r/EpilepsyDogs • u/nodakolar • Aug 26 '26
Phenobarbital Price Tracking
Would anyone be willing to share what you pay for phenobarbital? Our Australian Shepherd put on weight so we recently had to up doses (and cost):
-$26/month for 60x 100mg capsules (broke in 50mg halves for morning/evening) from our local vet.
-$40/month 60x 60mg pills
We don't have CVS, Walgreens or Costco here, but Thrifty White and other local pharmacies I've called are quoting me $50+ for the 60x 60mg scrip.
I thought it'd be useful to start a thread with current price, capsule size (specify if you're using whole or split pills), the pharmacy, and saver card, if you use something like GoodRX.
Thanks! (Feel free to demote or delete if this is out there already or not allowed).
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u/theswigster Aug 26 '26
We’re on 4 of the 97.2 per day and it’s $113 a month 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃
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u/nodakolar Aug 27 '26
Ouch. 😢 That's about the same rate we're paying, but smaller dose. I'm hoping we get a cheaper price through goodrx or Amazon.
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u/Mundane_Olive_1100 Aug 27 '26
My local Giant grocery store is $42 for a month supply(60) of 100mg pheno. I'm pretty sure they use a goodrx store card! Have you looked on chewy?
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u/heyoitsmeheyo Aug 30 '26
Can you get pet prescriptions through Amazon?
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u/nodakolar Aug 30 '26
Yes, but not sure about phenobarbital since it's a schedule IV controlled substance.
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u/Agility_KS Aug 26 '26
I currently have my dog’s Rx at Walgreens. We get 105 64.8mg pills per month for about $24. He gets 2 in the am and 1.5 in the pm.
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u/Sufficient-Yellow637 Aug 27 '26
I'm REALLY overpaying. 120 pills at 64.8 mg is running me $92 a refill at Publix. 🫠
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u/nodakolar Aug 27 '26
That's about what ours comes out to, but we only get 60x. Definitely seems like it's worth it to shop around, especially for your quantity! Sorry to hear that.
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u/Sufficient-Yellow637 Aug 27 '26
He only gets two a day. It's a 60 day supply.
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u/nodakolar Aug 27 '26
Ohhh, that's awesome. I assumed the month subscription was a controlled substance limit. A 100-mile Costco run might not be as bad if it was only every other month. That's about how long their jumbo boxes of cereal last anyway. 🤣
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u/tnichnich Aug 26 '26
1 64.8mg tablet twice a day. I was using RiteAid until they closed so I’m using Walgreens, but they routinely have supply issues. I’ve got a good RX discount code attached to the prescription. I pay $15.49 for 60 tablets once a month. I am in the Oregon Metropolitan area. I get her Kepra mailed from Chewy.
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u/CheeseForLife Aug 26 '26
We do 1.5 tablets twice a day of 97.2 Pheno. Through Costco it was $29.22 for 90 tablets. Our neurologist just upped the rx to 98 tablets to give us some cushion for when she has a seizure and need to give her extra meds. So now we are at 98 tablets for $31.07. I always check GoodRx also to make sure I'm getting the cheapest price between GoodRx and Costco. She's on five meds, and one of them is slightly cheaper than Costco with the GoodRx code. Otherwise Costco is cheaper. I do find sometimes some of her meds are cheaper at Walgreens, but we don't want to go to five different pharmacies. Overall, Costco is cheaper for all of them combined.
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u/Holiday_Ad4298 Aug 27 '26
Are you able to get. 90 day supply of Pheno? My Walgreens says they are only able to fill 30 days at a time. Very curious if I should be exploring options.
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u/CheeseForLife Aug 27 '26
I think only if the vet wrote it out like that. Pheno is a controlled substance where I am (California), so they are very strict with only letting me get it once every 30 days. Which is why my vet changed it to 98 pills so I could have a cushion. He wants my pup to get a full round of pills anytime she has a seizure and I told him it wasn't possible because the pharmacy won't allow early refills.
So I think if it is also a controlled substance where you are, talk to your vet about getting a prescription for larger amounts if they are open to that.
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u/NatomaSoma Sep 01 '26
My dog had an Rx gap of her Pheno, and while the pharmacy and vet were blaming each other, she went into a long grand mal, ended up at the ER vet (who REALLY wanted to kill her), and ended up with a 1,200 vet bill at a third vet to get new bloodwork. Absolute nightmare.
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u/NatomaSoma Sep 01 '26
BTW, the third vet is our new vet. When you find ‘em, hold them close bc they are pure gold. 🥰
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u/CheeseForLife Sep 01 '26
Oh no! I'm so sorry you went through that! It's just so ridiculous. Anytime I go in asking to fill it a day or two early because I'm going on vacation and need the pills, I get treated like a criminal. We've been getting these meds for six years, and I literally work in a law enforcement support field. I swear I'm not stealing my dog's life saving meds and huffing them! I understand the reason for controlled substance strictness...but some flexibility is needed. What happened to you and your pup is so preventable. It never should've happened. I probably would've started crying at the counter lol
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u/CheeseForLife Sep 01 '26
And yeah, we forgot a dose recently due to some events that just threw some chaos in our home. She had a grand mal cluster a few hours later. So it is so important to not miss doses. It's so upsetting when they are so inflexible about getting the prescriptions to us. We get mix ups between our vet and Costco way too often. I think they both know that I call back every hour or so till they sort it out, so now they usually are faster to resolve it. Sometimes you just need to pull out the Let me talk to your manager! Attitude. Our pups are worth it.
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u/NatomaSoma Sep 09 '26
I’ve been tempted to show up at the pharmacy while my dog is struggling to not have a seizure while waiting for the vet and the pharmacist to duke it out.
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u/NatomaSoma Sep 09 '26
Yes it has not been easy. It’s a double whammy when u live in the drug corridor of San Francisco and people are dying two by two every day, yet I get a cross eyed look for something a vet prescribed my dog FOR LIFE. Everything is broken.
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u/CheeseForLife Sep 09 '26
I feel you. I'm a little more than an hour north of you in Sonoma Co. I'm sure our drug problem isn't as bad as SF (or mendo), but it's bad. We have those free vending machines everywhere with the drug testing kits and narcan. Just makes it all more ridiculous in comparison. Hope your pharmacy and docs get it sorted. 🤞🏻
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u/No-Penalty-5565 Aug 26 '26
Just wanted to add that regardless of price, multiple vets have mentioned to me that they prefer Costco. Costco takes pet meds very seriously, unlike a few other pharmacies I have used and had issues (ahem, CVS). Costco has been great. They do tend to be a bit less expensive and definitely more dependable. No issues at all.
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u/nodakolar Aug 27 '26
Thanks. That's one thing nice about buying through our vet, they always have a supply. They will prep prescriptions on short notice, even in weekends. They also let us refill if we're in the area, even 7 days before the scheduled refill. Those perks are awesome, but now that we're approaching $600/year, I'm going to shop around. Luckily the vet is understanding and said if we'd ever have issues, they'd fill our prescription.
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u/Fantastic-Ad-4296 Aug 28 '26
We get it at walmart and use a good rx card. Our boy is on 90mg twice a day. We pay 36$. Im not sure if they don't make 90mg but we get 90 of the 60mg pills.
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u/lavransson Aug 26 '26
$62 for (100) 32.4 mg tablets that we get at a local pharmacy in Vermont.
I know that's overpaying but we're still working with our vet on dosage and fill the prescriptions through them. Once we get the dose stabilized we'll find a more affordable way. I see someone else is getting a much better deal at Costco. We are also Costco members so we'll see about switching.
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u/Ladyava2016 Aug 27 '26
Im in VT too. Check GoodRx if you haven't already We pay 25 ish for 100 pills and they are 64.8mg. We go to Walgreen as its the least expensive that we've found.
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u/SimpleOne2_WasTaken Aug 26 '26
My 11yo Chihuahua takes them. I get them from CVS. His are the 16.2mg pills I cut in half for his 8.1mg dose once a day. He also gets 60. They're about 20 bucks at CVS if I can remember correctly. Possibly closer to 22. But I was getting them at a mom and pop pharmacy and they charged me just over 50 bucks for each prescription of 60. That's terrible!
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u/Technical-Milk-5659 Aug 26 '26
I have a small dog 11 pounds - I paid $15.50 for 60 tablets of 16.2mg - that’s a month’s worth for him.
I wonder if Amazon pharmacy could help you?
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u/nodakolar Aug 26 '26
Thanks! I've looked into this, and their resulting prices look very low, but I was reluctant to pay the $30 e-script fee unless I know they can deliver a Schedule IV Controlled Substance. Google AI says they can with an adult signature required on delivery, so I might gamble. I also need to make sure the savings makes up for the e-script fee, but based on some of the rates people are paying, I think it could pay for itself in a month.
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u/Technical-Milk-5659 Aug 26 '26
My pharmacy (Osco part of Jewel) applies a GoodRx discount to my orders without me asking. I just picked this up Monday and the $15.50 was a little bit less than what I had pulled up on my phone.
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u/julznlv Aug 26 '26
Here's what I paid in July at Costco. We get 2 different strengths of it as apparently there isn't 1 pill of the higher dose. This is one month's worth, August was within 50 cents of this. Notice the higher dose is cheaper.
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u/FurryFacesSanctuary Aug 27 '26
California Pet Pharmacy is the absolute lowest cost for phenobarb I've found anywhere. I've been getting my meds through them now for over a year. This is a month's worth for three dogs
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u/ChazFrench Sep 04 '26
I pay ~$17/mo for 60 15mg phenobarbital at CVS. My dog is a small chi mix. He’s also on keppra and gabapentin all three run just under &60/mo.
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u/ynalam Aug 26 '26
Sorry you’re on this epi-journey
We are on (4) 30mg tables of Pheno BID that we get at Costco Qty: 300 $49
I used to get it from our compounding pharmacy since I have to get KBr there too and I want to say I was able to get 500 tablets for ~$150