It is a money grab. The vet that I was seeing at the time did this to me, that’s when I switched to online meds.
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I will have to see if the information is on the flea med boxes that I still have, or if my friend still has the name of the site on hand. My cats are all indoors and haven’t had fleas so I haven’t used it for many years. When I ordered the cat flea treatment I had my friend order mine with her order, hopefully one of us can find the site information.
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One of my equine vets charged me over 3x what a bottle of bute & SMZ’s would’ve costed (for example) at Valley Vet. This practice also gets pissy when you try to order online and get them to approve. Needless to say I’ve moved a good deal of my care away from this vet.
My small animal vets tho, are a completely different story. They are one of the lower priced options around here AND provide stellar care. I am absolutely blessed to have them.
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I am in Australia. You can buy them from Supermarkets if you want.
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There are flea and tick products that we can buy at the store (supermarket, pet store, wherever) here too.
Some products require a prescription from the vet.
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Ours have the all wormers as well which include heartworm. I know as they have added that bay to the 3 stores I merchandise.
You can order heartworm and flea/tick meds from Petshed.com without a script. The items are less expensive vs Chewy, etc. I think they are an Australian based company. I’ve used them for years.
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Thank you.
Interesting that these meds are “dangerous” for the lay person to navigate on their proper usage IN THE US but completely fine to use OTC in Canada and Australia . I’m calling money grab.
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…the US has always had a robust government drug agency. There are pros and cons. See: thalidomide.
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Nah. The drug companies make more if it’s OTC than Rx, but they make bank either way.
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Actually you can buy these drugs otc. Lots of people get injectable ivermectin and give it to dogs orally. You can Google the dosage. I think it’s the vets. They say they do this so people will bring their dogs in at least once a year.
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Vets aren’t the ones deciding which meds are RX or OTC.
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Using these drugs on young, ill, or elderly animals also isn’t exactly benign.
I am routinely appalled at what people suggest they want to treat their pets with, from their home medicine cabinet, on a vet Facebook page I follow.
Even after actual vets advise it’s not safe.
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True, but as a group, they have a lot of influence on the people who do decide.
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According to whom?
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I appreciate that I can get all the meds I need from my vet. I hate ordering stuff online. I’ve not compared pricing—the price seems reasonable to me so I pay it. To me, I save myself time and hassle by not having to start and maintain an online account and worry about delays and forgetting to order, etc. I’m a bit old school, I guess, but I’d rather just call the vet clinic on the phone and swing by to pick it up an hour later. (And they let me bring my dog in and weigh her on the scale in the lobby, for free)
I agree that the spiraling costs of animal care is a real concern. But like many things, I don’t think the problem is how vets practice in a vacuum at the level we interact with them, but the way they practice due to forces and policies at the top of the food chain of the veterinary industrial complex, and the pharmaceutical industrial complex, and the educational industrial complex, etc. And the way clients behave, which has changed a great deal from pre-google days. And the fact that wages haven’t kept up with the cost of living is a significant problem too for why costs are getting prohibitively expensive, but, as usual, I digress.
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I think your average in-town small animal vet may not be accustomed to horse folk, where some attempt to self-medicate the livestock is almost expected before a phone call to the vet, unless it is URGENT. Horse people are going to (by and large, not all encompassing of course) be more conscious of the animals vitals, dosages for meds, and appropriate meds for your run-of-the-mill problem.
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For heartworm medication, it’s to test beforehand to see if the dog has heartworm.
There are obviously flea and tick meds you can get OTC but they aren’t very effective. Anecdotally, one vet was helpful in determining what type of med was most appropriate for my area, when my Frontline stopped being effective. The drug prescribed through the office (at the time, I couldn’t get it online) was certainly probably marked up, but I was happy to pay more for an effective drug than something that wasn’t.
I actually have had vets tell me how to treat various conditions with human medications first. Sometimes I actually had to ask for the dog medication because it came in liquid form and was easier to get the dog to take the correct dose.
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