Hi everyone, I wondered what you all think to a little arguement I am having at the moment with my vet.
I breed cats as well as dogs, and when we sell a cat we have to have them vaccinated.  This is the G.C.C.F rules.  The GCCF is the equivelant to the Kennel Club.  To vaccinate a cat against cat flu, enteritis and herpes costs £36-00 at my vets per cat.  So I contacted an online vet company who sells vaccines and they are happy to sell me 10 doses for £54-00 so I would say double that up for the full course of £108.  This product is the same that my vet sells me.  So it would cost £108 for the vaccines, then the vet can charge what he likes to administer the vaccines.  So I asked my vet if he would give me a prescription for the vaccines, and the answer seems to be NO.  They have skirted around for 4 days now and wont give me a reply and I have called every day.  This really infuriates me, as all I Want is a yes or no answer.  Also I can see that they want to make money out of vaccinating animals, fair enough. But when breeders go to the vets and spend thousands of pounds a year on animal care, why do they still treat us as if we should not even ask for a prescription.  The latest thing I have been told is they are looking into the law on if they should give us one or not.  Am I the first person to of asked for a prescription ?

So my question is to everyone...does anyone else get prescriptions for on going medical treatments from their vets ?

The law changed last year to say vets could not charge for prescriptions, to allow us to go elsewhere to buy products.

But when our vets do not want to help, we are stuck.

In the end I will pay £324 for my kits, and I will just have to do that, but its such a shame to feel ripped off.
Rachel

Hi Rachel
Can't you simply locate a cheaper vet? I breed cats too, and my normal vet (who otherwise is superb) charges similar prices to yours for vaccinations. So I go elsewhere for all vacciantions. (ONLY vaccs.) I pay just £15 for the full kitten course (same for puppies) and for cats a booster is £8.50 and for dogs £10.50. It's an hour's drive but well worth it. I know many breeders that do the same. Usually if you ring around enough practices you eventually find one that is cheaper.

Have no idea where the law stands as far as writing a prescription for vaccines goes, but my GUESS would be it would not be allowed as after all the law says in the UK you cannot do the vaccinations yourself, so have to use your vet -and if he did write a prescription  he presumably cannot be certain that you don't do any yourself. Ongoing medication is a different thing as there is nothing to say you cannot give your animals tablets yourself.

Hi
I would never do it myself, because I feel I may do it wrong. I did not know there was a law to say you could not do it yourself anyway.  I dont think I could do that anyway, I am pretty good with first aid stuff, but I would not want to administer a vaccine myself. It could be a bit dangerous really if it got onto the skin etc. No, I will leave that for the experts.
I am amazed you get your vaccinations at £15.  The cheapest I found was £27.  It makes me seem tight writing this down moaning. But I just feel so ripped off the whole time by my vet.  I will try a couple more vets. The problem also we have in our area, is if the vet thinks you are going somewhere else their is an unwritten code aparantely and they then refuse your dog or cat treatement.  My vet told me this. So I was like "Oh", I am stuck then.  What cats do you breed ?
Do you find your cats get a bit sickly after vaccines ? I know several cat breeders (Siamese) now and they all say the same thing, after vaccinations they go down poorly.
Well I shall give another vet a call and see how I go.  Thanks for your reply its been quite helpful.  I realise now that other vets will charge less. I just have to locate one.
Rachel

I don't know if it is true but I always thought lay people were not alowed to vaccinate in the UK.  I know in the US and maybe also in Ireland that breeders buy vaccines and vaccinate their own dogs.

Well I have located a cheaper vet now. Not too far to travel which will save £16.30 each kitten.  I was like WOW! thats a huge difference.  So I shall book the lot in with this other vets.

Actually dont quote me on this, but i think i read somewhere that you can treat your own dog but you must not treat someone elses as its against the law.  Someone that has a working dog near me said to me once he could sew his own dog up, but not touch someone elses or that was against the law.  Same thing.

I don't think stitching up a wound is anything like the same thing as giving a vaccine.  To give a vaccine you have to be competent to assess the animals health and competent to deal with an allergic reaction not to mention having appropriate medications to deal with such an emergency to hand.  I am sure it is not allowed in the UK.

Great news you found a cheaper place Silverdog! :) I know so many breeders that go elsewhere for vaccinations. I know with my vet he isn't exactly HAPPY about it, but we don't TALK about it either (and it is my right to use whichever vet I choose) -it's just a sort of quiet understanding.  He understands I MUST go elsewhere as I never bring animals for vaccinations (yet if ever asked about an animal's status I always tell him they're up to date with vaccinations), but as I bring everything else to him , he's happy enough. The other practice are used to breeders coming to them for vaccs, no doubt due to their prices, and again they don't mind. I never told my vet I was intending to go elsewhere, I just did it. :)

I breed Persians & Exotics. :)

Im pretty sure that for vaccinations the animal has to have been given a full check over by a vet within a given period. The only way I have known for people to inject animals at home is the case of diabetics or for antibiotic jabs where the owner is in human healthcare and knows what they are doing to a degree - show them first of course! I thought the prescriptions apply mainly to pom-v catagory drugs....rimadyl, synulox, prednisalone etc etc?!

I think for a kitten 1st vaccine we charge about £38 with the vetand that covers for flu/eneritis and felv + full health check. For breeders we do discounts of 10-20% depending on numbers.
kitten 2nd vaccine we charge about £28 - done with the nurse and covers for flu/ent + felv. I must admit most of the cost is made up of dispensing charges and vat so understand how frustrating it is to pay the high costs.

Think the cost does vary greatly on the area you live in and they type of vets in the area.

Sue

its illegal in uk to vaccinate yourself- in US you can buy vaccine off internet and administer them yourself very cheaply.
but you could do some damage if you inject incorrectly- ie, if you inject into muscle instead of subcutaneously!

i have been looking round at prices for my 6 pups because i want them fully covered before they leave here some vets wanted to charge me neary £60 per pup and were not willing to give a discount on doing all 6 at once i found a vet about 45 mins drive away who will do both injections for all 6 pups for just under £200 and they were quiet happy for me to go in 4 weeks ago and start paying it off so all the money will be there when they are ready to have them done they even suggested if i wanted to i could pay half for the first injection and the rest when they go back for the second they have been more than helpfull and the reception staff cant not wait to see my babys in future i will be taking my girl there because they have also offered a free check up for her when the pups have their first injection done its nice to find a vets that actually seam to really care about the animals they look after

Hi Goldmali
Its nice to talk to someone with a cat interest as well as dogs :-)
I have 9 Siamese babies at the moment.  Everyone just melts when
they come into the house and see these little ones on the radiators.
The dogs look at them and ignore them. My younger dog is only interested
when I put the cat meat down. Then he springs into action other wise he leaves them alone.

£60 per puppy seems a lot of money to me.  Glad you found someone cheaper and you are happy with their care.

If a puppy had a vaccine reaction, would the vet admit to it ?  From what I am told by other breeders vets wont ever admit to a reaction. They seem to skirt around the situation, saying its this or that.
Lets face some facts. We need to have vaccines.  But at what cost ?  Are animals becoming sicker because of over vaccinating ?  I spoke to this lady in the surgery last year, she had two yorkies, with kidney failure.  She was chatting away, and said they have just come for their yearly injections. I made a fuss of her dogs and just listened.  She then went onto say, I dread coming and having this done, I asked why. She then replied that after wards they were sick and their kidneys seem to go down hill. The vet is also treating them for kidney damage. I just sat there and thought, this seems strange that after every vaccine the dogs are sick.  I asked when it started and she said when they were babies.  I asked how old they were and she said 6.  I thought hmm. maybe just maybe its the vaccines. But who knows.