I went yesterday to our vets to pick up 1 months supply of Onsior for my lab (He now will need it every month). I think its only the second time we have had it from them since we moved. Our previous vet charged about £43 I think. I went to pay, they wanted £56.02! I paid anyway as he needed them and left. I came home and looked online and can get them for £21.30 so even with the almost £8 prescription charge from the vet its still over £26 cheaper (a month!!!) I really didn't realise just how much the vets add to to prescription medicine.

We had this discussion in detail in another thread recently, and it isn't that the individual vets add as much on as it looks, it is that the online pharmacies buy in such huge bulk direct from the manufacturers so they buy it much cheaper than your vet can buy the same product for. They are multi million pound companies with huge warehouses, whereas your own vet will buy a few boxes a time of ecah product. Just like why the large supermarkets can get their products much cheaper than a small cornershop -the corner shop has to go to a local wholesaler who has to take their cut.

It does make sense but why cant vets buy direct from online pharmacies, they could add their cut and still be cheaper than they are currently. Its not like its a couple of pounds (which i generally wouldn't mind) its more than half the price, which over a year is quite a lot

The online pharmacies are not for vets to buy from, they are for the general public and prescription medication requires a prescription. I.e. you cannot buy in order to resell.

oh ok, fair enough :)

Also of course a vet may buy in medication that they then have to dispose of unused, if they haven't dispensed it.

When I used to do the ordering for a vets I worked at, the cost they bought it from their supplier was the same price as I could buy it for on-line!

Saying that I buy on-line and when you are saving £100's it makes sense. When I had a dog on Tramadol, 100 tablets cost £2.99 from Hyperdrug, from my vets £3.69 for just 10 tablets!

Don't forget that if your dog has this medication every month you will not need a written script every month, your vet should provide one for a 6 mths supply at which point they will need to see the dog again before issuing another script. So if You pay £8 for a written script (my vet charges £15) that should only be every 6 mths not every mth. :)

I would always pay the vet for one off meds, but would expect a script and buy from a pharmacy for on-going medication, and actually my vet would suggest this.

> When I had a dog on Tramadol, 100 tablets cost £2.99 from Hyperdrug,

£2.99!!! I take tramadol regularly and have to pay the prescription charge currently £8.05 for 100. can I order from hyperdrug for myself? If I send them a prescription will it be accepted?

they certainly sell human medicines.

That's me shopping at hyperdrug then!

Mne too would suggest this!!

I would always pay the vet for one off meds, but would expect a script and buy from a pharmacy for on-going medication, and actually my vet would suggest this.
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