Upto now pet owners have had two ways of controlling their veterinary costs. Take out pet insurance or buy the drugs their pet needs on the internet. But vets have become wise.

Many vets are now charging as much as £25 for a prescription if their pharmacy is not dispensing, thus largely wiping out the cost benefit of shopping online. A typical vets practice generates around a third of it’s profit from “non-clinical” sales. Those are services such as dispensing drugs and selling specialist foods”. Until the end of October last year vets were barred from charging for prescriptions after an inquiry by the Competition Commission had found that charging for prescriptions were not in the public interest by allowing vets to maintain a near monopoly over the supply of drugs.

But since the ban was lifted, most vets have reintroduced fees. Those uninsured owners whose pets have long term illnesses have been hardest hit. Take dogs with arthritis for example. One pet owner we’ve heard of, had a sheep dog with an enlarged heart twinned with arthritis. Before they started sourcing their drugs online, their vet charged then £160 a month for the drugs their dog required. They then started buying them online and the cost fell to £75. Since last year when their vet started charging for un-dispensed prescriptions, this owner negotiated a reduced three monthly prescription fee costing £10 - so the online cost remain worthwhile.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons says that it’s reasonable for vets to make a charge but charges must be “reasonable”. The problem is that they stop short at saying what “reasonable” amounts to! What a cop out!

Having said that the average fee seems to be around £10 to £15. We appreciate that making out a prescription takes time and that has to be paid for but unless there is something very complicated, £10 for a prescription which takes less than 5 minutes to write seems tops to us.

So if you are facing high vets’ bills you should shop around for a cheaper vet. There are plenty around. And if you have any difficulty visit findavet.org.uk, the web site run by the Royal College of veterinary Surgeons.

And if you pet is generally fit now but you are worried about controlling future costs, get pet insurance. Remember, no insurance will insure your pet for an existing or re-occurring illness.