Cat vs dog castration prices?

[Nudibranch]

Just curious...waiting at the vet the other day and reading the various signs. Castrate cat, £85. Castrate dog, £245! Spay was a similar difference. Admittedly that was the pricier local vet. My BC was recently done at another vet for £175.
Why so much more for a dog? Some breeds are bigger, but not all. Are dogs anatomically more complex round there?

 

[Blanche]

More drugs means higher prices.

 

[SOS]

Very different surgeries, often done under different anaesthetic types.

A cat castrate can take a matter of minutes and involves a single blade. It’s often done under a combination of drugs that don’t need gaseous anaesthesia.

A dog castrate involves full GA, including pre meds and gaseous anaesthesia. The surgery is more complex (although simple in the scope of surgery), longer and requires the use of more sterile consumables and kits.

Not to downplay the importance of cat castrates being carried out correctly and cats monitored fully but it is a very minor surgery… legend has it in long ago times, there were some very questionable practices towards keeping cats still enough to carry out the very quick procedure (one being placing them in a wellington boot!). Luckily things are very different now.

As for the spays, different species, different anaesthetic combinations at greatly different volumes of drugs. Cat spays are generally quicker as visualisation is easier and they are often carried out via the flank route in the UK, which simplified means there are less layers to get to the reproductive organs and therefore less to stitch up. Again reducing time and consumables needed.

Bitch spays are often priced on weight so a Great Dane should cost more than a Yorkshire terrier but because of the procedure being slightly more complex it’s always going to be more expensive than a cat spay or castrate of any kind.

 

[smiggy]

Yes dog ops are much more complicated
cat, tiny incision on scrotal sac, pull out testicle, tie knot , repeat
dog, make incision, faff about extracting testicles through it one by one, tie off using suture material, suture wound
plus cost of anaesthetic,painkillers on size basis

cat Spey, tiny incision, tiny uterus, not much fat etc couple of stitches and done
dog, midline incision so have to be more careful sewing up as could get hernia etc, often delving about through layers of fat to find ovaries etc, plus dogs much more deep chested

 

[ycbm]

Well you learn something every day on this forum!
.

 

[MurphysMinder]

When my daughter was a newly qualified vet she did some voluntary work for an overseas rescue. I have a picture somewhere of her castrating feral cats, several of them lined up on a table in the open air, as said above it seemed to be just a quick snip and move on to the next one.

 

[Boulty]

Yes both procedures on cats are a lot quicker and simpler. A cat castrate will normally be asleep for less than 10 minutes total, the only kit that’s needed is a blade, they aren’t generally taken into a theatre and can be done without intubation if you use an appropriate drug combo.

A dog will always have a full GA with ET tube, will likely be asleep for 30-40 mins total, needs a sterile kit opening & to be done in a theatre.

Then of course there’s differences in drugs & amounts etc.

Although for spaying both species will have a full GA and go into theatre cat spats are done with a diffuser approach to a bitch with a much smaller incision and you’re looking at a 20 min op vs up to an hour for a bitch ( hopefully usually less if uncomplicated but not always).

 

[Chucho]

I watched a cat castration as part of some anaesthesia training and was so surprised at how simple and quick it was to do. It took the vet about 30 seconds, if that.