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Savings on the cost of veterinary medicines????????


Megan le Fey

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I have a couple of Great Danes who both have hip/back/joint problems.  Utopie has hip-dysplasia and spondylosis and was prescribed a "people" non-steroid anti-inflammatory called Mobic a couple of years ago here in France and it helped her mobility a lot and seemed to stop any pain.  We all went back to UK for 6 months and her vet there prescribed and supplied Metacam - the absolutely identical ingredient to Mobic and by the same manufacturer except that it is in liquid form rather than pills.  Oh yes, there is another difference............. the "people" product costs approx. 10 euros a month, the veterinary product costs approx 75 euros a month.  When we were in UK, we adopted another Dane who nobody wanted because he is old and arthritic.  Poor darling, his mistress died and he didn't know what was happening to him.  For us, we love him to bits but with 2 huge dogs on NSAIDs, the medication cost went from 75 euros a month to 150 euros.  When we came back to France our new vet offered the veterinary product so I asked for Mobic.  He wasn't thrilled to lose the turnover but gave me a prescription for 2 months supply for each dog thus saving me 130 euros a month and both dogs are doing well on it.

I was telling this to an internet friend who is a vet working at a UK veterinary college and she told me that in UK it is illegal for vets to prescribe a human medication where a dedicated veterinary alternative exists but both she and our vet in UK agree that the product is the same.  Does anyone know if the same rule applies here in France and is our vet breaking the rules to prescribe the cheaper alternative or is the availability of a considerable saving for the same thing just a well-kept secret?  Anyway, anyone else who is using these (for animals) very expensive drugs may do well to check out the alternatives with their vets and who knows, if there is one product there may be more.

(Hi Mods[:D], hope this isn't breaking the advertising rule.  It isn't meant to be and the producer is the same one so has no commercial benefit). 

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In the UK, by law, a vet must issue you with a prescription free of charge, for any drug your animal needs, rather than supply it him or herself. This then allows you to buy that drug from whereever you can get it the cheapest. For instance our dog requires a daily dose of cyclosporin (Optimmune) which costs us £48 per month from the vet but which we could buy online for only £18 (we're not mad our insurance policy at the moment covers the cost of this). I'm not sure if this is the case in France but it would be worthwhile investigating.

As regards using human drugs in animals, I am very dubious of this. Through the 1980s I was invoved in veterinary research, and although an animal medicine may contain the same active ingredient the formulation to make it acceptable in an animal was often very different. The physiology's of humans and dogs are quite different and often you need systems to slow down drug uptake in animal medicines which are not required in human medicines. This partly accounts for the higher prices of animal medicines, although I would agree that small animal medicines are scandalously high. if you follow this link http://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk/products.asp?sc=metacam&sop=search&gclid=CNmulYCo4ZUCFQyD1QodEH4_XQ you will find an online supplier of mtacam, but again I'm not sure they will supply you in France
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