers do pro bono work including my son and his wife who are respectively a partner and counsel with big international City firms. They might charge eye-watering hourly rates to commercial clients but they also help some of the poorest and most vulnerable and disadvantaged people. It’s just that it’s not boasted about and rarely publicised. Sometimes a lawyer isn’t in the office because they’re at the local law centre or in court or at a school doing some of the things I mentioned. They then have to catch up on client work at home, evenings and weekends are rarely free from work in my experience. Not all lawyers do this of course but in many firms it’s a requirement that you do x number of hours of pro bono work each year no matter the size of your workload. Work in a City law firm is incredibly pressurised but totally different to the pressure faced by doctors and nurses, for whom lives, not vast sums of money, are at stake. Lawyers have indemnity insurance if something goes wrong whereas medics have a corpse, or a person in a permanent vegetative state, to answer for. I wouldn’t want to be a medic and wouldn’t dream of comparing the two. Sadly we all, in both professions, face abuse (and in your daughter’s case potentially violence) and it can be very unpleasant and upsetting. I’ve had my fair share; some clients are unbelievably nasty and you just have to accept it. You’ve obviously had a bad experience with lawyers and perhaps you feel able to explain. But please don’t tar us all with the same brush. There are certainly easier ways to earn a decent living as I’m sure your daughter knows only too well!