If you were asking her to investigate some tiny pharmacy somewhere, her excuse might make some sense. But Valley Vet is an enormous national supplier with which any normal vet ought to be perfectly familiar.
I’d call bullshit on that one, OP.
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OK so if you’ve asked and she refused, and given the other vet is already making farm calls to your place (so you can avoid that xtra cost) then I guess I’d just go ahead with the ACTH test with vet #2. No need to be sneaky, though. Easy way to inform your vet would be to drop a copy of the ACTH results in the mail with a note " Dearxxxx I understand your concern with evaluating other pharmacies so I asked Vet#2 to re-do the ACTH and write the Rx. Here are the results for your file. I hope to keep my mare with your practice for her other vet needs; please let me know if any concerns."
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Yep, totally agree. I see no reason to tip toe around my vets, either. You asked for the script to go to valley vet, she said no. If she asks why you’re no longer asking her for scripts, tell her you were unable to continue with the insane markup at her preferred pharmacy, so asked the other vet to write the script for you to fill where you want.
There is nothing wrong with any of that. Go for it.
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Agree with @HungarianHippo & @Simkie
I see no need for “sneaky” - tell your vet you prefer to get the drug at the best (for you) price & if she is not comfortable with giving you a written RX, you will have to go elsewhere for that RX.
Be aware some suppliers or compounding pharmacies will require the vet to fax it to them.
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I think it’s very odd she won’t let you order from somewhere else. If you’re BM is already using both vets then your current one shouldn’t be shocked if you use the other vet once and a awhile. I had the same vet for years but one time my horse needed stitches and another vet was already there. It was just easier. I know my old vet had a specific online pharmacy they were connected to but if I wanted to order somewhere else they would send the fax. In find its best to have other options for both farriers and vets so if something needs to get done it gets done. I don’t hide the fact that if I need to I’ll call someone else.
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For our pharmacy - we cannot ship prescriptions to customers in NJ, but can in PA. Just an FYI when it comes to where you ship it.
I had an older horse who was getting Previcox daily for over 4 years. She had serious arthritis in her knees. My vet’s prices were higher than Valley Vet’s prices, but he was fine with matching that price for me. I do a fair amount of business with him and I don’t quibble about prices for one off treatments. The system we have lets vets sell the drugs they prescribe, so they have control over the mark-up. I would ask for a price match to Valley Vet. If that can’t happen, use another vet for the meds.
And I completely agree that suggesting Valley Vet sells fake meds or low quality meds is ridiculous. The issue is your vet’s mark-up, not the drugs being purchased.
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What you choose to do is up to you, but I see no reason to be “sneaky” about this. It is perfectly, 100% reasonable for a client to want to shop around for the best medication price. Personally, if there was an option for another vet, I would probably go in that direction because I think what she is doing is nonsense.
It would be different if the medication you were purchasing was something that had to be specially compounded and she could give you a reasonable, fact based reason for concern. Personally, I think her business would be better served by increasing her fees if they need to instead of making a commission on prescription medications, especially in this day and age where there are many competing pharmacies with prices posted online.
If you want, I guess you could approach this vet one more time about it, but if I were you I would simply accept her answer and move on to another vet who could better serve my needs. FWIW, I regularly shop for equine and dog medications through various sources to find the best buy and I’ve never had a vet have a problem with that.
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The only time I might have had an issue getting a prescription written was when I was new to the vet practice because I moved. It also was for my dog. The vet mostly wanted to be confident that I knew how to give my dog his adequan shots and was comfortable doing so.
I have never had an equine vet refuse to write me prescriptions.
I would 100% use the different vet.
I recently had a situation where my vet refused to give me a script for my mare’s medication (they are not legally required to do so in my state, and the reason they gave was IMO ridiculous). They would only sell it to me in liquid form. I tried that, it made my life VERY difficult, so I went back to them and after several days I got the message through to the clinic boss that my fussy horse would need the pill form, or would likely not be getting medicated at all (this was an exaggeration…). So they agreed to get the pill form in, just for me, and price match it with an online store.
If we had not been able to come to a compromise I would not have hesitated in switching services.
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Perfectly reasonable under the circumstance. It’s only sneaky if you act sneaky about it.
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Thanks everyone!!
By the way, Equicoxx is twice as expensive as Previcoxx though it’s the same thing. It’s about half the price to get 30
of the 227 previcoxx and quarter them down to the 57 dose. Recently got the Equicoxx but when I did the math, went back to quartering the larger bills. For about $85, I can chop 30 pills up. Pill cutters are just a few bucks. That’s based on Valley Vet’s prices. My vet will match most of their prices.
I don’t find this hard to believe at all. My friend’s vet won’t write scripts for anywhere and her prices are crazy high. Vet also will not euthanize under any circumstances but that’s another story. Anyway, I’d go with the other vet and if your old vet asks, just tell her that you needed a vet who would write scripts
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Beware, now that there is an Equine form of firocoxib, your vet may be risking his/her license in prescribing the Canine medication for use in equines.
There have been several threads here on that topic, IIRC.
Why yes she is in fact. VFC is essentially an offsite pharmacy for your vet. She dictates the markup on the items. She gets a cut of everything sold when she is the prescribing vet thru VFC. That’s why it makes a difference to her. I don’t have a problem going thru VFC, but you would think the vets would give a little discount for ordering online rather than depleting their physical, and likely limited, stock.
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I get my geldings Prascend from Valley Vet and it works just fine. At 4 (yes 4) pills a day, I need all the savings I can get. My vet was just fine giving me a prescription although I admit, I felt a little funny asking.
I wouldnt even do that. If she flat out asked you personally, then that’s what you tell her. Think people sometimes think their vet is some kind of BFF and will get their feelings hurt if they use somebody else, especially if vet refused to honor client request. Most vets would not recognize many of their clients on the street if they ran them over. Also think if you sent her that stuff she might take it as " neener neener" I got it anyway in her face jab, let it lie unless she asks.
Its very, very wise to use two vets and have accounts set up with both. You don’t have to love or even like them, they just need to be competent and respectful of their clients. Act like adults too, the accusations about the legitimacy of a well respected online pharmacy serving owners for a very long time are childish.
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Yeah this is why I have two vets.
One of them is horrible about billing, gives no paper trail, but has great experience and professional connections.
The other bills right away, gives prescriptions right away, and can give vaccination records at the drop of a hat.
I consider it wise, given how busy both vets are and how prone horses are to emergencies, to have two vets I feel comfortable calling anytime. I do most care with one vet, shots with the other, so I am on the books and confident they will respond on those inevitable late night calls…
I use one vet for doing everything shots, teeth and emergency calls. Use a different vet to get meds way more cost effective. …plus he’ll write out prescriptions if I find a cheaper source.
Other vet wont do prescriptions without charging a fairly good fee. Says if they carry it you should buy from them. I say heck with that.
