Vets bills? rant

[Taliesins]

Hi all what do you think about Vets prices?
Just had a hound suffer Gastric torsion (life threatening) had to take it to the emergency vet. One operation at a cost of £450 Ok. Then two nights aftercare brought the bill up to a total of












£1500
On top of this I have the PDSA constantly mailing me for contributions and I cant take my animals there as I dont qualify (because I am fortunate enough to be in work)
What is it coming to? .

Ok I am insured but I do remember the days when animal insurance was a rare thing and vets prices werent as high. Does the fact that your animal is insured inflate prices? I honestly believe this to be true.
The first question the vet usually asks is 'Is your animal insured?' What difference does it make? unless its the price! Not only that my insurance company can take up to 5 months to pay out. Rant over

[Scorpion]

Horrible thought but what happens if you refuse to pay an exorbitant amount?
Would they threaten to put the animal to sleep or do you think they would negociate an appropriate amount?

£1500 is huge amount of money, even if they did keep the animal for 2 days it's normally just kept in a cage for observation. They don't have to tend to it every minute. Total rip off, but they know the Great British public, on the whole, love their animals.

No doubt some work shy dole wallah will take their American Pit Bull to the PDSA after it's been involved in a fight and end up paying nowt!

2nd rant over!

[plumb bob]

We had a pony in hospital for a week, including operation and aftercare and transport to and fro and that only came to £1500.00.

My dog had an eye infection, common sort of thing from rough and tumble with the other dogs in the park, so it's a re-occurring thing, so got some cream in a very small tube from local vet,anyway tube runs out and dog gets same eye infection about 3 months later, so I phone vet and ask for a repeat prescription, to be told the vet must see him first--Cost of £21 for consult,
I said no.

Robbig basts.

[Gamedawn]

Last time I had a dog in for any length of time, one of my bitches had a life threatning viral infection and was on 24 hour obs and a drip for a week. Bill for that was "only" £850. And I'm not insured If the treatment is good then you've just got to wince and pay up - if the treatment is no good then find another vet. Occasionally you have to remind them who pays the bill.

[captain_chaos]

Nikki had to an emergancy operation on a dog Friday night, that had a twisted stomach. Cost a fairly large amount.

[AuldNick]

If you know the name of the medicine most vet pills & creams can be bought from the vet net at a fraction of high street prices.

A big con by vets here is microchipping = £35 but what they dont tell you is the local council wil pay it for you, always wondered if the vet's are double billing IE £35 from daft gits like me then the same for the council or whatever they pay?

But hey these are honest vets, wouldnt do that sort of thing....

[captain_chaos]

ok I'm relaying this on behalf of Nikki. If you were to have the same surgery on yourself and have to pay for it you'd be looking at a huge bill. So in comparison vets are cheaper.

[joker??]

ok I'm relaying this on behalf of Nikki. If you were to have the same surgery on yourself and have to pay for it you'd be looking at a huge bill. So in comparison vets are cheaper.

you dont have to be unemployed to recieve medical treatment so i dont agree with that,
pdsa or rspca do free treatment if owner is destitute or unemployed ,
dont know one vet who will do free treatment if joe public walks in off street
£500 for keeping an eye on my bulldog for one night!!!!!! no specialist or even vet on hand yeah

[Scorpion]

ok I'm relaying this on behalf of Nikki. If you were to have the same surgery on yourself and have to pay for it you'd be looking at a huge bill. So in comparison vets are cheaper.

Doctors / surgeons are paid a salary, unless they are in private practice, they don't get paid per treatment / diagnosis / operation, so there is no real comparison here.

Fair enough if your on a damn good wage, you take the hit and pay up, but what if you're on a pension and don't qualify for help? Many pensioners would rather starve and pay the fee rather than let there beloved companion be put to sleep (which they would still be charged for by the way) because they can't afford the bill!

[jax]

Hi, being a livestock farmer I have been hit for pretty big vet bills averaging about £1000 a month for routine medicines and vaccinations. The prices are appalling. Farmer friends in Ireland pay much less for the exact same medicine. For a while now I have just been doing most of the vet work myself i.e. stitching torn ears, cut paws, injecting antibiotics (sheepdogs), sewing up prolapses in sheep, doing postmortems and even amputating a spare leg from a 5-legged lamb! My monthly vet bill is now down to a low roar.


.........................
Jacqueline

[plumb bob]

Hi, being a livestock farmer I have been hit for pretty big vet bills averaging about £1000 a month for routine medicines and vaccinations. The prices are appalling. Farmer friends in Ireland pay much less for the exact same medicine. For a while now I have just been doing most of the vet work myself i.e. stitching torn ears, cut paws, injecting antibiotics (sheepdogs), sewing up prolapses in sheep, doing postmortems and even amputating a spare leg from a 5-legged lamb! My monthly vet bill is now down to a low roar.


.........................
Jacqueline

Hi Jax, thats pretty brave of you to attempt that sort of surgery, ever thought of training to be a vet, gotta pay better than farming.



Robert

[AuldNick]

Aint vet's failed dentists, or is it the other way round

[plumb bob]

Aint vet's failed dentists, or is it the other way round

From my experience I think doctors are failed vets and dentists are failed doctors, and estate agents have failed at everything!

[Nikki]

i was up till 4am on friday night saving a dog's life who had a twisted stomach and would have died without immediate attention. i had to call my boss in for help with the op and 2 nurses to help look after the animal. we then had it in ICU on constant ECG and blood pressure monitoring all night, with me watching it constantly until 4am, then the nurse taking over for the rest of the night - she was not left alone all night. apart from having to cover the cost of the specialised equipment etc that we use and paying for the skills of the surgeons, you have to then pay us for spending half our night up with the dog - surely that deserves a fairly decent amount of money? i dont get any time off the next day to make up for it, and personally dont receive a penny more for doing it either. i am salaried, so whether i stay up all night or not doesn't make a difference to my wage. i could also have buggered off to bed after the op finished at 1am, but i chose to stay and constantly monitor this critically ill animal because i care - i certainly dont get any thanks for it from my boss in terms of money or just praise for doing a good job. When people then moan about the cost, it really makes me wonder why I bother. Should just have gone home to bed, told them their dog would probably die and got myself some sleep.

with regards to whether it was owned by someone insured or old and on a pension, it makes no difference to what it costs us - we are a business and cannot cut the costs just because an OAP owns the animal. we charge the same no matter whether the animal is insured or not. all the horse vets i've worked for have been in huge amounts of debts due to their clients not paying up because they bill in arrears. small animal vets normally dont have this problem because they ask for payment at the time, but why should we go into debt to fund doing work for people that cant afford it. insurance isn't expensive so if you know you cant afford a huge bill (which personally there's no way i could), then you get the animal insured. my horse costs me £12 a month for insurance and the dog is even less - it hardly breaks the bank. I really isn't up to private businesses to fund vet treatment - if the government feels certain people should get cheap/free vet treatment then they need to fund it. otherwise if you cant afford to pay when it goes wrong, then should you have an animal? by keeping an animal you have a responsibility to be able to look after it in sickness and health. i dont believe any of you have actually ever looked at the finances of a vet practice and realised how much the overheads are. according to the vet business magazine, your average vet has to bring in £250,000 of fees per year for the boss to be able to start making a profit, once their salary and all other overheads have been accounted for - i found this staggering, but it's what they say.

and those who moan about not being able to get repeat prescriptions, it's nothing to do with us wanting more money - the law says we cannot prescribe anything unless we've seen the animal in the last 6 months - nothing to do with us - the government made that law - we just have to abide by it. we do special offers for people on long term medication, but i quite often suggest to people that they explore the internet for cheaper prices and i will happily write prescriptions for anyone who wants to go down this route.

[marky]

Hi, being a livestock farmer I have been hit for pretty big vet bills averaging about £1000 a month for routine medicines and vaccinations. The prices are appalling. Farmer friends in Ireland pay much less for the exact same medicine. For a while now I have just been doing most of the vet work myself i.e. stitching torn ears, cut paws, injecting antibiotics (sheepdogs), sewing up prolapses in sheep, doing postmortems and even amputating a spare leg from a 5-legged lamb! My monthly vet bill is now down to a low roar.


.........................
Jacqueline

Do you do Foreigners