cost of medication from vets

1finny said:
Ahh, you should have said it was a ‘fact’ in your first post.
At least it’s clear now

It’s not expensive to get to France by the way - sounds like you have a solution
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What utter b***ks that is and you know it

Your original condescending post told people to go away and do the research and when presented with actual information you come back with this. Laughable.

People are actually taking their pets abroad for some procedures. In France operations cost approx 3x less. Must not pay their vets there, do they? But not really an option to save £50 is it?

Difference is their vets aren't largely hoovered uk by chains which will increase prices for consumers and continue rising costs for insurance

www.gov.uk

Takeover of eight vet businesses could increase costs for animal owners

CMA initial investigations into IVC’s purchase of eight independent vet businesses find competition concerns
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

Colin Raftery, Senior Director of Mergers, at the CMA, said:

The CMA continues to receive complaints about higher prices or lower quality services as a result of too many vets’ practices in the same area being under the control of a single company.
As a small number of large players continue to buy up independent practices and chains across the UK, we’re continuing to closely monitor their activities so that we can take action to ensure that customers in areas where vets are acquired aren’t left facing a lack of competition.
As living costs continue to rise and budgets are stretched even further, it’s particularly important that households across the UK shouldn’t be paying over the odds to get the right quality of treatment for their pets.
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Notes to editors:​

  1. Recent reports indicate that there are 17 million pet-owning homes across the UK, with consumer expenditure on vets and other services for pets in the UK estimated to be around £4 billion between July 2020 and June 2021. In recent years, the ownership of vets’ practices across the UK has changed, with many practices being acquired by a small number of corporate groups, such as IVC. While independent veterinary practices accounted for 89% of the UK industry in 2013, this share had fallen to less than half (45%) by 2021, primarily as a result of independent practices being bought by corporate groups.
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So independent ownership has fallen 44% in 10 years and will continue to do so. Conglomerates owning vets will drive prices down and stagnate any wage growth and competition between practices because they're all owned by the same company or similar companies, usually Independent Vetcare or cvs.


But it's alright isn't it. Not a rip off at all and we can just all pay hundreds extra a year in pet insurance and that will also keep rising far beyond inflation.
 
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ThatFragranceGuy said:
What utter b***ks that is and you know it

Your original condescending post told people to go away and do the research and when presented with actual information you come back with this. Laughable.

People are actually taking their pets abroad for some procedures. In France operations cost approx 3x less. Must not pay their vets there, do they? But not really an option to save £50 is it?

Difference is their vets aren't largely hoovered uk by chains which will increase prices for consumers and continue rising costs for insurance

www.gov.uk

Takeover of eight vet businesses could increase costs for animal owners

CMA initial investigations into IVC’s purchase of eight independent vet businesses find competition concerns
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk





So independent ownership has fallen 44% in 10 years and will continue to do so. Conglomerates owning vets will drive prices down and stagnate any wage growth and competition between practices because they're all owned by the same company or similar companies, usually Independent Vetcare or cvs.


But it's alright isn't it. Not a rip off at all and we can just all pay hundreds extra a year in pet insurance and that will also keep rising far beyond inflation.
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There is tons in that to unpick - costs in France v costs in UK., availability of vets in France v UK. It all leads to a reaction in the market place. But, as you say it’s a fact that UK vets are a rip off.

As for my post being condescending - all I did was put a set of words together. You interpreted it.

It’s straight forward for you tho isn’t it?
If its a rip off - don’t use it.
 
1finny said:
There is tons in that to unpick - costs in France v costs in UK., availability of vets in France v UK. It all leads to a reaction in the market place. But, as you say it’s a fact that UK vets are a rip off.

As for my post being condescending - all I did was put a set of words together. You interpreted it.

It’s straight forward for you tho isn’t it?
If its a rip off - don’t use it.
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Again quality advice 1finny, not only should people take a 350-400 mile journey to France to save £50, they can just "not use it". Brilliant. Perhaps how you can explain how it isn't expensive to travel that distance with a sick animal? I mean obviously you can't, you're just being a d*ck about it.

You told people to do their research yet had clear not done any of your own as you spouted b***ks about rising vet wages, we have some of the lowest vet salaries in the uk, yet the most expensive care.

The reason our costs are higher are as stated in my post, i.e being ripped off.
 
Bridge vet in boro was a private company and quick follow up checks were free. Charges were lower as well. They've been taken over by a national company and prices have shot up. Not open on a weekend and stockton branch closed
 
Craggyjohn said:
Bridge vet in boro was a private company and quick follow up checks were free. Charges were lower as well. They've been taken over by a national company and prices have shot up. Not open on a weekend and stockton branch closed
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Yep they are cvs. Stokesly vets are IVC and so are some other local ones like Copelands

Used to like bridge back in the day, the Stockton branch was walking distance too of my old house
 
My dog is 14 years old and has just been diagnosed with a condition that requires tablets for the foreseeable future and probably for the rest of her life. The tablets via the vets cost £155 per packet (40 tablets) and she needs 2 a day.
I had originally asked for a prescription from the vets for £20 to source my own tablets and allowed for 3 repeat requests for the tablets. I can get them for £98 per packet online. However the vet told me that they would fill out the insurance forms every two packets without any need for me to do anything other than to pay up front each time.
So after paying the first instalment of £150 excess on the first insurance claim I now get paid £310 every 40 days minus a 10% surcharge of £31 = £279. This means the Vet's get the fully £155 every time i order a pack of tablets for 20 days at £57 higher than the tablets cost online. That is a decent profit on top of the profit the online firms are making.
Not a bad job to be in and at least I do not have to do any paperwork which is what the vets want so they can make more money.
 
ThatFragranceGuy said:
Again quality advice 1finny, not only should people take a 350-400 mile journey to France to save £50, they can just "not use it". Brilliant. Perhaps how you can explain how it isn't expensive to travel that distance with a sick animal? I mean obviously you can't, you're just being a d*ck about it.

You told people to do their research yet had clear not done any of your own as you spouted b***ks about rising vet wages, we have some of the lowest vet salaries in the uk, yet the most expensive care.

The reason our costs are higher are as stated in my post, i.e being ripped off.
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You may well have a point - I’ve no idea.
You made a huge claim that Vets in the UK are a rip off - I think that’s worthy of a challenge and you are right - I did d*ck about a bit after that and I owe you an apology.

We had similar claims recently with Supermarkets (big business ripping off customers etc). It was investigated (quite rightly by the CMA) who came back and said - ‘you know what, they are really competitive and, in general, it’s good for the consumer. Evidence quoted was declining operating profit (despite higher retails driven by inflation) and low net margin (circa 2-3%).

I worked in the Vet industry and was responsible for a buy and build strategy - buying up independents to deliver economies of scale (even bought the one in Middlesbrough ‘Bridge’).
Overall bought, on behalf of the busines, around 50 or so, in my time there And integrated them into the business.

What was fascinating, amongst other things was the wide variation in care, standards and pricing. I saw proper rip off merchants and those who were so kind to their customers with pricing and procedures that they were on their knees.
We standardised training, recruitment and pricing - leaving the vets to deliver care. Some practices faced increasing their prices whilst others drooped. Those that increased were done over time and to coincide with investment in equipment and colleagues,

It‘s some years since I’ve been in the business and, from memory net profit was around 8% at the time. Must admit that didn‘t sound excessive at the time but it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise to find that some have taken advantage over the last few years - inflation, more pet ownership….. make hay when the sun shines and all that.

I guess I reacted to the generalisation and the inference that ‘independent is good/large business is bad). I think there is enough evidence that it isn’t is simple as that.

Sorry for the long response and hope things work with your dog.
 
So I work in a vets and am s8ick to death about hearing that prices are a rip off. No they aren't. Yes you can buy them cheaper online if you ask your vet for a written prescription. You know why....cos you're not paying the extra costs of dispensing and delivery and petrol and drivers wages and numerous other things the middle man charge...plus the vet does need to make some profit too to keep their businesses viable.
And consultation charges....you' re taking up time and the expertise of a professional. Un fortunately there's no NHS for animals but that's not the vet industries fault...the amount of abuse we get on a daily basis is ridiculous. Vets currently have the highest suicide rate in the country and many are short staffed too because of it. We recently had to ring the police about 1 client
 
Ayresome said:
My dog is 14 years old and has just been diagnosed with a condition that requires tablets for the foreseeable future and probably for the rest of her life. The tablets via the vets cost £155 per packet (40 tablets) and she needs 2 a day.
I had originally asked for a prescription from the vets for £20 to source my own tablets and allowed for 3 repeat requests for the tablets. I can get them for £98 per packet online. However the vet told me that they would fill out the insurance forms every two packets without any need for me to do anything other than to pay up front each time.
So after paying the first instalment of £150 excess on the first insurance claim I now get paid £310 every 40 days minus a 10% surcharge of £31 = £279. This means the Vet's get the fully £155 every time i order a pack of tablets for 20 days at £57 higher than the tablets cost online. That is a decent profit on top of the profit the online firms are making.
Not a bad job to be in and at least I do not have to do any paperwork which is what the vets want so they can make more money.
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The £31 surcharge does not go to the vet. When they put the claim in that surcharge is not claimed.If everyone with vet insurance checks their policy correctly every one has a clause in that says when their animal gets to a certain age then they have to start paying a co-payment for all claims...normally in the 10-20% bracket
 
It’s also worth checking the ingredients, often it’s exactly the same as a human treatment but just the child dosage, saved myself a fortune on eye drops with a previous dog, dog version was about £35 a bottle, human version of exactly the same stuff was £6 just told the chemist my wife had conjunctivitis each take and can I have a bottle of whatever it was and they always handed it over.

Edit - theirs not always an option for everything and make sure you double check doses.
 
1finny said:
That’s quite judgemental to call it a rip off - how do you get to that conclusion?
It’s not about what you can afford

Vets and the nurses are highly trained - more so than an NHS doctor.
`Their equipment is expensive and drug prices have risen.
Their wages will have risen - there is a shortage.
All their costs, like yours and mine have gone up

Now, as in all sectors there will be those who are more expensive than others - do the research

Have you seen the price of a consultation with a Doctor in private practice?
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however much you try to justify them charging what they charge,they are still bandits!!!!!
 
1finny said:
You may well have a point - I’ve no idea.
You made a huge claim that Vets in the UK are a rip off - I think that’s worthy of a challenge and you are right - I did d*ck about a bit after that and I owe you an apology.

We had similar claims recently with Supermarkets (big business ripping off customers etc). It was investigated (quite rightly by the CMA) who came back and said - ‘you know what, they are really competitive and, in general, it’s good for the consumer. Evidence quoted was declining operating profit (despite higher retails driven by inflation) and low net margin (circa 2-3%).

I worked in the Vet industry and was responsible for a buy and build strategy - buying up independents to deliver economies of scale (even bought the one in Middlesbrough ‘Bridge’).
Overall bought, on behalf of the busines, around 50 or so, in my time there And integrated them into the business.

What was fascinating, amongst other things was the wide variation in care, standards and pricing. I saw proper rip off merchants and those who were so kind to their customers with pricing and procedures that they were on their knees.
We standardised training, recruitment and pricing - leaving the vets to deliver care. Some practices faced increasing their prices whilst others drooped. Those that increased were done over time and to coincide with investment in equipment and colleagues,

It‘s some years since I’ve been in the business and, from memory net profit was around 8% at the time. Must admit that didn‘t sound excessive at the time but it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise to find that some have taken advantage over the last few years - inflation, more pet ownership….. make hay when the sun shines and all that.

I guess I reacted to the generalisation and the inference that ‘independent is good/large business is bad). I think there is enough evidence that it isn’t is simple as that.

Sorry for the long response and hope things work with your dog.
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ah now i realise why you defend their prices!!!!
 
GazBoro said:
My dog had a skin infection. Took him to the vets two weeks ago and they prescribed antibiotics and a special shampoo to use on him daily for two weeks. The bill was around £80. Fair enough. On leaving I was asked to bring him back in two weeks time to see if it had worked. Thankfully it had. So I took him in yesterday as asked, was in there literally 3 minutes, vet took a quick look at him and said he's fine now, no need for any more antibiotics and I can use the shampoo once a week. They charged me a further £50 for that 3 minute 'consultation'. Even the receptionist shook her head in shock and looked guilty as sin as I paid, and people waiting to be seen with their pets said it was a disgrace.

If that's not the definition of a rip off, I don't know what is. Thankfully I have my dog insured so I'll be able to claim some of it back off the insurance company, but that's not really the point. Charging £50 for a 3 minute chat when they'd already took £80 off me for the actual appointment is a disgrace.
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So the vet prescribed you antibiotics and a special shampoo that they weren’t sure would work and charged you £80 for it. Then they found out it worked by charging you £50 to ‘come back to see if it worked?’. At least they’ll know it works next time they prescribe it. I’d have told him to prescribe something they know will work so I don’t have to come back and get fleeced again. 😄
 
Legz said:
So I work in a vets and am s8ick to death about hearing that prices are a rip off. No they aren't. Yes you can buy them cheaper online if you ask your vet for a written prescription. You know why....cos you're not paying the extra costs of dispensing and delivery and petrol and drivers wages and numerous other things the middle man charge...plus the vet does need to make some profit too to keep their businesses viable.
And consultation charges....you' re taking up time and the expertise of a professional. Un fortunately there's no NHS for animals but that's not the vet industries fault...the amount of abuse we get on a daily basis is ridiculous. Vets currently have the highest suicide rate in the country and many are short staffed too because of it. We recently had to ring the police about 1 client
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Asking someone to come back in to "see if it worked" for a £50+ consult is a joke. My vet does this all the time and while I trust their expertise in a consult, I can tell by looking 99% of the time if something has worked or not, I don't need to pay another consult to be told "that's great, thanks for dropping in!", so I always say I will call up and make another appointment if it's needed.

No one is complaining that consultation fees exist but rebooking you to come in for treatment or to have a chat and see how they're doing is milking it.

Many of the drugs we have been given are held in stock also just like the online firms. No one is making special orders there. Vets aren't paying drivers wages, and if they are they're barmy - they'll just arrange for delivery. Many are owned by massive parent firms so have access to huge joint buying power.

Looking at my vets online portal now, 40 pouches of purina renal NF £49.99, available online £32. That online store obviously has a profit margin so you can't honestly tell me charging £18 more for the same product isn't profiteering - they're literally relying on people being lazy and just ordering it at the vets

Do drugs teleport to the online providers depot and then teleport to our postbox? Online providers have the same cost. It still needs to be dispensed, prescription checked, delivered etc. vets don't make "some profit", they make a ton of it.

Sad that vet suicide is high (it's certainly not the highest in the country however) but that isn't going to make me want to subsidise their industry any more than they have to. No one should have to deal with abuse at work, and no one should pay inflated fees for something that can be purchased online for far less.
 
I work in the veterinary industry on the pharmaceutical side and can indeed confirm that vets take the absolute pi55 with their prices.
 
In case there was any doubt, the firm that owns my vets made a billion in profit out of 2.84 billion in revenue last year.

The documents described the company’s main investors were said to be “excited” by the opportunities offered through the plan.

They continued: “The veterinary industry continues to be a very attractive market with long-term growth tailwinds, including humanisation of pets, increasing willingness to spend and recession resiliency.”
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