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Gracie
132375 |
 | | Purred: Mon Jun 22, '09 7:22pm PST | |  | |  | | I'll be going to the vet tomorrow to pick up Gracie's Prednisone. She told me that a one month supply of Leukeran (15 tablets) is $53!! I'm in the middle of paying off a lot of debt right now, and really can't swing this amount. Does anyone know of a website where I can buy it cheaper? (it is not available on 1800petmeds)
I see that there's a Canadian website that sells it for less, but that's for HUMANS. Would that even be safe? I think the tablets are the same amount, 2 mg.
Can anyone help? I'd really like to be able to put my Gracie girl on this with the Prednisone and I have no pet insurance.  |  |  | |  |
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Sally Maria
Mama's baby!
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 | | Purred: Mon Jun 22, '09 9:29pm PST | | | | | | What is Gracie's dosage? Sally takes 1 mg of Leukeran every other night (1/2 a 2 mg tablet). I pay about $53 for 14 tablets at Walmart but for Sally that's almost a two month supply. Have you checked Costco? I've heard they're a bit less expensive and you don't need a membership to get prescriptions filled at their pharmacy.
Leukeran is a human chemo drug but it is prescribed in a cat sized dosage.
You may be able to find it online cheaper but make 100% certain that they ship it to you in a refrigerated container. If the pills aren't stored and shipped at the right temperature, they will lose their effectiveness.
I know it seems like a lot of money. The specialty hospital would have charged me $125 for the same thing!! Check out Walmart, Costco, even Target and CVS. I've talked to people living in different areas who get charged different amounts for the same prescriptions.
Good luck. Hope you find it somewhere that will work with your budget!
Hugs & Purrs,
Sally Maria and her mama | | | | |
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Gracie
132375 |
| | Purred: Tue Jun 23, '09 8:27am PST | | | | | | I work as an admin. assistant at Science Magazine and one of the editors I work for covers the papers concerning cancer. Here's what she said:
about chlorambucil --- the same drug is used in humans but like I said, the drugs given to humans are often "purer" (I have heard that vets get the rejects that don't pass the purity tests) so the human vs cat dosing may not correspond & you may accidentally give an overdose to Gracie. As a completely made-up example, a 10 mg cat tablet may contain 5 mg active drug and 5 mg impurity whereas a 10 mg human tablet may contain active 10 mg drug. I would ask your vet about this before buying the Canadian drugs, esp if they're intended for human use. Did the vet tell you that Gracie will have to have blood tests on a regular basis because a side-effect is drop in blood count? That could get expensive!! 
Is she right, do you think? | | | | |
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Miss Mittens
Fat is in! Don't- be thin!
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| | Purred: Tue Jun 23, '09 8:48am PST | | | | | | If you have Gracie's prescription filled at a pharmacy, she'll get the same drug as a human would get. There won't be any difference because pharmacies don't stock medications *just for pets*.
Even though it might be cheaper to purchase drugs online, the biggest problem is quality control -- there isn't any and you don't know what you're buying.
Your friend might be talking about generic drugs. Generic drugs are fine for short term use but can be a big problem when taken long term. The FDA only requires a generic drug to have no greater than 20% difference between it and the brand name drug. That gives generic drug companies a 20% leeway in drug formulation. Some generic brands might have only a 2% difference between it and the brand name, some might be 10%, etc. If you take generic drugs, it can turn into a big problem. You may start out with one generic brand and get stabilized and do well and then when you get the prescription refilled, you might get a different generic brand which has a different formulation from the one you took before and might not do as well on it.
Gracie will need frequent blood tests in the beginning. Mittens went every 3 weeks initially and now she's up to going every 6 weeks. It's very important to have the blood tests. Cancer cells are rapidly dividing cells. Chemo drugs kill rapidly dividing blood cells. Your white and red blood cells and bone marrow are also rapidly dividing cells but you don't want to hurt them and blood tests are necessary to make sure your blood cell count doesn't go outside normal range. | | | | |
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Rufus - In Loving- Memory 12/17
Momma's little- angel
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| | Purred: Sun Jun 28, '09 8:05am PST | | | | | | Ask the vet about the difference in dosage between a pet pharmacy and human pharmacy. If what your Mom's coworker says is true, I would think that you would want the purer dose. I would think that when the researchers were testing the drugs on cats, they were using the purer form of the drug to make sure their results were accurate and not the cheap rejects from the pharmaceutical companies.
Also, your dosing schedule might make a difference. Some cats take it everyday for a certain number of days, then stop for a certain number of days. I took it 3 times a week, so it was Monday, Wednesday, Friday (or when Momma forgot, Monday, Thursday, Saturday. MOL!)
If you have AAA, you know, the roadside assistance company, they offer discounts on certain prescriptions with your card. I was on a human anti-nausea medicine that Momma had to get at CVS. At first AAA didn't pay, but eventually they kicked in and saved us some money.
At the start of chemo, it is more expensive because of the blood tests. The chemo can affect white blood cells which make you unable to fight off infections. That's why they test often at first to make sure you're OK. After a while, you can get tested less frequently like every other month or every three months.
Have you looked into Care Credit? It's a credit care for medical stuff including vet bills. They usually have special offers if you qualify, like if you charge a certain amount it's "interest-free" for a year. It's not really interest-free but interest deferred, so you have to be sure to pay on time every month and pay it off within the year or you get hit with all the finance charges. Our vet charged the card $1000 up front so I could get the special offer, then let me carry a credit on my balance with them until the $1000 was used up. (Most vet visits were between $150 - $300, but that was when I was out of remission and on IV chemo once a week.)
Best of luck,
Rufus | | | | |
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Your health insurance won't cover the Leukeran or any other prescription for Gracie. I can't tell you how many times I've wished my cats were covered by my health insurance plan! 
