Reasonable vet fees?

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kate081

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I've just received the bill for a cut (kick) to my horses leg that was stapled.

I called the vet at 5.30pm on Friday so only just after hours & have been billed:

Visit £87.15
Out of hours fee £70.50
Consultation (25 min) £60.63

= £218.28 just for them to come out?!

plus Drugs £138 (which seems OK)

Do those charges for the call out seem reasonable? I'm shocked as I was expecting a bill around £200 not £356... (and the staples haven't been removed yet! :( )
 
I'd expect to pay what you did but I wouldn't be happy about it. My vets are expensive too!

Hope your beasty is feeling better soon.
 
WTF?!

Visit and consultation are, in my book, the same thing. If, by "visit", they mean call out, then thats extortionate as our call out (even out of hours) is NOTHING like that.

Consultation is fair enough.

BUT THEN to charge you ON TOP for out of hours! I would be seriously unimpressed.

To give you an idea, when my youngster kicked herself in the face, giving herself a puffy eye (don't ask!!), this:

-Emergency out of hours call out (about half 6pm - although they did make me wait til half 8 as there was an emergency PTS before me (horse broke its leg) which I was happy to wait for, still out of hours nonetheless)
-Long chat with vet and examination of her eye
-natter about her growth etc
-two injections of antibiotics (just in case it was an infection)
-one shot of anti-swelling stuff
-6 sachets of bute

Cost a grand total of......£90!!
 
I used to have a really expensive vet. My horse kept falling over in the trailer so we called them out to sedate him so we could get him home. The injections were about £15 but the total fee came to £200! I think is was something like:

£40 standard call out

£70 extra because it was an emergency and it was a weekend

Then they charged £1 per minute that they were there (which I didn't know about so spent ages chatting to them). I'm glad I didn't invite them in for a cup of tea...it would have been a very expensive one!...So about £60

£10 for 2 disposable syringes and needles. Which is a rip-off as I can buy the same sterile syringes/needles at work for about 10p each!

Needless to say I have now changed vets to one which is much cheaper and nicer!
 
That's what I think. Paying £220 for a 25 minute visit is crazy. I can't see why I pay out of hours PLUS visit.

I haven't paid the bill yet. I'm going to query it as I would have just paid it myself but at £356 without having had the staples removed yet, it's going to be an insurance claim. Grrr.

Horse is fine thanks but the staples only held for 3 days so the call out really wasn't worth the money!
 
I had the vet out after hours for Rox to have staples in June.

Cant rememeber price of each thing but I know the out of hours visit was £50,
She had 5 day course of bute
5 days of anti biotics
Antibiotic and tetnus shot
5 staples

Total cost £117.86

Call out fee`s tend to vary regarding the time the vet came out, before 5pm is £30, 5pm-8pm £50, after 8pm £90, this is just for my vet! i got a £90 charge the other day for TAKING my dog to my vet at 830 pm, was horrified:eek:

I`d ring them because I cant see how they can justify charging you both call out fee and vist??? seems they have their wires crssed, well i hope!

Do you know anyone who works ina hospital who can get you a staple remover? its so easy to do!!!! doesnt hurt the horse and will be a darn sight cheaper than getting your vet out again!
 
Seems on the steep side to me, how far did they have to travel?

I was a bit shocked recently, I had a horse pierce his nose with a leadrope clip.
My bill was just over £200, for that I had call out (10 mile trip for vets) examination (all of 2 secs to look at and vet stayed a total of 15 minutes), IV sedation and drugs, 2 injections of different antibios and a tetanus booster.

I was expecting £120-£150
 
I had to get the Vet out on Easter Sunday, his leg was huge all way up.

This cost £115, which included antibiotic and bute injection, plus a five day supply of each.

We have to pay a call out (based on distance from surgery - so this is about £25 normally), out of hours (I think this £11) and then an examination which I think is £40.

Plus any medicines etc and VAT on the lot.
 
Well I planned ahead on the staple removal so while he's sedated they're taking his wolf teeth out too. Something I need to have done anyway. The staples would be easy to remove with the right tool coz they aren't in the wound anymore!

I've queried the charges with my vets & the first thing they asked is whether he's insured! Not impressed. Yes he's insured but I only intend to claim for major things. A cut being stapled should be routine.
 
My last out of hours call out was £50 on a Sunday. On top of the £17 normal call out and the consultation fee which is something like £30.

Just for a box of trim which I already said was all I needed. So £90 for call out and consultation for a tenners worth of oral antibiotics.

They're lovely though and they know they're stuff so I won't complain too much
 
After reading this thread, I think I'll have to ring my vet and tell him I love him :o:D
My 2 last bills:
call out out of hours at 3 am on Sunday, lamb a ewe, antibiotics, painkillers, disposal of afterbirth - £71

out of hours call out to a horse with bad allergic reaction (with me within 10 minutes), corticosteroids, antibiotics (3 day course), antihistamines (7 day course) plus 40 bute as he had some in the car ;) for another horse - £110
 
Ah. You have a regular vet Martlin. I have special equine only vets. I expect this has something to do with my bills! Because obviously all horse people are rich! When I was at a mixed practise in Norfolk they were never like this. I don't especially care to be with horse people but everyone else on the yard is and when I was new to the area I had no one else to ask about which vet to use.
 
LOL at special equine only vet :) with special equine only prices, no doubt ;)
In all seriousness, though, if I have a specific equine problem that would benefit from a specialist equine vet, I'm happy to consult a specialist, but in most cases of day to day falling apart, a large animal practice does the trick just fine.
My vet is a one man band, with keen interest in horses and a very pragmatic approach that I really like and find more often in farm vets rather than equine vets - I suppose it has a lot to do with their target client...
 
martlin said:
My vet is a one man band, with keen interest in horses and a very pragmatic approach that I really like and find more often in farm vets rather than equine vets - I suppose it has a lot to do with their target client...
Click to expand...



This is exactly it. Farmers ( that I know anyway) tend to be more pragmatic than horse owners and so the vet that looks after their animals can be too. My vet always wants to do full investigation into everything. I'm quite happy to leave a swollen leg with some bute and see how it goes. My horse is a stupid TB after all. I get the impression that lots of horse owners would rather just have xrays done on day one, partly because their horse is a much loved pet and partly because the horse vet always sees the worse case scenario. It's like they feed off each other.

still when I need urgent colic surgery I'll be glad I'm with them so mustn't grumble!
 
Bonkers. I think I'd be tempted to shop around for alternative vets.

There was only one time I winced at a charge on my bill, and that was when the vet (not my preferred one, but the one on call that day) whipped my horse's shoe off and charged me, amongst other things, £24 for the privilege. Turns out it was unnecessary too :mad:

Other than that, the practice I use is fabulous and charge a very reasonable callout of £28. Not sure about out of hours though. No separate charge for consultation either, that's all included in the diagnosis/treatment of the problem.
 
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