vet charge am im being unrealsitic??

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ajb

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Friends horse has been ongoing lame since december and is now back in work but she had the vet last week to check something with him, whilst he was in another of my liveries horses was in to keep him company but he was lame due to pulling a shoe..vet checked mates horse and then made a fuss of the other one, said he was also lame and figured he was footsore (farrier had swung by the night before and checked him for me) and that I was giving him bute and BR for few days...she said 'would you like me to look "..horse is my liveries and not registered with vet, anyway trotted him up she felt digi pulse said the same as farrier and that was that...suggested she put 5 bute on my account for this horse etc..anyway today I got the bill...just under 70!!!....
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..basically shared visit, bute for a fiver and nearly 40 for a "consultation"...im shocked and angry,...it was no more than a few mins work and she didnt say there would be a charge (to be honest I wouldnt have let her look as farrier and I were happy it wasnt anything more)...im going to ring the surgery Monday and say i think its sharp practice etc and suggest much reduced bill (given that this vet has had nearly 2500 already from the mates horse under insurance)...am i being unreasonable??? would you have expected a full charge for this and im just niave????.....wine if you got this far!!!
 
I think if she was going to charge for the look she should have told you up front. Yes, I to would be rather put out.
 
i had the vet recently to vacinate my mini and asked her to look at another horses leg as she was there.it wasnt a full exam literally a look over and i wasnt charged extra for it. i guess the lesson to learn is to clarify at the time if there would be a charge but it does sound a bit unreasonable to me.
 
I think it's different if you ask them to look, but as she was offering she should have said something like "you can split the call-out charge".
 
at the end of the day the vet is runnin a business and you have to pay for the service..
as i was not there to hear the conversation and there for have not heard the whole story, i Can.t comment but a consultation fee is fairly standard.

lou x
 
Sounds steep to me

My recent vets bill was £45 which consisted of £15 shared visit and £30 for vet to see horse trotted up, flexion test horse lunged on soft , hoof test, examine and consult me.

And I did call the vet out myself.
 
I think as she offered her service to you and had not made clear the consequences of you accepting her offer to look then I would say that the vet has no right to offer her services then charge you as she made no indication theat there would be a cost to you.

I wouldn't pay it and if necessary let them prove it in court. threr was no contract between you and the vet. And her offer did not include a discussion of payment.

When you call a vet out thats different... you undertake a contract with them.

An offer to look while she was in attendance to a different horse and no indacation as to the outcome of accepting the offer is not right.

But are we now moving into a world where if anyone says/offers something do we all now have to utter the words..well how much is it going to cost me..first before accepting / declining..

Pretty sad state of affaires and not a nice world to to be part of.
 
there could be argument on both sides - she didn't say there would be a cost (therefore no contract), but on the other hand it is normal for a vet to charge for a consultation.

definately call/write.
 
Agree, there can be argument on both sides, but to me £40 for a consultation sounds steep either way TBH.
My vets charge a call out + time per min at £1.50 - £40 would mean nearly half hour consultation
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Too many people ask them for quick looks - it takes up most of the day. Unless you have an emergency you should make an appointment and if it is an emergency you should pay an emergency call out rate.
 
I would challenge the bill without a doubt, the vet is trying it on with you.

I had a similar thing happen to me. The vet (young fairly newly qualified) was called out to one of my horses & he was treated for a leg injury. The vet called back a few days later & examined & said they didn't need to call again as he was fine. About a week or so later the vet arrived on the yard to examine & treat someone else's horse. She did this then saw me & asked how my horse was doing. I said he's fine & she said 'Well as i'm here I'll take a quick look" she literally opened his stable door, took a quick look & agreed that he was fine, she then left.

When the bill arrived she had billed me for the 'quick look'. I was disgusted & shocked by her sharp practise & I telephoned the practice manager & told him what had happened. He spoke to the senior partners & I was contacted saying that that part of the bill had been removed & they apologised. Wether the incident had anything to do with it but she left the parctice a short time afterwards.

They earn well out of horse owners & there is no need to resort to sharp practice.
 
thanks for your comments, and yes Toby bit like yours. To clairify I didnt call the vet, if i had done I would have been happy to be 'charged' and I understand quick looks can take all day but she was on site to visit one of my other liveries and most importantly the vet offered to look...im ringing the practice monday and will just advise that im unhappy..if she had said she would charge a consultation fee I would have consulted with the owner (she is a full livery of mine)-i have no intention of paying the full bill im afraid!! argghh
 
[ QUOTE ]
I would challenge the bill without a doubt, the vet is trying it on with you.

I had a similar thing happen to me. The vet (young fairly newly qualified) was called out to one of my horses & he was treated for a leg injury. The vet called back a few days later & examined & said they didn't need to call again as he was fine. About a week or so later the vet arrived on the yard to examine & treat someone else's horse. She did this then saw me & asked how my horse was doing. I said he's fine & she said 'Well as i'm here I'll take a quick look" she literally opened his stable door, took a quick look & agreed that he was fine, she then left.

When the bill arrived she had billed me for the 'quick look'. I was disgusted & shocked by her sharp practise & I telephoned the practice manager & told him what had happened. He spoke to the senior partners & I was contacted saying that that part of the bill had been removed & they apologised. Wether the incident had anything to do with it but she left the parctice a short time afterwards.

They earn well out of horse owners & there is no need to resort to sharp practice.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think (note - think!) it's possible if she was new, that she wrote everything down in her diary and then it goes to the office where they would have seen the details and assumed the visit was 'official' and charged accordingly. I know this happened to me once which I managed to get changed and the vet concerned learnt not to put everything down in similar circumstances after an earful from me! They also hadn't thought of charging for the viewing but had done as they were told and put down everything they had done or visited that day.

To OP, I do urge you to contact the practise as that is not on, very unfair of them but might be attributed to similar as my experience; the office staff get a bit heavy handed with the pen.!
 
From the opening post it appears that the vet asked whether the OP would like them to look at the horse. The OP obviously replied in the affirmative as the vet ended up examining the horse. The OP had the opportunity to decline the offer of advice, but having accepted this the contract was made. It should come as no surprise that a professional person will charge for their advice! I suspect that if the client who had called the vet realised that whilst on the visit they were paying for the vet was working for someone else they would want a shared visit fee. Charging for "whilst your here" work is the norm, it represents significant income for vets and stops clients booking in one vaccination and dragging out several problems hoping to get a freebie.
 
i got charged £90 for 5mins work and they got it wrong away. never let a vet touch your horse because as soon as they do they are entitled to charge you
 
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