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! 