My daughter’s beloved leopard gecko has an eye infection, so I did research online and found that Terramycin ointment is what we should use. I called all over and only found one place that carries it. I asked the price, they told me, and I said okay I’ll be in to buy some.
So I drove all the way there (after a frantic search for my keys which turned out to be in my daughter’s purse for some reason) and asked for it and they said they won’t sell it without an exam. This is NOT a prescription product. It’s not harmful if you use it when you don’t need it. It would be like putting Neosporin on your skin when you don’t have a cut.
Those assholes just wanted to make me pay for an exam, they don’t care what’s good for the animal. I told them I had called and there was no mention of needing an exam, so obviously I didn’t bring the lizard with me and I wouldn’t be able to come back because I had to go to work, and that I know he has an eye infection and he really needs this. But they weren’t even sympathetic or anything, just assholes.
I just spent $135 on the emergency vet for this little guy the other day for something that turned out to be nothing. I really like the gecko but I can’t deal with nor afford this shit. I didn’t even want to have a lizard in the first place for this reason, but my mom got him for my daughter and I didn’t have a choice.
So I ordered some of the ointment on eBay (for 1/3 the cost those price-gouging assholes were charging [not including the mandatory exam]) and got some saline solution for the meantime, but I hope waiting a few more days is okay
You may be perfectly competent to diagnose and treat your animal, but would you trust the general public to do so?
Okay, what if your licence to practice medicine were dependent on that? In other words, if the medicine you give them based on their word does harm to the animal, and Joe Genius turns around and reports you to the state / sues you?
It’s not just that they want the fee for the exam (though that is no doubt a powerful motivator). It’s certainly not that they don’t care about animals. It’s that you are not an expert, they don’t know you, you might be wrong, and the ethical and practical problems are too great to merit the risk.
Uh yeah. Can’t get behind a rant that’s asking a medical professional to write a prescription to a patient they’ve never seen, which is illegal in my state and probably yours too.
If it were OTC ointment, couldn’t you find it OTC, then, at a human store? Veterinarians write prescriptions and compounds to be filled by human pharmacies all the time.
If it is not OTC (for whatever reason), then yea, there’s no way they would fill a prescription out without seeing the animal.
In what way were they assholes? Did they roll their eyes? Use profanity? Act condescending?
Based only on what you’ve said, it sound to me as if they were assholes because they didn’t do what you wanted them to.
I also detect resentment at simply having a lizard. You said right out you didn’t want it but couldn’t refuse the gift to your daughter? Why not? If you can’t afford it then you should have said “no”.
Terramycin ointment for animals is not a prescription product in 49 states (sorry, California, but you brought it on yourselves). It is, however, obnoxiously hard to find, because no one carries it.
I’m with you, Blackberry. We went through a similar rigamarole with a kitty eye infection, only the vet actually did suggest (even wrote it out on a prescription pad, although it wasn’t a real “prescription”, because you don’t need one) terramycin for him. Two dozen pharmacies (pet and people) later, and the only one who carried it wouldn’t sell it to me because they didn’t have a preexisting professional relationship with my vet. They demanded I bring the kitten to a vet they knew, even though my vet’s credentials all checked out as having prescribing authority AND THE PRODUCT IS NOT PRESCRIPTION ONLY! WTF?
We went with Amazon, too, and eyebright compresses in the meantime (don’t do herbs on the gecko without checking with someone who knows herbs for animals; I have no idea if it’s safe for geckos!) and the kitty’s eye is just fine. Hope your little sucker toes fares as well.
You’re mad they didn’t tell you that you had to bring an animal in to the vet’s office? That’s a little ridiculous, no? Who goes to the vet without bringing an animal unless you’re picking up a maintenance medication.
You guys, I clearly said it was OTC. It is OTC. It does not require a prescription. Obviously if it did, I wouldn’t expect them to give it to me without an exam! As for why they don’t sell it more places, I don’t know. Seems like a very common ointment, but from what I’ve read on the Internet, most people end up having to order it online. Apparently some feed stores sell it (with no exam!) but there are no feed stores around here.
Yeah I am not too happy with having the lizard because it makes me nervous having such sensitive pets that I always have to worry about. If he wasn’t so fragile I’d love having him.
And yes, they were condescending and not at all sympathetic about a sick animal the way you’d think a vet clinic might be. And if you think I was being rude first or something, I totally wasn’t. I always start out really nice (and usually end that way too even if I’m pissed).
OMG how maddening. It’s sold a lot of places online and there seems to be a big demand for it. I don’t know why Petsmart and places like that wouldn’t sell it.
Thanks I hope the stuff gets here soon, and until then I think we’ll stick with the saline solution. Some people on gecko boards seem really knowledgeable and that’s what they recommended.
Some vet offices sell things, like a store. Pet food, shampoo, ointment, etc. Apparently this is something you were not aware of. Now you know.
Yeah, I get that. But you called about your animal having an infection, not needing Frontline or shampoo or diet dog food. I’m shocked that you’re shocked your vet didn’t find “but I googled the problem” sufficient.
Are you shocked when you’re allowed to buy Neosporin without an exam?
I also didn’t call about him having an infection, I called asking if they sold an OTC product and then said I would come in to purchase some. Obviously if I’d meant I was going to bring the lizard in for an exam, I would have asked about making an appointment.
I almost fired the best vet in the world because of his office staff. In this case, I don’t think it was the vet, but the office manager you should be pitting. He or she is the one who really runs the practice.
The best vet in the world did charity work, he vetted our rescue cats almost for free. He would take in hurt birds and wildlife. He is the local zoo vet. He does this because helping animals is his passion.
I had no problem being treated like a charity case and shunted aside when I took charity critters to him. I DID have a big problem with being treated like a charity case when I took my pets in and paid full price for their regular check ups.
I finally snapped after sitting for 2 hours with one of my pets. When I finally got in to see the best vet in the world, I told him that I was firing him as my personal vet and why.
He was shocked and upset that I had been treated like that even when I had the charity cases. The next time I was there, the office manager was gone and my charity cats were treated like paying customers.
tl/dr version: The vet often doesn’t know what is happening in the waiting room.
Also, its frustrating to not know where to get OTC products for critters, especially when one needs it right away. Not everyone knows to call pharmacies or feed stores. Many people don’t know that they can usually find all of their pet needs cheaper than getting them from a vet. We tend to trust that our vet has our pet’s best interest at heart. Well, the vet probably does, but its not in his/her best interests to find the best place for you, the pet owner, to find the cheapest product for you. He/she stocks it, you buy it.
I’m really surprised they said they had it at all. Everyone I know is out, and the little I have left at the shelter is expired and can’t be prescribed/sold. I recently had to call a compounding pharmacy to have it made for a patient because the other ophthalmics the doctor tried didn’t work, and that’s where Terramycin comes in. Not first.
Zoetis (formerly Pfizer) only manufactures Terramycin for a few months of the year. (I don’t know why - though right now there seems to be a raw materials shortage, delaying the new batch) When it’s gone, it’s gone until they make more the following year. Because of the limited supply, Zoetis sells to licensed veterinarians only, and those vets try to supply themselves sufficiently to get them and their patients through the unavailable months. It’s for this reason they don’t have it available for people to just buy OTC, because they would grab it by the handfuls and then patients that can really use it after other eye meds don’t work wouldn’t be able to get it.
It’s not the first treatment veterinarians try to use most of the time because it is in short supply, and they want to avoid widespread use of it because it does work. Once it’s used as widely as, say, neo-poly-bac (which is ophthalmic Neosporin), bacterial resistance starts and in a few years, Terramycin won’t work any more, either. Then what?
Very likely, if a veterinarian examines an animal for an eye infection, the first ophthalmic antibiotic they will want to use won’t be Terramycin. There are lots of other more available treatments to try first, and many of them are cheaper, too. Though factoring in the exam for the client makes all of them just as expensive I suppose.
BTW, I took a look on Ebay and the only Terramycin I see there comes in a weird blue and white box. That is NOT what it looks like from Zoetis USA. It’s either illegally imported from a foreign plant, or it’s counterfeit, or both.
Hmm. I guess there is SOME rhyme or reason to it then. But I saw the package from your link on a couple websites too (one that the people on the gecko boards keep recommending to everyone) and it was in stock. And some people get it from feed shops. But the one I got on eBay is the blue and white box and is from Turkey. The seller has 100% positive feedback from selling a whole bunch of it, so it seems to be fine.
I can’t be paying for multiple vet visits and prescriptions just to find the weakest ointment that will work
…And, that still doesn’t make right the treatment you got from the office staff at the vet’s office. If I had gotten that call, I would have asked you why you were inquiring in the first place, and would have made it clear it wouldn’t be dispensed without an exam. I don’t like to waste my time any more than yours, and you making a trip to the office just to be turned away would be on me. After all, you called first.
I hope the stuff gets here soon, and until then I think we’ll stick with the saline solution. Some people on gecko boards seem really knowledgeable and that’s what they recommended.
Is that the one with the … duck?