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Vets Bills Rising But Owners Can Reduce The Cost Of Pet Care

Pet Drugs Online (08/07/2010 17:44:47)

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Over the past year, 56% of vets say they have had to put down cats and dogs because their owners could not afford the cost of treating their conditions.  Pet Drugs Online, a licensed supplier of both prescription and non-prescription veterinary medicines, is using National Pet Month (3 April to 3 May) to inform pet owners throughout the UK cheaper treatments for their animals are available.  The company has linked up with TV vet Marc Abraham to highlight the importance of correctly caring for pets. 

The UK is a nation of animal lovers, with almost half of households owning a pet; accounting for around 23 million animals in the UK.  With vets bills rising by around 12% a year, research reveals vets are becoming concerned over the number of pets being put down and the number of recommended treatments being rejected for solely financial reasons. 

Marc Abraham says: "Recent advances in veterinary diagnostics, brand new medicines available to pets, and increased pet life-expectancies have meant that potential vet bills have risen rapidly in the last few years. Furthermore, we have owners who are better informed due to TV programmes and the Internet, and are increasingly requesting the latest treatments and cures for their pets. The current economic downturn has further highlighted the cost of veterinary care as a worry for pet owners and, as a result, vets are concerned with owner-affordability coupled with their pets receiving the best care, welfare and treatment options available to them. Unlike with human healthcare there is no government funding for petcare." 

Paul Smith, from Pet Drugs Online, says: "Vet visits are a must with any pet but many owners don't realise that their vet can also provide prescriptions for some pet medications, which can then be purchased outside their veterinary surgery, often at a much cheaper cost. These medications cover worming and flea treatments, as well as long-term prescriptions. Veterinary pharmacies, which supply medicines to pet owners, can offer substantial savings as they have lower overheads and can pass these savings back to owners, sometimes with as much as 50% reduction in costs.  One thing people need to check is that they are using a credible UK based pharmacy that sells drugs licensed for the UK."    

Pet Drugs Online is run by a team of veterinary surgeons with over 30 years experience. Pet Drugs Online provides support and advice for pet owners, as well as supplying competitively priced products.  People can get advice and information on the range of product available by logging on to www.petdrugsonline.co.uk

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Which Flea and Worm Treatments do you use?

Pet Drugs Online (11/11/2009 17:49:23)

There are so many Flea and Worm products availiable on the market, it can be very confusing to decide on the best products to use. It is important to treat your animal reguarly for both parasites as fleas can take over the house very quickly if not properly controlled. An adult flea will lay up to 50 eggs a day and the life cycle can be as short as 3 weeks! Fleas can cause a nasty skin reaction on both your pet and on humans. Worms present a significant health risk to your pet and tapeworms can also carry flea larvae. Worms also cause problems for children and farm animals if ingested.

It is advisable to treat your adult pet for worms at least every 3 months.

The most popular products on the market are Frontline Spot On Flea and Tick Treatment and Drontal Worming Tablets. These products do not require a prescription and can be ordered as required. We sell them in handy packs so you get the exact amount your pet requires to last 6 or 12 months. There are also many other products on the market, some which require a prescription.

Please leave a comment to say which products you have used in the past and the results you have had with them.

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Prescription charges update

Martin (15/07/2009 15:10:31)

The cost of providing a prescription is due to be reviewed again this year and it may be that vets can start charging again for them. It would seem perfectly fair in most vets minds that their time and costs should be chargeable to clients of the practice. As a vet myself I feel we do take time to look through records and then print out prescription details on the computer. The charges can be low and cover the costs involved and I would be happy to see a limit on charges in the region of £5. The savings provided by PDOL far outway any nominal fee and it may make vets throughout the country happier to provide prescriptions.

As an update, I have not seen any real changes in the charging of vets fees over the last year. This means anybody utilising the services of PDOL are still getting low fees supported by higher drug charges paid by clients buying directly from their vets. Keep on winning and I am sure change will continue to be slow

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The changing face of veterinary medicine

Martin (06/01/2007 15:15:58)

The current veterinary climate is changing just like any business. How will this effect the client and the vet?

Recent changes in the law have opened up the competition in the veterinary world. Vets no longer have a monopoly over the sale of medicine to their clients so you can now shop around for your pet medicine. Add in to this the internet and we have more choice than we ever could have dreamed just 20yrs ago.

The benefits to the owners of pets who need long term medication are enormous. However, if the vets have the same overheads, what will happen to the veterinary industry? Luckily for the consumer vets are slow to change and the consultation and operating fees will not become realistic in the near future. The world of veterinary medicine will eventually catch up, especially with the present corporate climate evolving, and you can guarantee that the fee structure will change.

My advice is make the most of the current confusion and see your vet for their advice but buy from us because we will beat all their prices!

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The drooling cat!

Martin (12/01/2007 18:06:53)

It is not unusual for cats to have mouth problems especially when they are getting older.
One such cat was presented to me last week with pawing at his mouth and drooling. The commonest problems we see are chronic gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) or bad teeth. This particular cat has a lump underneath his tongue which was erosive and infected. As you can imagine this was causing difficulty in swallowing and needed investigating.

The lump was biopsied and a diagnosis of squamous carcinoma was made which unfortunately is an aggressive tumour and the outcome is poor. It was decided to try to debulk this tumour and surgery to remove all the present lesion went well. The long term expectations are for the tumour to return although we hope to have given the cat an extension to its life and hopefully this will be of a good quality.

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