Of course you have a choice where to buy from, that's not the issue in my eyes, whether you think they over charge or not, it's simply down to knowing that what you are giving your pet, is what it says on the tin ...

Buying medication (without prescription) from obscure sites that are based in particular countries, and have no regulated control, is madness as far as I an concerned.

My pets are to precious to gamble with their health, just to save myself some pennies.

I agree the meds are cheaper by a small margin (£10 though still in my case), but my vet charges £40 consult fee + meds, but only £13 prescription so it makes a big difference to me.
Of course if my dogs need to see a vet I take them, I don't self medicate them, but for flea and wormer they don't need to be consulted upon, both have been prescribed Advocate on seeing the vet in the first place, and now I just use it every few months as a precaution x

Of course I am not advocating(excuse the pun) that you should use any meds without prior vet advice.However the flea treatment in discussion was not a Pom product when I worked in Oz and was readily available in many drug stores;same product,same manufacturer,same packaging etc and still is.One has to remember that the pet industry is big business generating mega bucks and it was not many years ago that fipronil based flea treatments were Pom only in UK as was Advantage too.Drug companies do have a vested interest be it animal or human health.

I try to be a bit organised and get my prescriptions for flea/wormers etc when I see the vet for either annual check up or if there is a problem I am there fore anyway. So no extra consultation fee to pay. Most times this works well as we tend to be there rather regularly as Mollie ages and as Betty is growing and I like to just make sure all is ok.

OK folks. I asked OH last night about where he gets our Advocate from without a prescription, and this is what he has emailed me:

"Regarding your question about Advocate:
1. It is the case that in the UK you need a vets prescription for Advocate, although I have used a source which ships from abroad (which I wont reveal)
2. Advocate contains 2 ingredients:
o Moxidectin - for endoparasites such as gut worms and heart worms
o Imidacloprid - for ectoparasites such as fleas and mites (also effective against the mange mite)
3. In the US Advocate is called "Advantage Multi" to reflect the fact that it contains the 2 ingredients
4. In the UK its now possible to buy a product called simply "Advantage", cheaply and off prescription and which just contains Imidacloprid for ectoparasites
5. There are plenty of other ways to deal with gut worms (notably Panacur which is pretty cheap and safe) so for fleas and mites I personally would now buy Advantage not Advocate.
All these products are produced by the same company (Bayer)"

So, it would seem that we can buy Advantage in this country off the internet without a prescription for ectoparasites, which is the reason why we buy Advocate - to treat our boys for mange mites that our daughter's wretched cat infected them with and are the very devil to get rid off in heavy, double-coated dogs!

It's not a few pennies! Our vet charged us £15 just for a prescription alone, we then had to pay for the medication itself on top! Metronidazole for giardia.

The drugs we have bought from abroad without a prescription are EXACTLY THE SAME DRUGS FROM EXACTLY THE SAME MANUFACTURER as the drugs purchased from overseas. Same packaging, same PIL, same manufacturer, no difference - just around half the price at least of what it would cost you to get a prescription from the vet and then fill it, or probably three quarters of the price if you bought the medication from the vet!

Only time I have paid a prescription fee at the vet was when I wanted to buy elsewhere, buying at the vet we pay for the meds and the consulation only.

When we had just forked out £40 for a consultation alone, I thought it a bit of a cheek I must say. I guess some vets are better than others on this one. But my experience has always been that it is far, far cheaper to buy your meds - eg wormers - NOT from the vet - all the vets I have ever been to really rip you off for such items.

Of course Advantage will kill the fleas but is absolutely useless in killing sarcoptic mange mites picked up from infected rural foxes as I found out from experience!!!! You also have to wonder why most vets advise worming every 3 months and yet are happy to also prescribe monthly Advocate treatment which means that animals treated are being dosed by worming chemicals on a monthly basis if their owners use a one for all multi type flea treatment.

My vets prescribed advocate for Sasha monthly because she had a small bald patch and although in skin scrapes No mites showed up, she suggested monthly for a few months to be on the safe side, and the patch has grown back now, I intend to use every 3-4 months now.