Drug Price Tracker

[stablegirl]

Thought this could be a useful thread if allowed.

We pay the vets for their time, and should get the drugs at roughly internet prices.

So il start us off....

Injectables

Naxcel 100ml £108
Norodine 100ml £13
Combiclav 100ml £29
Metacam 100ml £85
Marbocyl 100ml £93

Tubes

Tetradelta £63

Fertility Drugs

Prellim 2ml £4.37
Veterlin 10ml £14.90

 

[mo!]

Our vet's drugs are price matched to Farmacy. I've only looked up Loxicom (Metacam) but it is a tenner cheaper. You will of course need a prescription, which will cost say, a tenner...?

 

[Chips]

Our vet's drugs are price matched to Farmacy. I've only looked up Loxicom (Metacam) but it is a tenner cheaper. You will of course need a prescription, which will cost say, a tenner...?

Ha , if only we could sell milk on prescription only , sorry Mr Tesco , I know my milk is 10p/litre more than the Irish , and you are most welcome to have a prescription off me to go and buy it from them , I wouldn't want to stifle competition or anything , so here you go that will be 11p/litre for my time writing it though and remember you will need another prescription every time you want another load

 

[Milkcow365]

I'm £108 for recocam and that's meant to be cheaper than metacam

 

[vantage]

Nothing exciting here this month,Engemycin aerosol£5.73,Bovilis bvd,£2.02 /dose.

 

[Princess Pooper]

We are in a buying group and our vet charges cost + 10% for drugs. Let's just say that on the few products listed above that we have bought, we are between 10 and 30% cheaper. However, vets have to make their money somehow so a drug comparison without a fee comparison is pretty meaningless. And of course the satisfaction you feel (or not) for the fees charged is more about the quality of advice/service that you receive than the actual amount of money, so it all becomes a bit meaningless.

 

[vantage]

We are in a buying group and our vet charges cost + 10% for drugs. Let's just say that on the few products listed above that we have bought, we are between 10 and 30% cheaper. However, vets have to make their money somehow so a drug comparison without a fee comparison is pretty meaningless. And of course the satisfaction you feel (or not) for the fees charged is more about the quality of advice/service that you receive than the actual amount of money, so it all becomes a bit meaningless.

Knowing the price of every thing and the value of nothing?!!!!!!

 

[stablegirl]

Bovillis £2.02/Dose is very reasonable.

Princess Pooper we pay £130/hr for time with no call out but a minimum, time charge of 20 mins per visit.

 

[Princess Pooper]

We are slightly cheaper per hr for senior vet and 20% again cheaper for junior vet, no minimum but £15 call out (normal hours, much more out of hours).

 

[bovine]

Yea, it's all messy - vets have to make money somewhere. Looking at drug prices in isolation is kind of meaningless. There are some drugs that I would intentionally keep expensive to avoid over-use. The problems we have with wormers just because they are so cheap. I deliberately mark up antibiotics a bit more and so I can sell things like painkillers and vaccines for much less. It doesn't stop people moaning.

A vet who halves your cases of mastitis will make you a lot more money than arguing over £10 on a box of Tetra Delta. Some people are just so short sighted.

I don't think the internet will calve you a cow at 1am. Vets aren't making stupid money.

 

[stablegirl]

I appreciate your thoughts Bovine, but i never said they did and i never complained. I am extremely pleased with our Vets they provide a great service, and we have worked with them for a long time.

However we have trackers and discussion on the prices of many inputs, fuel, semen, sawdust, contractor costs, machinery, buildings, concrete, cubicles, electricity, gas price, foot trimmers, ai services. etc etc.

Every one will have a argument over quality of service or product and how important it is, which is fine.

If you offer a good service and fair prices there is nothing to hide, if you choose to do your business in private thats fine also.

However i will also add the prescription system for veterinary products does give a vet a business advantage over some of the other farm services which you can swap and change over. (Not that id want to swap and change vet).

I would also like to add that making prices readily available keeps people honest, Farmacy.co.uk and Vets2go have kerbed many poorer practices overcharging.

Like i said i have no axe to grind just a discussion.

 

[bovine]

Yes, but when you buy electricity all you buy is electricity. It doesn't matter who you get it from. A foot trimmer generally doesn't supply much and you pay for time. None of your examples are comparable - it's the overall cost and satisfaction with the service. No practices would survive at current fee levels if they lost all medicine sales.

The better I do at my job, the more I need to make from the medicines I sell, because if I do my job well then I sell a lot less. Was talking about this recently - and I suggested charging in terms of pence per litre so both parties rewarded when things go well.

 

[Princess Pooper]

The better I do at my job, the more I need to make from the medicines I sell, because if I do my job well then I sell a lot less.

I was talking to Martin Green at Sutton Bonington last year when he told me it was most amusing seeing the confusion on first year vet students when they suddenly realise this!

 

[bovine]

It's a bloody good job loads of people ignore my advice!

 

[Fleeced]

But there shouldn't be such a wide discrepancy. I moved house some years back and had to change vets much as I didn't want to. I have a dog on long term medication. The new vets charge £45 month more for the same drugs.

 

[bovine]

But there shouldn't be such a wide discrepancy. I moved house some years back and had to change vets much as I didn't want to. I have a dog on long term medication. The new vets charge £45 month more for the same drugs.

It depends what the drug is, how much of various products are bought. The biggest discount I have on anything is over 70%, some things I get nothing.

So with a small animal medicine if I use one brand of vaccines and I also use their painkillers for dogs with arthritis I may well get very healthy discount across all their products. If you come along on a different painkiller and want to stay on it and all I buy is a box every now and again for you then I won't get any discount. I reflect that in the price charged. It's possible the 2nd vet is making less money than the first, despite you paying a lot more.

 

[Fleeced]

I see your point but that's not the case here. The drugs are the usual ones for CCF. They recently changed from vetmedin to nelio and told me the reason was that nelio is much cheaper for them but it's not reflected in what I pay.

 

[bovine]

The Nelio is a ACE inhibitor, the Vetmedin a calcium channel blocker. They are completely different drugs with different mechanisms of action. They are in no way the same.

 

[Fleeced]

Yes sorry my mistake. They changed the fortkor to nelio. They changed vetmedin for cardiosure.

 

[bovine]

I'm not a small animal vet, but they are generics and would generally be cheaper. It would depend on a number of factors though.

I'd be quite happy if all vets paid the same price and then we individually decided what was a fair markup. There are drugs online for less than I pay.