Price check on heart meds

[Tofu]

Just wanted to get some outside perspective on whether the costs I am paying for some heart meds are the norm or not. Still working on dialing in the dosing for my piggy, and I think my vet hasn't treated many pigs with (suspected, she/we aren't really sure) heart issues, so she has under prescribed some of these items and I am constantly needing to get refills from compounding pharmacies (one of which, is halfway across the country from me). I'd like to see if there is a way I can reduce my costs, compound them myself, etc. Here is what I am paying now:

Benazepril in a 1mg/ml concentration, 15ml total @ $41/ea
Furosemide in a 4mg/ml concentration, 30ml total @ $45/ea

Still trying to dial in the furosemide dosage, last week we were on .5ml 2x a day but she seemed to be doing worse so this week I've bumped it up to .75ml 2x a day. Based on info here on the Benazepril, the recommended dosage is 1mg/kg 2x a day, but my vet has prescribed .25ml @ 1mg/ml 1x a day. At that dosing I'll be spending $150/mo in Benazepril alone.

Could folks who are using these medications share what they are paying for them, how they are getting them (as a liquid from a compounding pharmacy? dispensed directly from your vets office? pill form from a regular ole human pharmacy and you compound it yourself?), and/or if there are alternative similar medications which my vet office might already be carrying that I could substitute?

[Lynx]

I don't know if there are pills that can be compounded for each of those but know one member used to compound one heart med using pills and a liquid. She described how she did it with enalapril (a heart med) here:
https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewt ... =3&t=18899

[Catie Cavy]

My Fluffy was on Benazepril but it was a few years ago. I was paying about $30 per month for a liquid from a compounding pharmacy, but it may have even been as much as $40. Like you said, it quickly gets expensive, so I started compounding it on my own per Lynx’s link above. I got a month’s supply of generic Benazepril from a pharmacy for a couple bucks. For a guinea pig, it was well over a lifetime supply. I then got Ora-plus, Ora-sweet, and a mortar and pestle online for less than a month’s worth of the compounded medicine. It was pretty easy to compound at home and saved me a ton of money.

[daisymay]

Joy was on heart meds, one I got from the vet for around $30.00 lasted 3 months, the other had to be sent away to be compounded at a cost of $75.00 lasted 6-8 weeks. But we are in Australia where most things are more expensive. Hope you get things worked out for your piggy and your budget!

[Tofu]

Thanks so much, this is exactly the info I was hoping to hear. I was able to convince my vet to increase the dosage of benazepril to 1mg 2x daily, and it looks like a local pharmacy can compound it (they are a block down the street from my vet, I still don't know why she called in the first prescription to a place in Arizona when we are in Michigan). I will probably get a month's worth of this compounded for me and see how it goes, and then start compounding it myself since we still aren't sure it's actually going to help her or not.