There is an online supplier of pet medications in Australia that requires a script from your vet before they will sell the medications.
However unlike human doctors, vets sell the meds themselves. The particular med I was looking at costs twice the price at the vet compared to this online supplier.
Does anyone here order from online vet med suppliers, and do you have any trouble getting a script off your vet?
In all my experience (lots) of medicating my pets, you can't obtain the script or medication from the vet without the vet first seeing the animal, thus also paying for at least one consultation.
Then you get your script. If the vet is good about it, you can just call up next time and pick up more meds later without another consultation (depending on the type of illness the meds are for). They may let you do this several times until they want to see the animal physically again for another check up to see how things are going - ie. another consultation.
So I guess during the initial consultation and thereafter, you could ask your vet to write out scripts for you instead of dispensing the medication. In my experience, some vets will charge a script writing fee though - one charged me $16 for it, but that vet was a joke and not my regular vet, so I'm not sure if others do the same.
Where abouts in Sydney are you? I have a local vet I go to purely for repeat medications (rather than treatment of my pets), only because the vet is pretty relaxed and doesn't ask me to bring my pets back in for follow up consultations - he's only seen mine once over a year ago, and I still call up and buy my medication from him as it's significantly cheaper there than at my actual vet on the North Shore lol. He's in Old Toongabbie anyway.
Bit of a trip to Old Toongabbie. I suppose I only can only see how it goes with my local vet. Going in every 6 months is no problem — I just sense it will be a bit awkward telling him, "please write a script so I can get them online much cheaper."
You need to see the vet and specifically ask for a script otherwise they will assume you are getting the medication from them. If they're anything like my local vet you will need to give them a template (http://www.petceutics.com.au/media/prescription.pdf)
I was ordering medication for my dog from PetCeutics and had to see the vet every couple of months for a few script. Since it was a life-long heart medication I would ask for 6 months worth of repeats. After the initial visit/script the vet didn't bother seeing my dog again - they just charged a small fee for new prescriptions.
This readme should help: http://www.petceutics.com.au/ordering/
Yeah, they're the suppliers I've been looking at. I'll take that template, good point. It sounds like writing scripts isn't a common thing they do.
good question. cost me $200 for kennel injections and to learn my dog was fat. so was the vet but i didnt say anything.