Has anyone used this recently - what sort of cost was it - just been quoted £220 from my vet, am sure it was way way less when I had it done before - albeit a fair few years ago ...

Quick look on the pharmacies that sell this & it looks like 6 months implant around £120 incl vat for 2 implants & 12 months £220 incl vat for 2 implants. So £220 for 1 of either implant is a hell of a mark up

Basically it's about the same as a spay for a bitch of that size.

So it's ok to charge £100+ for putting an implant into a dog ???? Really takes around 30 seconds(same time to put a different type of implant into any animal) making a vet's time £1,200 an hour ??

Hardly the same as spaying a bitch which involves GA, surgery etc. Think a spay takes a bit more than 30 seconds.

My vet is a part time zoo vet & regularly implants some of certain animals with contraceptive implants. He doesn't charge £100 per implantation & the animals usually have to be sedated for the implant, which isn't the case with dogs

BTW the shelf life of the implant is 2 years, so the excuse of having to charge for both implants as the other one might be out if day before being used isn't justifiable

Perhaps shopping around would be an idea .

How much. Is that for the 6 or 12 month one. Ok it was a few years ago but I've paid £30 for a 6 month one and £60 for a 12 month one. My vets are expensive but i think they bulk ordered it as they saw how good it was on my boy and i used it for a number of years

I had the 6 month one implanted in my dog 18 weeks ago, it was £130, my vets charge £152 to castrate a dog his size so it's almost the same price! I wanted to try out neutering first though to see if it works for this dog, it didn't for the last one I tried, turns out it's the right thing for this boy so once the implant wears off he will be castrated.

My vet castrates BEFORE the implant wears off, it stops the dog starting to produce testosterone again & is actually a smaller op for the dog(testicles are smaller for starters)to recover from. The incision site is smaller & can be glued rather than stitched.

As the 6 month implant costs around £120 for 2 your vet charged you either for both or £70 for implantation !!

As the testicles basically shrink and disappear whilst the dog is on the implant, I'm not sure if a vet would castrate before it wears off (although have to say I don't know this for sure) - surely it would be a lot harder to find the testicles...??  (As in retained testicles...?)

The implant is about £80 here.  I think that's for a 6 month one.  I haven't heard of giving 2x 6 month implants to equal 12 months before - because there is actually a separate product for 12 months:

This is the 6 month product:  http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/?id=-460770&fromsearch=true#iosfirsthighlight

This is the 12 month product:  http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/?id=-460783&fromsearch=true#iosfirsthighlight

I haven't heard of the product being licensed to be used by way of giving 2x 6 months implants so I'd be a bit suspicious of a vet doing that.  If Virbac, who make it, thought that it was fine to give 2x 6 month implants to get you 12 months, why would they have developed the 12 month product and spend money and investment and research in that??  Besides which, just for the dog's sake and only having to have one injection/implant I'd think the 12 month product would be far better than 2x 6 months....

>I haven't heard of the product being licensed to be used by way of giving 2x 6 months implants so I'd be a bit suspicious of a vet doing that.

Each implant would become active when implanted, so implanted 2 six-month implants together would still only last 6 months, but would be giving a double-dose.

Did I state "you were charged for BOTH implants being implanted" ?? I wrote "you were charged for both implants" ie the vet retained one implant but charged the owner for it.

Also the testicles do not shrink so small that they are miniscule & ergo be possibly taken back into the body. They are still visible & instead of being a biggish incision it is small enough to be glued rather than having stitches.

I was talking to my vet about when to castrate dogs who had had the implant. In his experience since the implant was first licensed in 2007 it is better for the DOG to be castrated whilst the implant is still active. He has probably more experience of the implant than most posters on here & definitely more experience of castrating dogs with the implant in place & active.

By the way the correct name is Suprelorin

Tommee, you might be right about castration timing, I don't know about that - I only know the testicles shrink, as I've seen it(!).

I don't know about the 2 implants versus one... If you compare the two products, the 12 month one has twice the amount of hormone in it as the 6 month one.  Does implanting 2 6 months therefore equal one 12 month? 

All I'd say is that I wouldn't want to do that if it's not how the product was tested in trials or marketed... If you want to use 6 month product to get 12 months protection, you'd have to go back after 6 months and get another implant if you want to use the product as it was tested...

Oh dear you have really misread what I have written again. Nowhere have I suggested the vet implanted 2 implants at the same time. They have either charged their client for both the implants they (the vet)have purchased or have charged way over the odds for the implantation in order to, dare I suggest, maximize their profits & ensure in the very unlikely event that in the 2 years shelf life of the implant they don't use the remaining implant.

No vet should use 2 implants at the same time on the same dog, they are slow release drugs developed to last a minimum amount of time for the 2 types

Thanks for that, looks like it is worth me asking around, I wasn't sure if maybe it had just gone up massively.
I have a rescue GSD who is very anxious and nervous, I don't want to leap straight into a neuter in case it makes him worse, but my gut feeling is that it may help this boy, but obviously a trial would be better than leaping into something irreversible!

:) Thanks all .... I am wondering if my vet is quoting me based on the price for a pack of two ... they are not usually expensive.

I shall get on the phone tomorrow morning :)

Really helpful!

>Also the testicles do not shrink so small that they are miniscule & ergo be possibly taken back into the body.

A significant decrease in testicle size will be seen during the treatment period. In very rare cases (<0.01%) a testicle may be able to ascend the inguinal ring. From the Suprelorin datasheet.

>They are still visible & instead of being a biggish incision it is small enough to be glued rather than having stitches.

Tissue glue, rather than sutures, is commonly used to close a standard castration.

If say 1,000,000 dogs have been given the implant, the likelyhood of the testicles being withdrawn is >0.01%, ergo less than 1,000 dogs.

My vet waits until at least 6 months anniversary( he offers free checks during the period when the implant should be active)before castrating, unless the pwners & he agree to operate early

I will ask him next time he comes to see my stock if he's ever had a case of the testicles shrink to such a size they could be withdrawn back into the body

One of my boys had it prior to castration. We paid £90 for a 6 month implant. Castration is £120 at my practice so on a par.

I'd shop around if possible, £120 seems a lot, it was only last November, 13months ago, I paid this.