The trouble is, that isn’t usually the case…īut even if you don’t believe that, remember that apart from anything else my Membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is what allows me to earn my living. I will happily talk about medications, and if there is a legal alternative that’s cheaper, I’m happy to supply or prescribe it. Any that do, bluntly, do not deserve to be in this profession.

Even when we are, we’re professionals – our duty of care is to the patient in front of us, and there are very few vets who would deliberately break that. There are very few vets who are on commission – for most of us, we earn our salary whether we prescribe something or not. So, in this blog, I’m going to explore the UK’s medicines laws in a little more detail, and try to explain some things that people find confusing… For example, why it is that veterinary drugs are more expensive than human ones, why we can’t prescribe the cheaper human version, or why we can’t accept unused drugs back into stock for a refund. My colleague Pete has written an excellent blog about vets fees in general, but he didn’t cover the medicines side. But one of the things that really hurts is where we are constrained by the law, do our best in accordance with the law, and then get slated online or in person for it. Does my dog need that vaccine? Why did you give my cat that wormer? Isn’t there an alternative treatment with fewer side effects? These are all clinical decisions, and we’re all prepared to debate the risks versus the benefits of any medicine choice. As vets, we regularly get stick over animal medicines.

Otomax without a prescription