Buying insulin in the UK

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Gill & Mac (UK)

Gill & Mac (UK)

Member Since 2020
I bought the first couple of insulin vials I had from my vet but this is a very very ! expensive option.
I've now got a prescription from him so I can go & buy it on line.
He kindly put 2 vials on one prescription to save me money on prescription charges (£20 a prescription).

I need to shop around to find the best price for prozinc and make sure it is temp controlled delivery. But my question is will I have to buy the 2 vials in one go or is there anywhere that I can give them the prescription, order 1 vial now and then order the other 1 whenever I need it in the future ? My main reason for concern is the expiry date on the vial I had from the vet last time only had about 6 months on it so I wouldn't want to order 2 and find they expire before I have finished with them (or started them).

Thanks for any help you can give :confused::eek:
 
Gill & Mac (UK) said:
I need to shop around to find the best price for prozinc and make sure it is temp controlled delivery. But my question is will I have to buy the 2 vials in one go or is there anywhere that I can give them the prescription, order 1 vial now and then order the other 1 whenever I need it in the future ?
Click to expand...
Hi Gill, does your prescription also have a time limit on it...?
With the prescriptions that I've had for my kitties the quantity of meds was specified and also the date by when they needed to be bought (6 months in my case). Then I uploaded the prescription to petdrugsonline and was able to use it on repeat until the time limit expired.
It occurs to me though that if the Prozinc has a decent 'use by' date then you'd save money on chilled postage by getting two vials in one go...

Just looked up a few prices for Prozinc, these are excluding postage.
Petdrugsonline £49.80; Animed £51.68; Weldrick's £43.50; Hyperdrug £54.49; Petprescription £49.94

Eliz
 
Elizabeth and Bertie said:
Hi Gill, does your prescription also have a time limit on it...?
With the prescriptions that I've had for my kitties the quantity of meds was specified and also the date by when they needed to be bought (6 months in my case). Then I uploaded the prescription to petdrugsonline and was able to use it on repeat until the time limit expired.
It occurs to me though that if the Prozinc has a decent 'use by' date then you'd save money on chilled postage by getting two vials in one go...

Just looked up a few prices for Prozinc, these are excluding postage.
Petdrugsonline £49.80; Animed £51.68; Weldrick's £43.50; Hyperdrug £54.49; Petprescription £49.94

Eliz
Click to expand...

Hi Eliz - yes its got a time limit on it of 6months so I'm hoping I'll be able to treat it like a repeat. Hyperdrug seemed to suggest that you have to order everything on the prescription but I will check with them. I'm going to try petdrugsonline first - they are nearly the cheapest and their repeat prescription blurb sounded promising. Weldricks was weird as I tried putting a vial in the basket to see what delivery costs came up but it wouldn't offer anything but click & collect - not driving over 200 miles round trip to save £6 !!. :facepalm:

Ideally I would get both delivered at once to save postage but I'm concerned about expiry dates.

The difference in price to the vets is astounding - from them it is £121 less 20% discount for being in their pet health club so £97 per vial. My pet insurance pays so its not as bad as it could be but getting it cheaper will make the lifetime claim limit stretch further. But on the other hand they won't pay prescription charges....so stretch insurance further by going online & pay £20 ourselves or just stick with via vet. Its enough to give you a headache !!:)

Thanks
Gill
 
Gill & Mac (UK) said:
The difference in price to the vets is astounding - from them it is £121 less 20% discount for being in their pet health club so £97 per vial.
Click to expand...
That's a lot.... Eek! :eek:

...Of all the online suppliers petdrugsonline seem to be the most often used, and people often report how good their service is - even my vet buys from them, haha! :woot:
The Prozinc stock now seems to be coming from the US rather than Europe (due to a change in the laws, apparently....). And there was some older (close to expiry date) European stock being sold off during the Prozinc shortage. Could your last vial have been some of this older European stock...?
 
Elizabeth and Bertie said:
I must admit, Mogs, that I am seriously worried about potential changes from this point on... Medicines, foods....and a whole load of 'etceteras'.... :(
Click to expand...
The Guardian blog is saying that supermarket time slots are filled. Sainsburys' website down.
With panic buying plus an unknown Brexit in 2 months …
Call the websites listed above and ask what their expiry date on Prozinc is, and can you return if it has a short expiry date.
 
Red & Rover (GA) said:
The Guardian blog is saying that supermarket time slots are filled. Sainsburys' website down.
Click to expand...
I was very, very lucky in that I happened to book a slot earlier today. Were it not for that I'd now be completely stuffed. Still no guarantee that I'll get what I order if their stock gets hammered between now and the pick time.

With panic buying plus an unknown Brexit in 2 months …
Click to expand...
< Bites tongue so hard it bleeds... >


Mogs
.
 
Critter Mom said:
I was very, very lucky in that I happened to book a slot earlier today. Were it not for that I'd now be completely stuffed. Still no guarantee that I'll get what I order if their stock gets hammered between now and the pick time.


< Bites tongue so hard it bleeds... >


Mogs
.
Click to expand...

I booked a slot earlier today, for Monday, with no trouble but I’m pretty sure that they’ll all be gone soon and yes who knows what will be left by picking time.
It really does feel like a war-time scenario, so very scary on so many fronts :( :( :(
 
Critter Mom said:
I was very, very lucky in that I happened to book a slot earlier today. Were it not for that I'd now be completely stuffed. Still no guarantee that I'll get what I order if their stock gets hammered between now and the pick time.


< Bites tongue so hard it bleeds... >


Mogs
.
Click to expand...

Same here I always have had slots booked 2 weeks ahead but who knows what's going to happen. I always usef sainsburys online for years but for months now I've been using asda as sainsburys are only doing slots 1 week ahead and I did not dare wait until that close.
 
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Elizabeth and Bertie said:
That's a lot.... Eek! :eek:

...Of all the online suppliers petdrugsonline seem to be the most often used, and people often report how good their service is - even my vet buys from them, haha! :woot:
The Prozinc stock now seems to be coming from the US rather than Europe (due to a change in the laws, apparently....). And there was some older (close to expiry date) European stock being sold off during the Prozinc shortage. Could your last vial have been some of this older European stock...?
Click to expand...

That could well have been the case Eliz as I got it on 9th sept.
 
Red & Rover (GA) said:
Call the websites listed above and ask what their expiry date on Prozinc is, and can you return if it has a short expiry date.
Click to expand...

Weldricks were great - they replied really quickly to an email I sent about asking about buying the 2 vials separately. Then when I emailed back and asked about expiry dates they checked with their dispensary and came back with a date -:April 2023.
I was very impressed with their customer service so ordered 1 vial from them yesterday lunchtime now to see if their delivery comes today by 1pm as scheduled and well chilled - fingers crossed.
 
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Gill & Mac (UK) said:
now to see if their delivery comes today by 1pm as scheduled and well chilled - fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

Well it arrived - Weldricks despatched it yesterday using the Royal Mail's next day guaranteed by 1pm delivery service. Well Royal Mail made it by the skin of their teeth delivering at 12.57pm - 3 minutes to spare!!
Weldricks had packed it well with 2 blue ice blocks - handy for my cool box whenever we get to go on holidays again! and a polystyrene box so nice and cool still.
I'll happily use them again.
 
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