Vet bill

Smitty said:
It seems a lot to me, proportional to what I paid many years for that sort of thing. I would certainly query it.

I wonder if there will come a point where people just don't have animals as they can't afford the vet bills and it will just be the very rich who keep them.
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That’s the hopeful version. The bad news version is that people keep them and don’t get the vets.
 
Smitty said:
It seems a lot to me, proportional to what I paid many years for that sort of thing. I would certainly query it.

I wonder if there will come a point where people just don't have animals as they can't afford the vet bills and it will just be the very rich who keep
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Or people still have horses but welfare suffers as they cannot afford a vet, it’s already happening with dogs…
and please don’t say, they should have insurance as that is also passing a point of affordability…
 
Marshpiper said:
Or people still have horses but welfare suffers as they cannot afford a vet, it’s already happening with dogs…
and please don’t say, they should have insurance as that is also passing a point of affordability…
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Some don't even have the pts money to hand, instead offering broken horses and ponies as companions or palming off to dealers for a few quid.
 
colourville 17 said:
Yes I've been advised since the call out manuka honey is amazing. Once I can afford it I'll be adding a tub to my first aid kit lol xx
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Manuka Honey is the named product ! I have used honey for 30 odd years and I get good results with just a jar of supermarket cheapest brand. It is a natural anti biotic. I have healed some massive injuries including a cut from the hock to fetlock exposing the bone and apart from the initial antibiotics we healed the wound totally with honey - my vet is a long standing convert.and I have proved the success to another vet over the years!
 
ester said:
Can I mention that honey encourages the production of granulation tissue which isn’t always a good thing.
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Oh yes! Used a manuka honey based gel the vet prescribed for a large open wound on a canon bone before and that thing went PROUD.

Jojo2go said:
I'm still stuck on antibiotics for a small cut?
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A youngster on the yard needed antibiotics for a small cut over christmas, tiny little cut, massive swollen elephant leg!
 
That is a huge bill. I had a weekend emergency call out Saturday, full examination and drugs, back Sunday to re examine, more drugs and at least half a dozen phone calls in between and that was £600. I was delighted with it! Wasn't so happy with the previous one though, emergency vet again, Saturday evening (bit of a theme!) , on call vet, had to pay £300 up front, fine, but then they tried to charge me for call out, examination and consultation, i queried the consultation as vet had spent 10 of those minutes on another call to someone who would not pay the £300 up front, offering them advice on what to do, whilst treating my horse! They removed that from my bill. I have no issue in paying for a service but not when i was paying for that time and they were dealing with someone else.
 
sport horse said:
Manuka Honey is the named product ! I have used honey for 30 odd years and I get good results with just a jar of supermarket cheapest brand. It is a natural anti biotic. I have healed some massive injuries including a cut from the hock to fetlock exposing the bone and apart from the initial antibiotics we healed the wound totally with honey - my vet is a long standing convert.and I have proved the success to another vet over the years!
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The vet was going to post out a second tub of antibiotics as he only had one on him. The swelling has already came down so thinking maybe I could cancel that an finish of treatment with honey that I have literally jst ordered lol x
 
colourville 17 said:
Also does 10 days on a double dose of antibiotics seem alot? He's been on them for 3 days now and swelling has came down significantly x
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No, that's how long my horse was given initially. Stopping a course of antibiotics early is how we create antibiotic resistance and which causes problems for everybody human and animals when we run out of effective antimicrobials.
 
irishdraft said:
Its probably the cost of the drugs especially if he had double dose, I recently had my vet out and was charged over a 200% mark up on an item, I queried it and they came out with the old chestnut they cannot source it in the quantities the online pharmacy can which I fully except but 200 % markup is taking the piss imo. This isn't a corporate vets practice.
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200% mark up you say. What was the cost price to them, including admin time? Because if you don't know that, you can't know the mark up.
And it's not an old chestnut. Vets are legally obliged to order from their designated supplier, and can only hold or order tiny quantities, comparatively. Online warehouses can hold vast quantities and don't have the overheads that vet practices do.
 
colourville 17 said:
Also does 10 days on a double dose of antibiotics seem alot? He's been on them for 3 days now and swelling has came down significantly x
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You don't say where the cut on the leg was.

A horse of mine (15 years ago) had a bill of nearly £1k for the most innocent of cuts. However it was near a tendon sheath, required flushing twice, dressing daily and antibiotics. So whilst on the face of it your bill seems high. Without knowing more details it's difficult to say whether it actually is high.
 
colourville 17 said:
Also does 10 days on a double dose of antibiotics seem alot? He's been on them for 3 days now and swelling has came down significantly x
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Yes. It's normally been 5 days for my animals and a week for me. Sometimes a week for an animal.

I assume the vet felt that there was an elevated risk, but I'd want to know why. There is actually evidence around that shorter courses can be as effective as longer courses, but I would start by assuming the vet was seriously worried about yours for some reason.
.
 
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