Cats meds without a prescription?
November 16, 2018 10:20 AM
Is it possible, in the world of online pharmacies, for me to get my cat's Prednisolone without a vet's prescription?
We have a cat who, 2-4 times a year, for the last several years, has spells of deep coughing. We've already spent waaaaaay too much money on this, doing all sorts of testing, only to finally end up with the vet kind of baffled as to why these spells happen. They are always instantly cleared up with a one-week run Prednisolone. (Meaning, within a couple of doses she stops coughing, but we finish up the week's doses.)
Which would be great, but our vet will only renew the prescrip a couple of times, and then he wants to see her again. Going to the vet is expensive, it's stressful on the cat, and the result is always the same: "We don't really know why she's coughing, but Prednisolone will clear it up."
Can I get these meds without going to the vet and getting a prescription? Checking at the mainline online vet pharmacies says no, but honestly I wouldn't mind some slightly shadier way to get the meds as I'm resigned to the fact that this darling cat, who I adore, is just going to continue this mystery coughing for the rest of her life.
This is for Prednosilone 5mg FEL.
We have a cat who, 2-4 times a year, for the last several years, has spells of deep coughing. We've already spent waaaaaay too much money on this, doing all sorts of testing, only to finally end up with the vet kind of baffled as to why these spells happen. They are always instantly cleared up with a one-week run Prednisolone. (Meaning, within a couple of doses she stops coughing, but we finish up the week's doses.)
Which would be great, but our vet will only renew the prescrip a couple of times, and then he wants to see her again. Going to the vet is expensive, it's stressful on the cat, and the result is always the same: "We don't really know why she's coughing, but Prednisolone will clear it up."
Can I get these meds without going to the vet and getting a prescription? Checking at the mainline online vet pharmacies says no, but honestly I wouldn't mind some slightly shadier way to get the meds as I'm resigned to the fact that this darling cat, who I adore, is just going to continue this mystery coughing for the rest of her life.
This is for Prednosilone 5mg FEL.
We get our dog's cushing's meds from Diamondback Drugs. While they won't fulfill an order without a prescription, they will check with your vet that it's ok and then send you the meds. I just send them a reorder email, they check with the vet in the background, and a couple of days later the meds are here. It's not quite what you were looking for but it's functionally the same as long as your vet is OK with it. As a bonus, the cushing's meds are 1/3 of the price from a compounding pharmacy, compared to the name brand.
posted by merocet at 11:20 AM on November 16, 2018
posted by merocet at 11:20 AM on November 16, 2018
Can you perhaps find another vet who will not require such frequent visits to renew the prescription?
posted by greta simone at 11:39 AM on November 16, 2018
posted by greta simone at 11:39 AM on November 16, 2018
Drs Foster and Smith fill our cat's Prednisolone more frequently than our vet would like them to without a visit, but even at that it requires us to take him in for blood work pretty regularly. A couple renewals without a vet visit may be the best you can get. It's stressful and expensive, but it is pretty much the only non-sketchy way to get the steroids for him.
Our guy takes his daily. though. The saga of even getting him the steroids in the first place was expensive, stressful and exhausting. We always end up on the phone with our vet, going back through the three year medical history and the variety of drugs we tried to help his intractable allergies when we order a refill without a new prescription. Then the vet approves a refill and we buy a few months before we have to get more blood work.
posted by crush at 1:56 PM on November 16, 2018
Our guy takes his daily. though. The saga of even getting him the steroids in the first place was expensive, stressful and exhausting. We always end up on the phone with our vet, going back through the three year medical history and the variety of drugs we tried to help his intractable allergies when we order a refill without a new prescription. Then the vet approves a refill and we buy a few months before we have to get more blood work.
posted by crush at 1:56 PM on November 16, 2018
If it IS asthma--and as somebody who owns an asthmatic cat it sure sounds like it--then you might be able to get your cat onto an inhaler. My vet had my cat start on the steroids to get it under control, then I use the inhaler as maintenance (not daily, but once a week or so).
AeroKat is how you give a cat an inhaler. I get his Flovent/Fluticasone inhaler medication from this online people pharmacy, and they last quite a while given how infrequently I'm puffing him up.
posted by foxfirefey at 3:18 PM on November 16, 2018
AeroKat is how you give a cat an inhaler. I get his Flovent/Fluticasone inhaler medication from this online people pharmacy, and they last quite a while given how infrequently I'm puffing him up.
posted by foxfirefey at 3:18 PM on November 16, 2018
I've purchased meds--both for my cats and for humans like me and my child--through an online pharmacy called Inhouse Pharmacy. They've been around for a long time, and I've had good results with them and don't doubt that the meds they sell are legitimate, but their URL changes occasionally--right now it's inhousepharmacy.vu, but previously they've had a .com and a .biz.
They have prednisolone 5mg, 90 pills for $30. My experience is that it'll take two-plus weeks for shipping, so if the cat is sick right now, you might have to go to the vet one more time, but if you're planning for the future, you should be good to go.
posted by mishafletch at 11:19 PM on November 16, 2018
They have prednisolone 5mg, 90 pills for $30. My experience is that it'll take two-plus weeks for shipping, so if the cat is sick right now, you might have to go to the vet one more time, but if you're planning for the future, you should be good to go.
posted by mishafletch at 11:19 PM on November 16, 2018
« Older Best blood glucose tracker for iPhone (preferably... | Recommend me a swing city to live in! Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
b) your kitty might have asthma. have they done xrays? my cat has asthma and has coughing fits quite frequently. prednisolone helps, but it's not great for him to be on long term. the long term solution is inhaled flovent, and some environmental changes. his fits are always worse when the seasons start changing, and when the apartment heater is running (drier air).
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:53 AM on November 16, 2018