Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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So my old SugarBear was at the vet and we got her a blood workup and it came back positive for Lyme disease. No biggie... Shilo went through this in March. Told the vet to call in a script to the local WalMart pharmacy as this was the route I went last time.
Go to pick up the pills and the lady says 'You know this is almost $300??' My reply: "Then something is wrong.. this should be a $30 prescription".
She said "well, its been filled so you have to take it". I laughed (out loud even) and said there was no way I can return something I never paid for.
So the pharmacist comes over and says "a few months ago doxycycline was very cheap, but it went up in price". I said that doesn't matter... I don't have $300 to give you, and that they should have used a generic medicine. She said it was blah blah blah. I told them to write down the name and dose so I could make sure the vet gave the right thing.
I go home and google doxycycline prices and yes, just about everywhere that script would be $300.
NOW HERE IS THE KICKER: Amoxicillin is just as effective and is a $4 a month prescription!
So I call the vet, tell them that I want them to change the script to Amoxicillin as its on the Walmart $4 plan. They checked with the vet and called in a new prescription.
I'm not sure who to be mad at... Walmart for not using the $4 generic or the vet for not knowing.
Moral of the story: NEVER BE AFRAID TO QUESTION VETS/DOCTORS.
If the vet said (and I later verified) that Amoxicillin was not as well tolerated, etc then I would have paid the $300 (which I do have... but I just knew that this script smelled funny) happily. This was also my second vet that I use when my primary vet doesn't offer many treatment options.. aka my second opinion.
Holy cow Paul, thanks for that head's up and encouragement to be a great advocate for our wallets as well as our dogs. You rock.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Our Gus has recurrent bouts of reactive histiocytosis. He has had them sporadically over the last six or seven years. Doxycycline has always been the go-to drug for us. Last year when his bumps popped up again, we refilled his Doxy prescription. As Paul said, the prescription was usually about $35. This time the tech told me it would be $400! I told her that I wasn't taking it at that price and she put it back behind the counter for restocking. We found some at one of the local vet hospitals that only cost us about $100 for enough pills to get him through that bout.
A few weeks ago he had another outbreak. We did manage to get a supply from a compounding pharmacy at about $80, but this time the Doxy was ineffective. The bumps this time were HUGE and lots of them. It was the worst outbreak he has ever had. Gus' dermatologist has a LOT of experience dealing with this problem. She had been trying to help him using the least expensive drug, but since it didn't work this time we had to go to the next level. She put him on something called Atopica, which was "only" $265 for the month's supply. It has been a miracle drug for him. Within five days the bumps were almost totally gone. He still takes it for the rest of the month. We see the dermatologist in a couple of weeks to find out where we go from here.
I understand that Doxy is also used for treating (or preventing) anthrax along with Lyme disease and a couple of other things I can't remember right now. Apparently the company that owned the rights to the patent sold them to another company. Seems to me that the new company is doing some horrendous price gouging to treat some very serious diseases.
Kathi and Murphy (Gus, too)
Murphy is a five year old Lab/Chessie cross. He was hit by a car on 10/29/12 and became a Tripawd on 11/24/12. On 2/5/13, he had a total hip replacement on his remaining back leg. He has absolutely no idea that he has only three legs!
UPDATE: Murphy lived his life to the fullest, right up until an aggressive bone lesion took him across the Rainbow Bridge on April 9, 2015 and he gained his membership in the April Angels. Run free, my love. You deserve it!
Wow that is just criminal what happened to the price. That used to be the cheapest drug. No wonder someone the other day mentioned how metronomic chemo was SO expensive, and I was like "What????" Well, now it makes sense, if they're using doxy for it, of course it's pricey. Oucccccch.
Is it possible to get this drug cheaper from a Canadian pharmacy? I'm not sure. Hmm.
I hope Gus feels better and is able to stay off that drug Kathi, that's still a lot of money. Yikes.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
If there was a specific need for a specific drug.. I'll pay it. Bear is worth the expense.
Part of my chat with the pharmacist was specifically about price... if a drug has a 10x price increase why is the patient/doctor not informed of this? She knew I was right and the script, in March, would of been $30 not $300 (well, $296) and she also knew that there is nothing special about the dioxcy... its just an antibiotic and Lyme disease is treated with standard antibiotics.
I guess from now on for non-urgent meds I get a paper script and call around myself. I've already saved $250 doing it this one time.
Plus Lyme disease seems to be a bit of a profit center for vets... read up on it... its actually quite disturbing on what vets leave out about it.
Thanks Paul! WOW!
I'm in an area of Virginia where Lyme and heartworm are both M very active. I've even had the Lyme stuff myself. And took doxy...back in the cheaper days.
I will read up on it as vets here, from what others jave said, almost always seem to say the blood work "indicates" Lyme. I seems whether they are on Front line or Avantix or not, Lyme seems to show up anyway......hmmmmm........
Thanks again ....and don't recall seeing pictures of Sugar Bear....hint!
Sally and Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
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