Vet bills...

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Passionflower

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My mare was treated for mud fever afew weeks ago, kept ringing and ringing to know what the bill was and only just had the letter through today. Now I'm really p****d off because I didn't think it would be any where near the price as what it is! It's disgusting! I've also been charged with the call out fee when it was clearly on a zone visit. So can I just ask, should I be paying for this? And what do your horses vets charge for call out charge? It's ridiculous
 
My old vets would do zone visits but this only covered annual check up and jabs - so just make sure you know what your vets class as a zone visit before you fire off at them
 
my vets has a cheap zone visit day and a free zone visit day, last time they came to me was on a cheap day

They did charge a consultation fee though regardless of the cheap zone charge so £25 quickly became £77 (or thereabouts) then meds on top obviously
 
I would ask before having them out prices, but yes if you ring and tell them how shocked you were perhaps they will negotiate

It was pointed out to me recently though that they are a business and not a charity! That shut me up!
 
Lots of practices send bills out at the end of the month - it's hardly unusual IME. Why do you reckon the bill is 'disgusting'? Mud fever can be tricky and costly to clear up. Re: the zone visit, have you checked that it doesn't only apply to routine, pre-booked visits?
 
What was it you were charged? I think mine is around the £25 mark for call out, but that doesn't include consultation charge.
Also billing at the end of the month is standard around here. There will be a breakdown of what the charges are on there, maybe you had expensive medication which bumped it up?
 
What treatment did your horse have?

When ours were treated for mud rash, they gave them flammazine, which was really expensive.. With antibiotics and bute it adds up..

Just ring up calmly and tell them its more expensive than you were expecting and can they take you through the costs.. If there is anything wrong (such as call out fee when on a zone visit) it will be noticed and rectified..
 
Did you book in advance?
If it short notice even on a zone day you wont get a discount.
As for waiting for the bill.
They tend to do invoices once a month.
They are busy so be patient and wait for them to sent you the bill!

Vets consultations and equiptment is expensive.
How much were you ex pecting to pay and how much was it?

roughly
£15 zone visit
£20 cream
£30 discuss treatment
so £65 easy but i would budget £100
 
My vets call out fee is £45 for booked appt- but you don't pay a consultation fee

Just the £45 and whatever you get done. The more horses they do the cheaper it is too- more than 5 and the call out is free :)
 
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I just had a bill yesterday....my vet is £42.00 for a visit and then £44.10 to actually look at the horse, so a bill can rack up very quickly!!! Ours do zone visits, but you have to call at least 24 hours in advance, so it doesn't cover emergency callouts....
 
My horse had mud fever back in july, and although the vet didn't attend (I spoke to him on the phone) he prescribed Flammazine which, when the bill came at the end of the month, cost £40 before VAT. So if your horse was prescribed meds then I am not surprised that the bill could have been quite a lot!
 
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Passionflower said:
My mare was treated for mud fever afew weeks ago, kept ringing and ringing to know what the bill was and only just had the letter through today. Now I'm really p****d off because I didn't think it would be any where near the price as what it is! It's disgusting! I've also been charged with the call out fee when it was clearly on a zone visit. So can I just ask, should I be paying for this? And what do your horses vets charge for call out charge? It's ridiculous
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Welcome to the world of horse ownership - it's an expensive business!

I'm assuming the question about paying refers to the call out charge - I'd simply call the practice and ask them about this particular charge.

As for calling and calling for your bill - as Rhino says, most are sent out monthly, not instantly.

So what was the breakdown of the bill exactly?
 
My vets charge £45 call out, plus a consultation fee.

They don't do "zone days"

Plus like others of said if you needed anti biotics etc, they really push the bill up.
 
My vet doesnt do zone visits. The call out is around £30 and then a consultation of £25 ish. As someone said, things like antibiotics really push the price up! I had a bottle to give him by mouth by syringe that cost £60 for a weeks course!
 
My vets do zone visits but its only free call out fees if you pay on the same day of the visit - your vet might be like this too? I'd ring them up to talk about the specifics but once I knew why it was the price it was and it was correct, i'd pay it :)
 
I had a bill today for vaccinations. It was £68. £35 of that was call out. I think from memory the consultation cost is £15 for a a short consultation (that was a check of all 4 feet with hoof testers, trotting up and showing me how to apply some thrush treatment) About 10 minutes work.

I think my vets are quite reasonable.

My first ever vet bill was for ringworm (a different vet practice). By the time the vet had been out and done a skin scraping, analyzed it, come back out to talk me through and provide treatment, the bill was £250!

Horses are expensive, simple! xx
 
Horses are expensive yes but I do think some charge more highly than they have to

Yes I know its a business, yes I know they trained for years and yes I know they have expensive equipment etc but there is a huge difference in what my farm animal vet and my equine vet charge, they are coming a similar distance.

I am happy with both sets of vets, they are knowledgable and very pleasant I just think when the word 'equine' is associated with anything whether that is buckets, feed or vets the price seems to shoot up
 
I had vets out on a non zone day. Bill came yesterday

Call out plus exam/consultation (no treatment required) was £70.30

Horses are expensive and lots of vets don't bill until the end of the month. Mine (Rossdales) take ages to bill me. No skin off my nose though.
 
Also, they do take time to invoice. I like to try and settle as quick as i can but i had my vet out at the end of last month for teeth (my young boy needed sedating), which is fairly standard, but I have to wait until the end of November for my bill. Again, no skin off my nose to wait a little :D Just going back to treatment costs though, my boy had bleeding from his nose and the vet was out three times to try different things. Cost me £400 (£90 of that being call out charges!!) in the end but hey thats horses.
 
Jess- I would hate to be on a non zone call out !


Mine are between 28 and 45 - dependant on time and number of horses seen at same time + 30 for examination -which really pees me off - do you think i would call a vet to a yard and then say - ok thanks - and not have the horse examined ? it does make me laugh when i see it.
 
I have had the vet quite a lot for non examined things recently such as bandages changes when my pony needed his bandage changed every week for 10 weeks due to a broken splint bone, where they don't need to examine the horse just changing the bandage and therefore no consultation fee.

They also don't charge consultation fee for routine vacinations or teeth rasping.

We don't have zone visits though and call out is about £35 and consultation about the same, call out charge is going to cover costs of petrol running a suitable car that can get to farms etc and and time taken to get to the yard.

TBH if having a call out and examination plus some medications I would be expecting a bill of about £100

There are some vets locally that do zone days but you have to be available all day and they will give you a call on the day to give you an estimate of what time they are going to come, so you cant book a certain time or vet you have to fit around what the vets have planned for that day.

Gingerwitch said:
Jess- I would hate to be on a non zone call out !


Mine are between 28 and 45 - dependant on time and number of horses seen at same time + 30 for examination -which really pees me off - do you think i would call a vet to a yard and then say - ok thanks - and not have the horse examined ? it does make me laugh when i see it.
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