Pet owners, are you aware that many pet medications are available at

your local pharmacy at a lesser cost than through your Vet?

Years ago, my kitty was put on Prednisone (Prednisolone) for life. I forget which ailment it was for, she had many I think it was for her Asthma.. I was filling a prescription for this pill for myself at my local pharmacy, at the time it was Rite-Aid. I made a comment to the pharmacist that the pills I give to my kitty cost far more than the same pill for me. I was told by the pharmacist that many people have their pet medication filled through the drug store. All I had to do was bring a copy of her prescription to them and they would tell you if it was available and if you have to adjust the dose...which you probably would.

The Prednisone for people was a larger dose than my cat needed. I bought a 60 day supply from the pharmacy and spent time quartering the pill. The quarter was her prescribed amount. Far cheaper and lasted 4 times longer. It took only a short time to cut the pills up. I think you can get pill cutters at a dollar store now.

I have since told many people about this and they have done the same thing. Of course, it is necessary to talk to the pharmacist and Vet but well worth it to compare.

Quick edit: Drugs are more expensive now so my situation may note hold true today.

My cat is on amlodipine(a generic of Norvasc, a blood pressure pill) and I was paying $42.00 at Walgreen's for 30 pills. I recently started to get them through Doctors Foster and Smith catalog and got 30 pills for $17.99, a savings of almost $25.00. They are an accredited pharmacy and pills are much cheaper through them.

Roadrunner Pharmacy or through our drug store. This last time Roadrunner was way cheaper.

health related item.

I had to get some anti-biotics and another medication for our puppy last month (she had a sore develop from her stitches from being spayed pushing up through her skin) and I was BLOWN AWAY by how expensive the medications were from the vet for just a two week supply.

and they do it that way on purpose because they don't want to see pets not getting the meds they need because of rip-off pharmacies.

For some meds they can't sell it cheaper than the pharmacy, and in that case they'll tell you why they're giving you the prescription instead to the meds they have. They even keep track of which pharmacies are cheaper and if you can get a special discount by signing up for discount cards or other special programs that pharmacies offer and let you know where to go and what discount program to get onto to get the meds as cheap as possible. And they also tell you what over the counter people meds would work just as well as any prescription med they could give you and calculate how much to give the pet based on their weight since the dosage instructed on the over the counter people meds will be assuming a person takes it. Dogs, for instance, take higher doses of people meds than people do (something to do with their higher heart rate and metabalism than people or something like that). My dog and I weigh about the same, and I'm always amazed that with people meds he needs to take double or even triple the people dose that I would take just because he's a dog.

I love it that my vet does stuff like this.