Our Vet in Bexhill was expensive but after the excellent treatment Saber our precious Puss received, which was life or death, we just brushed it aside…
When one of our pet Chickens had a health issue we went to a farming vet in Battle…Far superior I felt and seemed fairer prices… compared with the normal Vets.
We had to take our Pet Duck name of Sue there soon after as well, felt relieved that there was a Farm Vet as our regular Vet did not treat farmy type animals at all…
We have had occasions to visit a French Vet and expected a large bill but did not seem to bad…the calming, flea and worming treatments are more expensive though than the UK…I do use online when possible…
Seems most vets here can charge what they like, but some will treat wild animals for free & even school pets, when pets were aloud, the year Son brought Gerbils home in the Summer holidays once a long time ago. Don’t know if schools still have pets now.
It’s sensible to have pet insurance I think. It has saved my friends a lot over the years.
Tiff, Insurance is another rip off IMO. It starts out fine at ten pound a month, but goes up each year. Dageus is now ten years old and the insurance wanted £40 a month. I would not pay that in a million years, and put money aside every month for vet bills. It’s better in my bank than theirs.
Years ago, when we were first married, we never had pet insurance for our dog, and the vet’s fees were always affordable. I swear that since it’s become the norm for everyone to have pet insurance (as Rox says, another rip off!) the vet’s charges have increased astronomically - it seems the sky’s the limit with them now.
I’m sure the insurers and vets are in cahoots on this. And it makes me so bloody angry, because now with the charges so high, you are forced to take out insurance. And they know this. It’s just all spiralled out of control. I even remember our vets, back in the days when not that many people had pet insurance, asking us whether we had insurance - we were asked before the invoice was drawn up, and I swear that invoice would have been lower if we’d said we didn’t.
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I notice not long ago, the Super Vet himself was advertising pet insurance. Sort of a win-win situation.
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My friend had a saying “vets have a licence to print money.” And I think that’s very true.
They know that most people love their pets so much that they will pay anything to make them better.
i used to work with a woman who had an ancient cat which she adored. It became ill and she had the vet out (that cost a fortune for a start but she said she didn’t want to disturb the cat!). He said she was very poorly so she said “I don’t care what it costs, but I am not ready to part with her yet”. That was a crazy thing to say to a vet.
She paid nearly £2000 to keep it alive for 10 more days! That was about 15 years ago so it would be double that now.
Can’t you just go to the Chemist and buy an inhaler from there? My middle son had asthma and the Ventolin(sp?) inhaler was only a few bucks from the chemist.
This is another supplier’s prices if it’s any use, Twink.
They offer three options.
https://www.hyperdrug.co.uk/flixotide-evohaler/productinfo/FLIXOTIDE
Or this one at Lloyds is cheaper still.
https://onlinedoctor.lloydspharmacy.com/uk/asthma/flixotide-evohaler
Of course. It’s a business.
It’s not an OTC med in the UK so a script (NHS or private) is needed to obtain one.
Oh Ok, it doesn’t require a prescription here, you can just buy them at any chemist, I always keep one in my medicine box just in case.
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Bruce I don’t know what the riles are in Australia, but here Chemists will only provide inhalers if they have been prescribed by a doctor , or vet!
Sorry I see somebody has already told you this!
Thanks Mups, I want to be sure it comes from a pharmacy I can trust… and the one in Glasgow where my quote came from is not known to me!
I would like to say thank you for all your posts. I know that many members have pets that they care for so , if your pet needs any regular medication, it may be an idea to get a prescription from the vet and then order it from a reliable internet source & save some money.
Always remember that vets are a business & if we have to rely on them they can charge what they like.
Also, pet insurance seems cheap if you have a young pet that is usually healthy, but as the pet gets older the prices get higher…and many insurance companies won’t insure older pets!
I have to say that Ventolin seems a daft thing to need a prescription for. but that’s the way it is
@ Bathsheba, That’s exactly what happens with human medical
insurance too, the minute medical insurance is taken out
doctors put you on a different tariff !!
And the pharmaceutical companies are worse, they put their
prices upnfor everybody !!
Donkeyman! 
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I think we have to accept that pharmaceutical companies invest money into research & creating medicines, but if they charge unreasonable amounts there will always be another company that will make something similar & sell at a cheaper price. That is how the NHS use their strength of numbers to get cheaper medicines!
Where vets are wrong is that, they know they can tell owners that this is the best for your pet, get it at a reasonable price & almost double that cost to the pet owner.
Many vets are becoming part of a group , so other local vets will be charging the same & how many pet owners are in the mood for researching prices of meds when their pet is ill ?
I know the PDSA are/were a great help if you could get into one of their Amimal Hospitals. They only take the people on low incomes and they need proof. BUT, they used to work with the private Vets too and if you didn’t live near one of their Hospitals you could go to your own Vet and they would foot the bill for you, all you had to do was leave a donation. But that no longer happens they no longer work with other Vets and they pulled the rug out from under many many people who are not able to pay the huge bills from the Vet. You have to be in a catchment are of one of their own hospitals now or it’s tough luck. It’s stopping older people on basic pension from having an animal companion, so sad.
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Twink, LLoyds pharmacy has been going for donkeys years, and the other one - Hyperdrug - I have been buying from for years too.
They are very helpful if you give them a call.
Good luck whatever you decide, it can’t be easy getting a cat to use an inhaler!
Thanks for that advice Mups!
My cat has been having his inhaler for 7 years but it was only when the 2nd vet practice tried to rip me off that I realized both vets had been charging extortionate rates for the inhaler.
Rudi takes his inhaler easily & his asthma is now well controlled, but in the pollen seasons That inhaler is essential to help him breathe.
Hope your lot are behaving themselves! 