I was speaking to a friend at ring craft and her bitch just had a c-section to deliver some pups.  The vet charged her £760-00.

Now the last one I had done cost me £560 and I was aghast at the price of that, but my friends is worse still.

Why is there such a huge difference across the UK over prices ?
It hardly seems fair.

Different overheads is the main difference, and of course the relative afluence of the catchment area will influence how much vets will charge.

Don't forget if it's out of hours it will cost more, and prices often vary according to the size of the bitch as well.

My mum's Pomeranian cost just under £500 during working hours, with one pup!

As we'd been with the surgery for 20 years, we sent a letter.  The vet was wonderful afterwards and phoned back, has refunded some money back and told us that he doesn't want to lose us.

My parents are pensioners and only get the basic state pension and they have to pay the same as everyone else.

Gosh that was one horrendous price SWD!!!!!!!!!

2 of my girls have had sections in the past 12 months, both same breed, both same size......1st bitch c-section normal week day, 'office' hours  cost £700+, next bitch middle of the night into Bank holiday Monday.....cost £300 with out of hours vet.......hence we have now changed our vet!

Our girl's c-section cost £460 (plus aftercare), out of hours. The c-section that we had 4 years ago cost nothing as the pup died.

All vets charge different, with reading the other posts i got off lightly last year as one of my girls had a emergency C Section 4am in the morning and my bill was £475.and some odd pence.

I have a large breed, and we had a section nearly 4 weeks ago, our bill came to £408. That was inclusive of aftercare and antibiotics. :-D

My friend who only lives 10 miles away from me but goes to a different vet had a c-section on her dog and had 7 pups (this was 4 days before our Pom).  She was charged around £300 and this included a bill for a number of tests and a check-up that one of her other dogs had carried out!

Seems that vets can charge whatever they want.

We had one in December last year think it was approx £400 . 1 puppy. It was at 8pm at night.

Hi one of mine had a c section 2 years ago it was out of hours and cost around 700 so yea they can charge what they want regards debbie.

Thats interesting thanks guys. I was starting to worry that I paid too much, and my friend well she paid I think over the odds. But what do you do, we are always in a panic when things to wrong, and we want our bitches to have the best care. But when the bill rolls in I am sure we are all the same, its gulp!  My friend is only 20 miles from me, so we are really in the same area.
When my bitch had her c-section I got to help.  I was in the surgery with my bitch being cut open, I saw her insides, and I was fascinated, The pups were pulled from her, and handed to my husband and I and we rubbed them dry.  The vet said when I paid the bill, well you know you have to pay to spectate.
I was pleased with the level of care he gave my bitch and we were in and out with in one and half hours. My bitch came around in my home in the whelping box, and all puppies were trying to suckle. It all went well.

Britney had a c-section 2 weeks ago when she had 5 puppies first delived at home and the nothing, we had a very large puppy stuck 2lb 8 oz born.

The vet came out and visited to see if an injection would hurry thing along a bit, but that was no use so off to the surgery, we had a big male puppy, 2lb 8 oz born blocking the way. he was 14-15lb when he left a 7.5 weeks

The vet charged us £560, that included the home visit as well.

Has anyone heard that c- section puppies end up with more chance of unbilical herias.

Lynn

I would have thought there was less chance of hernias with a c-section, mums can be a bit rough when pulling on the cords

I have had small hernia after a bitch chewed the cord too short and caused a small wound, it was small and closed itself leaving just a outy bellybutton.

Having seen caesarians where the pups are picked up with heavy clamps dangling from their cords, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if damage wasn't caused that way.

A friend of mine breeds neapolitan mastiffs and last year had to have a c-section this cost him just over £800 as it was out of hours and the vet said a dogs weight can vary the cost of a c-section.Something to do with the anasthetic I think.(I think he was just trying to justify his excessive costs if you ask me.)

Anaesthetic drugs are certainly tailored to a humans weight so I would imagine it would be the same for dogs.  It may also involve more staff for the safe handling of very large groggy dogs and that won't come cheap out of hours.