Hello.
My pony was diagnosed with Cushing's disease at the start of January. I knew little about it, and was always under the impression that it was a very expensive condition to treat etc. These thoughts were confirmed when my vet phoned up to say he had tested positive for Cushing's and he needed to get on tablets called Pergolide. He said that a box of 100 tablets (50 days supply) was 98 pounds. We were fairly shocked at the price but carried on with it as we wanted to give it a go. Anyway after some lengthy research on the internet, i discovered infact that vets are obliged to inform you if the medication you need for your horse are available from a pharmacy, and that they have to give you a prescription for you to source the drugs chepaer, something my vets certainly didnt tell me.
The vet then upped my ponys dose to 750mcg per day, thus making 98 pounds worth of tablets last just over a month, at which we asked him for a prescription so we could get the tablets, cheaper, he didnt object. We phoned up Boots the chemist in our local town who got back to us with a shocking jaw-dropping price of 19.50 for the exact same tablets, 100 250mcg Pergolide.
Im just shocked and appalled that this is happening right under our noses and vets are profiteering from our poor horses long term illness. Whilst i do appreciate that vets do need to make their morning, this is a ludicrous mark-up. The difference in cost could mean some horse owners would have to make the heart-breaking decision to have their horse put to sleep because of the cost of keeping them in the medication for Cushing's, because who realistically could afford to pay out hundreds of pounds monthly on an elderly pony. I cant believe vets can get away with this, its a disgrace.
Just trying to spred the word as much as i possibly can because this is not a well known fact and the more people who read this, the more horses we can save possibly, i hope that is the case anyway.
Feel free to reply or PM for more details, Thankyou.
My pony was diagnosed with Cushing's disease at the start of January. I knew little about it, and was always under the impression that it was a very expensive condition to treat etc. These thoughts were confirmed when my vet phoned up to say he had tested positive for Cushing's and he needed to get on tablets called Pergolide. He said that a box of 100 tablets (50 days supply) was 98 pounds. We were fairly shocked at the price but carried on with it as we wanted to give it a go. Anyway after some lengthy research on the internet, i discovered infact that vets are obliged to inform you if the medication you need for your horse are available from a pharmacy, and that they have to give you a prescription for you to source the drugs chepaer, something my vets certainly didnt tell me.
The vet then upped my ponys dose to 750mcg per day, thus making 98 pounds worth of tablets last just over a month, at which we asked him for a prescription so we could get the tablets, cheaper, he didnt object. We phoned up Boots the chemist in our local town who got back to us with a shocking jaw-dropping price of 19.50 for the exact same tablets, 100 250mcg Pergolide.
Im just shocked and appalled that this is happening right under our noses and vets are profiteering from our poor horses long term illness. Whilst i do appreciate that vets do need to make their morning, this is a ludicrous mark-up. The difference in cost could mean some horse owners would have to make the heart-breaking decision to have their horse put to sleep because of the cost of keeping them in the medication for Cushing's, because who realistically could afford to pay out hundreds of pounds monthly on an elderly pony. I cant believe vets can get away with this, its a disgrace.
Just trying to spred the word as much as i possibly can because this is not a well known fact and the more people who read this, the more horses we can save possibly, i hope that is the case anyway.
Feel free to reply or PM for more details, Thankyou.
