Anyone know where i could buy galastop without a prescription?

Could be wrong, but I don't think you can.

You can't - its a POM-V which means it can only be prescribed by vets. Why would anyone want it without prescription anyway?

To reduce the cost thats all

Prescription medicines require a professional to assess whether it is appropriate and safe to give to an individual at any particular time.  You would not be able to do that yourself and if you did so inappropriately you could find yourself with much greater costs sorting the error.

i appreciate that, it has been diagnosed by a professional

Why can't you get a prescription then?  Vets are now obliged to give you one, at a fee of course :)

A fee yes, but not a prescription fee. They dress it up so they get the money but don't fall foul of the new rules.

Dawn R.

Exactly, you will get your prescription for considerably less than you would pay a doctor for a private prescription :)

The private Dr`s I`ve seen always give you the prescription to take with you, usually lasts a year if its for a long term condition. You put it in the chemist & go back when you need the meds :)

Yes, you can have that arrangement in the UK, depending on how often the condition or drug needs reviewing of course, but you would still pay for the prescription itself.

And you can also buy a multi-payment chitty if you need lots of repeat prescriptions, can't you? Costs about £80 or something.

That's for NHS scripts JG, I think.  Not sure if anything like that is available for private prescriptions so you will be paying the actual cost of the drug.  Sometimes more, sometimes less than the NHS prescription charge by the way :)

Ah, that'll be it. I don't know much about private medicine, I'm afraid - a bit out of my league!

No don`t know about a chitty. You pay your fee to see the Dr but don`t pay extra for the prescription. The chemist will give it you back with the meds so you can go to another one next time if you want or you say no keep it there

I have been charged for holiday meds in the past or would have been if my GP chum had not done it for me :)  Although he works for the NHS he also charges for prescriptions for anything outside the NHS such as holiday meds, fertility drugs, viagra , etc.  This is perfectly normal practice and is remuneration for his professional services in determining the most appropriate drug, dosage etc. I would not work for free and certainly not if I had worked for professional qualifications.
The arrangement with the chemist is totally seperate and I think you could make the same in the UK.

I don`t see any body has mentioned working for free, thats not been suggested at all.

If I got to see the Dr privately I pay for the consultation & the diagnosis. We don`t pay extrafor the prescription :)

Tho In all fairness I do think there is more of a private Dr`s market over here & I don`t think people would be inpressed if they were then charged for the prescription on top of the consultation fee

Getting back to vets charges, the thing that bugs me, is that the same vet didn't and doesn't charge a fee (prescription, call it what you like) when the medication is being dispensed by them. They only add on the spurious charge if you want your script in your hand, and what's more the BVA tells them that's OK, as long as they call it something else and not a prescription charge.

I don't know whether a prescription provided at a private medical consultation attracts a separate fee, but I will ask some of the Physicians and Surgeons at work, some of them do private work.

Dawn R.

When the regulations were changed I remember reading that drug dispensing, typically, made up about 20% of a vet practices income.  Obviously, if some of this is to be lost, you can make up that short fall by either charging for the prescription itself or spread the loss over all the other revenue takings such as everybody elses consultation fees even those continuing to use the vet's own dispensing services.  I know which one I think is fairer :)
I don't think the charge is spurious at all.  They do the work in researching the most appropriate drug to treat, calculate the dosage and determine an appropriate course.  The fact we used to get that included in our consultation and diagnosis when we were purchasing the drugs from the vet does not make it our due when we don't in my opinion.

My own personal opinion here is that I wouldnt mind paying for the drug off my vet, even if a little bit pricer than on a scrip. They have to hold stocks of these drugs, or order them in, which costs them. If a prescribed drug was vastly higher than at the vets, elsewhere, I'd be cheaky and show the vet how much I could pay, and see if they could make it a bit closer, you don't know till you ask and they know I would be cheaky enough to do that :) so I wouldnt be insulting them. If it was a wide difference, then i'd ask for a scrip, or at least the price of one, and see if it worked out much cheaper that way allowing for postage etc. Thing is, if it was a long term treatment, with maybe side effects and another drug would maybe be better, i would want that close liason with my vet, and I feel that the relationship between me and them includes me having my meds from them. I very much doubt I would go elsewhere. Its that trust/relationship thing you build up with a vet. if I thought I was being ripped off, I wouldnt go there anyway :D ;)

I wouldn't dream of shopping around for relatively short term medicine prescribed by the vet but I think it can be different with long term, ie lifelong medication.  My older boy is on Vivitonin 100 which is quite an expensive drug.  The vet was prescribing three weeks worth each time at a cost of around £35.  I found out I could get it from Vet Medic around £7 cheaper and obviously that kind of saving every three weeks adds up.  I did explain this to my vet when asking for a prescription and she immediately offered to try to match it, although I hadn't made any suggestion that they should.  After consulting with the head vet, she rang me to say they would supply at the same price provided I supplied written proof of the lower price, which I did.

Now certainly it could be argued that my gain is someone else's loss but isn't that true in all businesses, for example with double glazing, it is the people who don't try to negotiate and pay the original full price who subsidise those who fight to get the lower prices.

In the interests of animals welfare, which I thing most vets are concerned with, I think it only right that they should help people out when faced with long term high costs.  For the same reasons, as another client I would not have any objection to those costs being spread, it could be any of us in the same position.  Like you say though, just for the bargain hunters, I would not feel the same :)

My own personal opinion here is that I wouldnt mind paying for the drug off my vet, even if a little bit pricer than on a scrip. They have to hold stocks of these drugs, or order them in, which costs them.

I have to say I find it VERY handy to be able to visit the vet and come home with all I need in one go. This week I saw the vet with 3 dogs and 2 kittens and came home with kitten milk, syringes to bottle feed with, a referall form for something, heart medication, eye ointment and antibiotics. Had I still lived in Sweden I would have had to visit the chemist after the vet which would have meant more time spent -there you always get a prescription for everything.

Sure can JG, makes it a lot better if you have to have regular meds long term

Ok, done it again...:D...reply to JG re scrip year charge from Dr :D

I completely agree with Annie, I don't make waves for the cost of my dogs treatment. I have one that needs Soloxine, and it only costs £4.50 a month, so I'm lucky. However a friend of mine has a bitch that needs Vetoryl and it's costing her over £50.00 a month, now she could get it for £35.00 on the net, but her vet won't write a perscription without a consultation if she want's to take her prescription elsewhere. Fair do's you might say, but every month is just stupid. No insurance, so she's up the creek without a paddle.

Dawn R.

Is that not a medication that would require regular monitoring though?

That's why certain medicines are POMs and others not. The ones that are safe for a layman to monitor are available over the counter - the ones that could cause more serious problems aren't.

Actually I'm not sure that is true JG as I can't get Vivitonin without a prescription and that is supposed to be a very safe drug.  My dog has been on it since late last year and the vets are happy to keep supplying it without my dog being monitored by them.

Perhaps they are happy with your competence to report any changes or perhaps this is a drug less needfull of more clinical monitoring once correct dose has been established which may not be the case with the other drugs being mentioned. 

That may be so Isabel, I was just commenting on JG's post that "The ones that are safe for a layman to monitor are available over the counter".  The correct dose is based purely on the weight of the animal.

However some of the adverse side-effects of many treatments can be very subtle at the outset, but can cause problems if not checked. It needs a trained eye (and if we're honest, the 'average' dog owner would be hard-pressed to tell if their pet was dying :rolleyes: ) to prevent further problems.

Ooo, think you're being a bit hard on the average dog owner there JG , must be that job at the vet turning you so cynical! :) 

I did check on possible side effects with Vivitonin and amazingly there didn't seem to be any - has to be a placebo then :D :D

Certainly working at the vet's has opened my eyes to the 'average' dog owner - the ones who think that when a dog has worms it's because they're garden earthworms that it's been eating, not parasites .... the mind boggles.

Vivitonin, I gather, works by increasing the oxygen to the brain by dilating the blood vessels. This can sometimes cause bleeding elsewhere, so needs monitoring. Side-effects of the chemical (Propentofylline) include nausea, dizziness, gastro-intestinal pain and headache.

I think all animals on a regular prescription need to be seen by the vet every 6 months (for some as long as a year) for the medication to be legally continued.

Well he has certainly been on it for more than six months JG and nothing has been said yet. :)

Every month I don't believe for one moment the vet would want to see the dog every month if he was dispensing the drug. It would just be a case of ordering it a few days before, and a vet check once every three months. Just like I have to with mine on Soloxine. Both of the drugs I mentioned are POM-V.

Dawn R.

Does the £50 include the vet's consultation fee Dawn and did the monthly checks only start when your friend asked about getting a prescription?

I'm not a vet nor do I know the dogs general condition but I don't think we can compare it to other drugs or any other individuals.  It is a POM medicine which means it is given under vet supervision how often he regards it necessary to supervise would take his qualifications to know.