Pets and Prescriptions

Two furballs live at the Casual Shack.  While they both provide endless love and amusement they also bring a multitude of added expenses.  

Princess

and Zip

Two dogs with a combined weight of 155 pounds eat a lot of food.  Caring for these two fur factories doesn't stop at food, sometimes pets get sick, in our case really sick.  

A few years ago Princess got an infection known as Pyometra, which means her uterus got infected.  While preparing her for a hysterectomy a bladder stone the size of a quarter was found.  The poor thing was a mess.  Because of the bladder stone she will require medication to control her PH balance for the rest of her life.  Fast forward to this year.  During her routine annual check up we learned that our little girl has Lymphoma.  We had two choices.  Choice #1 Surgery to remove her tumor infested spleen followed by Chemotherapy or #2 Put her down.  We opted for #1, take a look at her again, could you end her life?  We couldn't.

Chemotherapy is expensive, not as expensive as people Chemo but it's a huge chunk of change which would challenge anyone's budget.  Here's where the money saving tip comes in.  

Just because your Vet prescribes a medication for your pet does not mean you have to buy it from them.  You have options.  Pets take antibiotics, people take antibiotics, there's no difference in the drugs other than the word Canine on the label which means you can go to any pharmacy with a free antibiotic program to get them.  In our case it's our grocery store.  We do not pay for antibiotics for our dogs when we ask the Vet to call the prescription into our local grocery store.  The vet charged us $1.67 for 1.5 Ciprofloxacin pills, Publix gave me 21 pills for free.  That's a savings of $23.31.

Your second option is purchasing online.  Due to the Chemo we can expect Princess to stop eating due to nausea within 36 hours.  To prevent this we give her Metoclopramide.  Metoclopramide at Walgreen's cost us 11.99 for 24 pills.  That's close to .50 each pill.  By ordering through 1800Petmeds I was able to reduce that cost to .29 per pill.  A simple internet search will yield many other online pet supply stores.

Don't be afraid to tell your Vet that you want to explore less expensive options when it comes to prescriptions for your pet.  Princess' doctor was not aware that the first anti nausea drug she prescribed cost 69.83 for 12 pills, just a 3 day supply. When I asked for a less expensive alternative she suggested the Metoclopramide which works for our dog.  

This advice applies to Heartworm medication, pill pockets, specialty foods and any other item your Veterinarian may be selling in their office.

$23 here, .21 a pill there may not seem like much but in our case it's the small change that adds up to the big reward.  At the Casual Shack the reward is a happy, bouncy, tail wagging dog in remission as she nears her last treatment next month.