Here’s the Bright Side guide to ordering medication or written prescriptions and how we can help with the costs of ongoing treatment.
Requesting medication
If you need more medication (including flea and worm treatment) you can request this over the phone, in person, via email prescriptions@brightsidevets.com or use the form at the bottom of this page. It takes time to prepare your request as we must check your pets’ medical records before dispensing any medicine. Although we have a well-stocked dispensary, we may sometimes need to order medications in for your pet. Before leaving the practice, all prescriptions are signed for by either a Veterinary Surgeon or Registered Veterinary Nurse (RVN) and one other member of staff. Because of this, we ask for a minimum of 48 hours’ notice to fulfil your prescription requests. Please note we will not contact you after you place your order but if you send us an email, text message or order through the site you will receive a message to say its been received. You can come along 48hrs later and your order will be ready unless we have told you otherwise.
Please be sure to request medication in good time (and consider weekends and bank holidays etc) so that your pets’ ongoing treatment isn’t compromised. Depending on the medication and condition being treated, we may need you to bring your pet in for a prescription check with a vet. Read more about prescription checks.
Written prescriptions
You are not obliged to purchase medications from us and may choose to obtain them from a pharmacy. If so, we can provide you with a written prescription. A fee will be charged for this service. Please note, our veterinary surgeons may prescribe POM-Vs (Prescription Only Medication – Veterinary) only for animals under their care. A prescription may not be appropriate if your animal is an in-patient or immediate treatment is necessary. Information on the prices of medicines is available on request.
Important Changes to the regulations on prescribing medication
From September 2023, all veterinary surgeons must have done a clinical exam before dispensing any Prescription Only Medication. There are some instances where that exam does not mean a physical exam but there are cases where an exam MUST take place. The rules are new and the sector as a whole are still trying to understand how to best implement them but at Bright Side Vets we are implementing the following:
- For all controlled (e.g. Gabapentin), anti-biotic, anti-viral or anti-fungal drugs you must have a physical exam before medication is prescribed. The vet is now ONLY ALLOWED to dispense 30 days of medication at a time. Pets will have to be seen back when more is required.
- For parasiticides (flea and worm treatment), pets must have a physical exam every 12 months (minimum) in order for the veterinary surgeon to prescribe for the whole year. If there is a reaction to the initial medication dispensed you may need to be seen again before further medication can be dispensed. Please note that a visit with the vet is chargeable unless you are a member of our VIPets Premium plan.
If you wish to learn more about the changes, please refer to our governing body and the information provided on their website.
Long-Term Medication Discount
Bright Side Vets is committed to providing affordable, high quality care for your fur babies throughout their lives. We understand that long-term treatment can be costly, particularly for uninsured pets. For this reason, if you are a member of our VIPets Health Club, we offer a long-term medication discount from 10% which is applied to any prescription only medication that your pet has been prescribed for a minimum of 6 months.
Our VIP members also receive their monthly flea and worm treatment as part of the plan, alongside lot’s of other benefits including their yearly booster vaccination. Find out more here!
Further to this, the administration charge for us to complete insurance forms is waived for our VIP members.