TLDR; 
When I moved into the area over 20 years ago I registered at a local independent vet practice recommended by my neighbours. Along the way they got bought out by a national chain. We stuck with them because we liked the staff.
Some years later my dog (a lab) developed diabetes. I discovered that it was much cheaper to pay them for a consultation plus the £30 prescription fee to get a prescription and buy the insulin elsewhere. I had a glucometer but after a while they insisted on urine tests too - at a cost of £100 a pop. When I discovered the test strips they used cost less than £1 on Amazon they were forced to accept that I only had to show them the results (photo of strip + batch number to prove it was in date) and they lost £100 every quarter (over and above the extra markup that I wasn't paying for their insulin).
In her later years she developed arthritis. They had her on all sorts of medications, all of which I abandoned because they did not work or had horrendous side effects.
When it got really bad I asked the vet if I could give her a (named) joint supplement because of the diabetes. the answer
Vet: yes you should that stuff is really wonderful.
Me: Then why didn't you tell me about this 4 years ago when I first brought her in for arthritis
Vet: Oh its not our policy to recommend complementary treatments, I only mentioned it because you specifically asked about interactions for that product
Reading between the lines - we don't make any money on stuff you can buy on Amazon!!!
I subsequently discovered their policy was actually to avoid licenced pet medication wherever possible and use human drugs. Its a lot more expensive, and inconvenient, to get a pet prescription filled at a human pharmacy, so you are more likely to just pick it up at the vets. One of the drugs they tried for arthritis was a human treatment for Parkinsons!!! It gave her all the symptoms of canine dementia so I stopped. To this day I am not conviced it wasn't the trigger for when she eventually did get dementia. Oh and most of these experiments were drugs for life with warnings not to stop treatment without vet advice.
Just over 2 years ago we had to say goodbye when she lost the ability to move. I did get a new puppy - a shepherd this time. My first task was to find an independent vet practice. I asked him about joint supplements as a preventative and he said that they were a good idea but to wait until he stopped growing at around 2 years old. The well known products aren't horrendously priced but it does add up. I mentioned it to a local dog trainer, who has shepherds too. She said don't be silly - buy the same product for horses and adjust the dosage for weight as its exactly the same product and the same dosage ratio. Double checked with my daughter who has racehorses and dogs and she confirmed - she is a racehorse trainer. Back to Amazon and discovered a 2 year supply costs about the same as a month supply for dogs. Its a powder with indefinite shelf life!
They also sell a cat version. As I was bored I did some quick calculations and it would cost almost exactly the same monthly for an average dog, cat, or horse - of course there is a lot more filler in the small animal products. So my assumption is the marketing department simply decides how much the average pet owner would stomache and adjusts the price accordingly.
When I moved into the area over 20 years ago I registered at a local independent vet practice recommended by my neighbours. Along the way they got bought out by a national chain. We stuck with them because we liked the staff.
Some years later my dog (a lab) developed diabetes. I discovered that it was much cheaper to pay them for a consultation plus the £30 prescription fee to get a prescription and buy the insulin elsewhere. I had a glucometer but after a while they insisted on urine tests too - at a cost of £100 a pop. When I discovered the test strips they used cost less than £1 on Amazon they were forced to accept that I only had to show them the results (photo of strip + batch number to prove it was in date) and they lost £100 every quarter (over and above the extra markup that I wasn't paying for their insulin).
In her later years she developed arthritis. They had her on all sorts of medications, all of which I abandoned because they did not work or had horrendous side effects.
When it got really bad I asked the vet if I could give her a (named) joint supplement because of the diabetes. the answer
Vet: yes you should that stuff is really wonderful.
Me: Then why didn't you tell me about this 4 years ago when I first brought her in for arthritis
Vet: Oh its not our policy to recommend complementary treatments, I only mentioned it because you specifically asked about interactions for that product
Reading between the lines - we don't make any money on stuff you can buy on Amazon!!!
I subsequently discovered their policy was actually to avoid licenced pet medication wherever possible and use human drugs. Its a lot more expensive, and inconvenient, to get a pet prescription filled at a human pharmacy, so you are more likely to just pick it up at the vets. One of the drugs they tried for arthritis was a human treatment for Parkinsons!!! It gave her all the symptoms of canine dementia so I stopped. To this day I am not conviced it wasn't the trigger for when she eventually did get dementia. Oh and most of these experiments were drugs for life with warnings not to stop treatment without vet advice.
Just over 2 years ago we had to say goodbye when she lost the ability to move. I did get a new puppy - a shepherd this time. My first task was to find an independent vet practice. I asked him about joint supplements as a preventative and he said that they were a good idea but to wait until he stopped growing at around 2 years old. The well known products aren't horrendously priced but it does add up. I mentioned it to a local dog trainer, who has shepherds too. She said don't be silly - buy the same product for horses and adjust the dosage for weight as its exactly the same product and the same dosage ratio. Double checked with my daughter who has racehorses and dogs and she confirmed - she is a racehorse trainer. Back to Amazon and discovered a 2 year supply costs about the same as a month supply for dogs. Its a powder with indefinite shelf life!
They also sell a cat version. As I was bored I did some quick calculations and it would cost almost exactly the same monthly for an average dog, cat, or horse - of course there is a lot more filler in the small animal products. So my assumption is the marketing department simply decides how much the average pet owner would stomache and adjusts the price accordingly.
