I have always heard people complain about how expensive vet's visits are but until now have never had cause to do so myself.  I have just paid about £70 to treat an ear infection.  I paid £31 for visit, ear wash and canaural drops.  Bring her back in a weeks time to check I was told which I dutifully did.  The different vet checked her one ear that was infected - didn't bother with the other which had a wood shaving in the first time and I had been treating with wash.  That was another £17!  I was aghast!  I had to buy more drops and earwash - to treat for another week.  Hence the total.  I have changed vet since loosing my old dog 3 years ago - this one is on the doorstep.  That dog had an emergency operation for a twisted stomach in the middle of the night - the bill - just over £300.  I accept that vets make money on booster injections etc - but never have I felt fleeced.  Oh the vet said - bring her back next week if you like - no fear!  Why don't they make their fees clear.  I asked if there was a list of their fees to be told no.  I asked how much it was going to cost to spay my dog - £113 I was told - when I asked 'and the rest' I was told at least another £100. They were going to let me leave without the full facts.  
Sorry about the rant but I feel very angry right now. 

HI There

I took my dog in for exactly the same thing a few weeks ago.  Our bill came up to £164.  The Vet charged us for two lots of antibiotics, (one of which cost £77.00) some ear wash and some ear drops.  The vet also charged us £20 consultation fee and a £15.00 microscopy fee.  We very stupidly didn't have doggy insurance - we do now!!!!!!!

But can you claim for an ear infection?  Am seriously thinking about insurance myself but will ask a few questions of my old vet first - may go back there even though it means a car journey everytime.

As far as I know you can claim for things like that, but obviously if Wilko needed further treatment now it may get a little difficult as he has been treated for the infection before I got the insurance.

Hi

I have had the opposite with a vet recently,

I had a litter of pups needing docked and dew claws. This vet was recomemded to me to do them

Anyway 3 pups tails and dew claws. He gave mum a antibiotic injection that would go through her milk and prevent the pups getting a infection from the procedure. Mum had a touch of mastitis so she had another injection and a ten days supply of two differnent types of antibiotics.

On the way out I brought a large tin of Lactol

I had no idea how much it was going to cost as I forgot to ask before hand and unfortunatly so few vets will do tails you cant really be choosey about it

It came to  £37 plus VAT. I was gobsmacked. My own vet I would of expected to pay that for just the mastits treatment and then get a lecture on breeding

The vet was lovely I was in his room for a good half a hour and he was very chatty and helpfull and i felt he really cared.

Unfortuanlty he is just a little to far to be my regular vet.

Just wanted to point out not all vets are bad you do get the odd one that is in it for more than the money

Wendy

Good God, I pay more than that just to have one pup docked!!  Where's your vet ???

Hi

Better not say. All I will say is I live in Scotland :o))

Wendy

Took my dog in for xrays.. first set of xrays were 50 pounds... each additional set is 25 pounds... my final bill was 320 pounds for a barrium test and medicine which was the tagment and antespin (nothing more that antacid for the stomach).  I was originally told less than 200 pounds..

All in all, when it was time for exit consultation... they could not find what was wrong, and said i should come back in a week. 

I will not be back, and now believe vets are really taking the mickey....

How much would it have cost a human to have that done in a private hospital, if there was no NHS?

Well, if there was no NHS, and one decided to visit the hospital for an upset stomach... and was giving antacid as medication, and then charged 320 and told there was nothing wrong but an upset stomach and to come back for further testing within a week, at additional cost... i guess that person has money to burn.

Sadly, i do not.  I also do not approve of being taken advantage of.  Whats to stop the vets from raising the prices next year, or the year after that.

I'm afraid we take things lying down all to often.

The point is professional fees are expensive.  In fact tradesman fees can be jolly expensive too! :)  Medicine, human and animal, is not a finite art sometimes tests and investigations will not reveal an answer but that does not mean it was unreasonable to do them and the more sophisticated the tests on offer to us the more we need to pay I'm afraid.

You mentioned a consultation (even a plumber will charge a minimum of £30 call-out fee), x-rays and a barium test - not just popping in for some milk of magnesia! ;)

Yeah, i do understand this (as she waits for a man to come and give a quote to clear out garden(crossing fingers its not one of these fly-tippers). 

It just makes you rant a bit when you look at your bank statement online, and have to explain to partner why you're out £320 for a dog that he didnt want.  Especially when he's the only one working....

Rant over. :)

>for a dog that he didnt want

Ah! Well if you want us to help sort that partner out just give us the address ;) :D

Quirky,
By LAW they have to have a Waste Transfer licence. If they havnt a clue what one is they should look it up and ytou should walk away.
So a way of making sure they are not fly tippers is to ask if they have got one.
Any tradesman who removes waste from a customer MUST HAVE a waste transfer licence. This is a way of trying to cut down on fly tippers.
Lea :)

Lea, thank you.  I asked him about a waste transfer license, and he laughed. The kinda laugh where i guess he and I was in on the same joke.  He then said "I'm not cheap because of my looks"... which again i guess i was suppose to laugh with him.  £90 to clear garden, cash only, no receipts.  Strangely enough he was so busy trying to set up a date and time, i dont think he noticed my look of disapproval. 

Large sigh.  My husband tells me to sort these things out, and I keep telling him, that tradesmen love taking advantage of women...

I'll leave my rant about fly-tippers for some other time... i believe i've taken this thread slightly off course and i apologise.

LOL, Well considering a large Skip cost £120 around here and thats the trade price I get it at, Would say he knows the back lanes rather to well :( :(
Good for you for not going for it just cause he was cheap. We need more people like you, that way the country lanes might actually stay lovely lanes perfect for wildlife not the dumps they are!!!!
Glad I could be of help :) :)
Lea :)

I have the same problem with garage bills.
*researches evening classes in car mechanics*

Recent bill on Spice, for a cut to the front leg! £169.40! thank you M&S for the insurance

Don't even start me on my bill of £615 for a simple ear tear, I've only just stopped ranting about it. Grrrr (Thank you, Direct Line, hopefully cheque will be winging it's way soon.)

M.

*researches evening classes in car mechanics*

From what I here, its a Plumbers course you want to be looking at JG :rolleyes::rolleyes:

the difference between animal and human treatment is that there is a 1st stop for humans who can go to the pharmacist for OTC medications but there is no doggy pharmacy and we have to pay a consultation fee to get basic information and medication. IMO it would be better if there was a middle wo/man you could see without having to see a vet who would advise you whether you needed the vet or not.

You can probably get the sort of information about the treatment of minor ailments that you are talking about from knowledgable animals keepers perhaps on Champdogs :)  and many treatments for minor ailments are also available over the counter for animals.  Anything requiring a prescription is obviously going to involve a professional judgement and even if there was a "middle person" providing a lower level of judgement for a middle range of treatments it is unlikely it would be provided free as it is in the NHS

Hi, Isabel. It was reading these forums that led me to believe it may have been megaesophagus.  I just wish i didnt actually tell the vet ahead of time, that i thought it may have been that.  I think what happened is he took my un-educated guess and diagnosis and ran with that.  I know next time to let them diagnose the dog before i throw my google research at them.  LOL

Of course as the law stands it's actually illegal for a non-qualified person to diagnose and treat someone else's animal; and a qualified person is going to want a fee ...

I think what gets people most is the massive variation in vet fee from different vets. Personally I have no complaints about my own vets, but I gulp at some of the prices quoted by others (not necessarily in this thread). Yes, I know that my vets charge well over the odds for vaccinations, worming etc, and probably for spay/neuter too, but I don't really resent that. All vets do it but they have a business to run, overheads and staff to pay for and the routine treatments are their bread and butter. My lot are very reasonable in their charges for major problems / investigations and that is what matters to me. Someone posted here recently about a vast bill for a torn ear, and gave the breakdown. My vets would not have charged at all for some of the things on the broken down bill (eg applying a dressing).

Human medical practitioners have guidelines for the different procedures they may carry out. Some will charge less if the person does not have health insurance and is paying out of their own pocket, but if a consultant continually charges more than the guideline price the insurance companies will want to know why. I wonder why vets (a) don't have something similar, (b) why the insurance companies seem to accept enormous disparities in cost for the same thing from different vets and in different parts of the country, and (c) why the BVA don't see that inexplicably differential prices risks bring the whole profession into disrepute.

Those are good points Jas but I think quite a bit of disparity is bound to occur when you consider the variation in expenses in running a business in different areas of the country.  As you have suggested I think different vets may also choose different percentages of mark up on the various products and services offered and that may depend on their understanding of what would be acceptable and viable for their particular clientelle.  I wonder if Insurance Companies do query the bills submitted by some vets :) it's maybe not something even the customer will be made aware of.  Like you I have been a little taken aback at what some posters fees have amounted to but in actual fact I did not think ceejay's bill was unreasonable at all.

Yes, vets fees do seem high, everytime I take my cat or dog I know it's going to cost somewhere between £30 - £50. The appointment, injection and tablets etc soon add up. I always phone my husband to tell him that our cat/dog is ok, and what the vet has said. He always laughs and says "How much ?". After I tell him I get the same reply.........."Never mind, he's worth it". Maybe vets know that owners will pay almost anything to have their dear pet made well again - but as long as they can make mine well then I'll pay up. What I get back from my two boys is worth every penny.
Now dentists.....that's another story :rolleyes: !.

Val

Vets' fees are nothing compared to what some men/women spend a year on their cars/clothes/hair/cigarettes/holidays etc etc etc :D :D I'd happily put all of those aside to pay for my dogs' health :)

Daisy

Vets' fees are nothing compared to what some men/women spend a year on their cars/clothes/hair/cigarettes/holidays etc etc etc :-D :-D I'd happily put all of those aside to pay for my dogs' health :-)

This is exactly what we say as well, and about show entry fees etc. Our animals is our ONLY real interest, other than that we only read books, watch TV and similar, we don't drink, don't smoke, hardly ever buy new clothes (had a good laugh at today's Daily Mail where it says the average woman spends £100 a month on shoes! I don't even spend over a fiver if I need a pair of trainers, and my last pair of sandals lasted me 7 years), don't go on holiday etc. We just chose to spend it on the animals instead as it is what we enjoy. Yes occasionally hubby grumbles at vet's fees as we have so many animals, but he always pays the bill and he OFTEN says how glad he is that I am not like his workmates' wives that keep going shopping for clothes and shoes as they spend more money than I do. :)

LOL - I'm the same :) I have one pair of best shoes, one pair for work, one pair of trainers, one pair of trouser shoes, one pair of wellies ooh and one pair of smart sandals that I had to buy last summer to wear to son's graduation - ALL black (apart from the sandals) so they go with everything. When they wear out, I buy a new pair :D I'm the same with clothes :D Never been to a beauty parlour in my life (and it shows :D) - no manicures, facials, waxings. Waste not want not - how lucky is my husband :D

Daisy

A beauty parlour, what's that?  ;-)  :-D

We've the same, no extravagance here either.  :-)  But more than happy to pay for our dogs health.

You know, a few months ago, I had a little chat with my vet about the costs of treatment etc.  The subject came up on the back of something else, can't remember what exactly.

Anyhow, he said that only 20% of his client base will pay for treatment as how it should be prescribed by set manufacturers guidelines.  The other 80% would prefer him to cut corners to keep the costs down.

For example, Pfizer, the manufacturers of Rimadyl recommend that a dog prescribed this drug long-term is regularly blood screened to check liver and kidney function.  Some of his clients recoil in horror at the cost.  That won't help the dog that has an unidentified liver problem.

I said to him on no account was he to cut corners with my dogs, I wanted the best vet care and I am more than willing to pay for it. 

You cannot put a price on the health of an animal or a human and........... thank God we have vets, their expertise and the diagnostic equipment they have available to them...... 

Now dentists.....that's another story

Maybe another price disparity as I think my dentist's charges are very reasonable. I pay ~£18 for a consultation. It's ~£ 22 for a scale polish and check up and I think around £30 for a filling

Don't forget that the vets have to pay the wholesalers for drugs too, and they aren't cheap. Just recently my dog had ulcers on her eyes and had to have some special drops. As i work there i can have it at cost price plus VAT, which for these drops was £16 for a tiny bottle. THey made absolutely no profit out of that, imagine how much otehr drugs must cost, it all pushes up the price doesn't it!

Arched - sadly not everyone will pay anything to get their animals treated.

Yes I accept that running a business in Bucks or Berks is going to be more expensive than in the Borders or Bodmin but I don't think it accounts for quite such a large disparity as we hear about, especially as it doesn't happen to the same extent in medicine or dentistry. The case of the torn ear took me aback as I would expect a bill of £80 - 100 for something like that. I think you are right to surmise that some vets simply push the bills as high as they think their clientele will accept, and if that is so, it's really not on.

Also the increasing prevalence of insurance has probably encouraged some vets to overcharge. I had a chat with one of my vets on this a while back and he said that it was definitely happening with horse insurance. Personally I don't insure because insurance companies are not in business for my benefit, I have a genetically healthy breed (for whom I'd resent paying extra just because they are big!) and because I know that when I get landed with the occasional big bill I will be able to pay it - but if I lived in the Home Counties I suspect that I would. And following on from that, if I did insure why should I pay to subsidise those vets in the Home Counties. After all your car insurance depends on where you live, so why not differential dog insurance payments by area?

Dog insurance does vary (quite considerably) by area :)

Daisy

>I think you are right to surmise that some vets simply push the bills as high as they think their clientele will accept, and if that is so, it's really not on.

:D Actually I was thinking that vets in socially deprived areas may keep routine, preventative medicine costs down.
I think you are right. though, that insurance does account for some of the increases.

Ahhh, oh well, will have to stick with the one that I have then :d  aka spanishwaterdog

Hi

I just had to take the pups to my own vet as one as a slight weezey chest. I knew the one that docked was good. I have been charged as much for one pup getting examined and a course of antibiotics as he charged me for 3 dockings medication for mum and a tin of Lactol. I wish he was closer.

Just show different areas ect

Wendy

When we got our new puppy last year my other dogs insurance renewal was almost up. I toyed with the idea of waiting to insure my pup at the same time as renewing his insurance. I decided to insure her straight away and boy am I glad that I did. 2 weeks after I insured her she broke her leg. She was referred to a specialist vet and has since had to have another operation, the bills have totalled almost £3000 (no I havent typed it wrong it really is £3000). Thanks goodness for M&S .
Jane