I am concerned about the exorbitant costs of prescription medications for pets from my local veterinary clinic e.g. my dog has hypothyroidism and idiopathic epilepsy and must take numerous tablets daily at a cost of around $16 per day from my local veterinary clinic.  This adds up to around $224 fortnightly out of my aged pension of $987. In comparison these prescription medications can be obtained from an online supplier at a cost of around $6 per day or $84 per fortnight after getting a prescription (cost $35) from the local veterinary clinic. 

When I complained about the difference in prices I was told only "that it costs a lot for us to get them in". However, they must be able to get them in as cheaply as the online supplier or there is something fishy going on between them and their suppliers. In fact going from the numerous comments on the online suppliers' website it appears that abnormally inflated prices for prescription medications from veterinary clinics is widespread.

As the practice of providing prescriptions for pet medications is discouraged by mine and probably everyone else's local veterinary clinic, probably due to self interest, a system needs to be developed to provide affordable pet prescription medications. Therefore, given the high cost of pet prescription medications and the impact they have on pet owners in particular pensioners a possible solution is the establishment of a Pets Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme so that pets don't have to be surrendered or put down due to the costs of keeping them alive and healthy.