Completely in shock!

Dylan went to the vet 10 days ago with puffy eyes, it turned out he had an ulcer and a low reading when tested for dry eye. Dylan and I have just got back from the vets for his follow up appointment. They kindly let me see the emergency night vet at the usual daytime price as he is an eye specialist.

Anyway, Dylan's eye ulcer is all healed up after giving drops 5 times a day. He tested positive for dry eye again and was prescribed Optimmune. The vet said the tube is always half empty and it's expensive, he said to look online. But for now, he wanted to start a tube and show me how to use it.
I got to the till and they said it coat £59 a tube :yikes They said once he's had three prescriptions and it goes onto repeat prescription and the price goes down to £38. Well I wasn't having that so, as my favourite receptionist was there, I asked her to let me have it at the lower price because he will be on these drops for life now. She agreed and said she'd talk to the manager tomorrow. So I walked away with a tiny little tube that still cost me a fortune. These drug companies have a lot to answer for.

I will look online out of interest but usually like to get my drugs from the vet rather than online as I'm worried they will loose the written script I need them to stamp and return for insurance.

Thank goodness Dylan's insured but that's just gone up to £26 a month.

Hi Pauline
My first Google indicated £23.50 ,so £59.00 is rather excessive profiteering and as we all know thank heavens
for insurance .Is Dylan with AXA ,give him a hug from all of of us and good job he has you for a mum.

Hi Brian Yes, thanks goodness for AXA. Off now to give Dylan your hug. x

Why not just work with a reliable online vet pharmacy? I wouldn't pay almost three times as much and I'd also ask the vet how they can possibly justify those costs and I'd shop around at other vets. Maybe check with axa on whether an online pharmacy can just stamp and fax back the prescription you fax or scan and send to them. I'd think there are many options for walk in pharmacies as well. Hyperdrug.co.uk for example has a physical building in Yorkshire that anyone can walk into. There's probably something similar close to you.

Harley is with AXA and his insurance only went up by two pounds in October to £14.99 even after claiming £3000 last year. Maybe it's because Harley is younger then Dylan? Do you get the Lyrica from your vet as well? one month supply of Lyrica costs me nearly £300 from my vets. If harley stays on Lyrica i will have to buy online.

Karlin said:

Why not just work with a reliable online vet pharmacy? I wouldn't pay almost three times as much and I'd also ask the vet how they can possibly justify those costs and I'd shop around at other vets. Maybe check with axa on whether an online pharmacy can just stamp and fax back the prescription you fax or scan and send to them. I'd think there are many options for walk in pharmacies as well. Hyperdrug.co.uk for example has a physical building in Yorkshire that anyone can walk into. There's probably something similar close to you.

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AXA says, With your invoice from Vetmedsdirect you will receive a self certifying claim form. Complete this and attach your Vetmedsdirect invoice with your vets invoice for the presciption & consultation. I have rang Vetmedsdirect before and they are very very helpful. Nothing is to much trouble.

I am sure good online vet pharmacies are used to doing insurance claims and would be reliable.

Sabby why can't your vet just give you a prescription? I can't imagine buying meds like gabapentin or Lyrica from my vet directly -- I'd always check pharmacies as they are human medicines. Vets are ridiculously expensive on items like that.

Karlin - yes the next lot of Lyrica or gabapentin I will get from an online pharmacy.

Pauline - this happened to my mum and I when we got Murphy. The vets charged us £56 a tube and it only lasted 2 weeks if that as murphys eye is severely dry. That's when we said NO. So we paid £13 for a prescription and travelled 15 miles from home to a village that have a pharmacy called Manor Pharmacy, we would have to ring in advance to order it and pick it up for the price of £23.50. I then decided to start trying other ointments as we were using too much optimmune. We now use lacri-lube which is a human ointment which is £4.50 for a 3.5g tube and I can go to my local chemist and pick it up whenever and it works 10x better on murphys eye. Optimmune is the only ointment the vets provide for dry eye unless you see a eye specialist (can't spell the word lol). Good luck with whatever you do, I know it's soo expensive but half the time human treatments work better.


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MurphysMummy said:

Pauline - this happened to my mum and I when we got Murphy. The vets charged us £56 a tube and it only lasted 2 weeks if that as murphys eye is severely dry. Optimmune is the only ointment the vets provide for dry eye unless you see a eye specialist (can't spell the word lol). Good luck with whatever you do, I know it's soo expensive but half the time human treatments work better.


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I hate to tell you this but somehow this is all wrong. Optimune is to encourage the tear glands to produce tears. Only a small pea sized blob is needed, placed near the duct, morning and evening. Lacrilube or ViscoTears are tear substitutes, rather like using Vaseline to lubricate your own skin, you use it more generously to cover the area just under the top lid, then gently maneouvre the top lid down towards the bottom one to lubricate the whole eye to prevent soreness from friction. The tears can be used as often as you think they are needed and should cost around a fiver in British money.

The standard 'starter' treatment for diagnosed dry eye is Optimune twice daily, supplemented with Lacrilube once or twice daily as needed. The reason you only get half a tube of actual ointment in Lacrilube is because the preparation needs air behind it, both as a carrier for the ointment and as a propellant to push it out of the tube.

You could be right in saying that Murphy only needs the lubricant in the eyes, but in his interests you must return to the vet initially every 3 months, then if all is well every 6 months, so that a Schirmer Test can be carried out. This is the one where the vet places pieces of scale graduated Litmus Card into each eye in turn, which is held there for exactly one minute. Depending on how high on the scale the tears have reached, the number of tears produced per minute is determined. 15 or above is good and means that the treatment is working. Anything less requires treatment in the interests of the health and wellbeing of the dog.

It's fine to experiment but you must check your results to make sure that you are in fact getting it right.

Thank you for your replies and for explaining everything Flo.

AXA do not pay out for the hand written prescription fee which at my vets is £7.50. AXA regard this as "administration". If I get the drug from my vet, they only charge for the drug so I get what I paid back. If I use an online company, I'll be down £7.50 every time I get anything.

Sabine, glad you will go to a pharmacy as I suggested a while ago.

Sorry but you have offended me as you have no clue about my dog and his dry eye...Optimmune DIDN'T work..I say again..DIDN'T work. SO I am not paying for something that doesn't work..Yes i know the different between them..Maybe i should of explained my story better..So I hate to tell you that no it is not all wrong at all. My dog's tears dont even read on the schirmer test..it was a ZERO..he produces NO TEARs..we have been through all the going back to check, we went back every 3 weeks for schirmer tests, this was 2 years ago. OPTIMMUNE DID NOT WORK FOR MY DOG. So i use lacri-lube to moisten his eye..SO please find out my facts before you accuse me of being WRONG...

Poor Murphy, I'm glad you have found something that works for him. I suffer with dry eye myself so I have over the counter drops that I have used for Dylan with great results. We went to the vet so many times in the past and Dylan was treated for conjunctivitis put down to allergies but now I'm thinking he had dry eyes all along.

*Pauline* said:

Thank you for your replies and for explaining everything Flo.

AXA do not pay out for the hand written prescription fee which at my vets is £7.50. AXA regard this as "administration". If I get the drug from my vet, they only charge for the drug so I get what I paid back. If I use an online company, I'll be down £7.50 every time I get anything.

Sabine, glad you will go to a pharmacy as I suggested a while ago.

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I will ring AXA because I had a standard letter this time with my claim form and it does say that they will pay for the cost of the prescription. My problem would be that even I am covered for £7,000 a year if I would buy harleys medication direct from the vet it would cost me about £4,500 a year leaving me with £2,500 from that I need about £1,500 for a re scan every year so I woudn't have much for other emergencies. If AXA don't pay for the prescription i would loose £16 a month.

Let me know what they say Sabine. I hope you're right