vet charges unreasonable

paddy555 said:
well my "pet" call out was nearly twice the price of a horse so that really would have been expensive for you :D:D:D:D

ETA my vets are independents not corporate. They seem to have jumped onto the corporate bandwagon of charging.

Do corporates take equines?
my previous practice was mixed independent and then went corporate and got rid of all equines. Is that why equine charges are reasonable because they are not corporates and independents haven't had to keep up with corporates.
Anyone know?
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Certainly locally (within W. Yorks) all equine practices are independent.
 
I'm at the outside edge of my vets area, just over 20 miles from their practise. Unless it's an emergency I wouldn't expect my vets to do ~40 miles to come out and then return back to the practise. Planned visits involve a route going from one to the next to minimize travelling so I would expect they've only travelled about 10 miles / 15 mins from previous call. Out of 8 vets most are out and about most of the time. The call out cost is about £50.

I don't have a pet, but I would expect that in general there are far fewer call outs for pets so they wouldn't be able to save time / money by doing e.g. 8 calls in a day on a circular route.
 
JenJ said:
But the questions being asked here are why are two call out fees for the same vet travelling to the same place, so very different, not a moan about prices in general.
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Polos Mum said:
Yes, yes and yes

We don't have a farm account, no VAT registration and pig is firmly a pet !

Pig was in stable next to horse)

It's just the visit (from the same individual vet from the same practice to the same yard (perhaps 12 foot away between stable doors) was classed as a "livestock" visit on their system.

We were expecting the same 'horse' call out fee - because until that point it hadn't crossed my mind that the call out would differ based on what animal was being looked at when they got here.


Maybe I should experiment and get them out to see the dog - but I might be horrified perhaps if as @paddy555 suggests it would be 2x horse price ! At least the pig call out was a nice (cheaper) surprise.
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Where possible (routine, non emergency), clients best call is for the creatures to be seen on same day - that saves both vets’ time and yours, and expect the ‘call out fee’ to be at whatever the lowest rated category of animal on that visit day is.
If it wasn’t, I’d be wanting to know why, given the practice has been saved professional hours.
(If dealing with some carnage; the dog, horse and cow in a dreadful accident; that vet will need at least another colleague, anyway)
When same vet is attending on different occasions, ie. booked by receptionist as different events, with different categories of patient, then it’s clear where a call out fee difference to same premises originates.
 
Exasperated said:
When same vet is attending on different occasions, ie. booked by receptionist as different events, with different categories of patient, then it’s clear where a call out fee difference to same premises originates.
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I think the confusion for the non vets arises because we have assumed (clearly wrongly) that the planned in advance call out fee covers the cost of the vet driving to our premises.
Then clearly we pay for whatever the cost is of what they are doing.

I now (after reading these responses) appreciate that the 'call out fee' is:
- a cost that is subsidised in some cases (farm animals)
- or a cost based on a best guess average distance between visits (pets being less common call outs so more driving between as the practice can't collect several in the same 'zone' in the same day)
- or not based on cost at all but what is competitive in the local market (which varies by species!)
- or based on what the practice thinks the average customer with that species might be willing to pay (pet owners willing to pay most and farmers the least)

Perhaps itemised billing is all to blame as really the 'costs' include a tiny share of thousands of items of overheads some of which will be random (someone has to pay for the Christmas party)
So when everyone talks about "the cost of the visit" we get confused when that "cost" varies depending on what animal is in the stable when you look over the door.
 
Arzada said:
Vetpartners have many equine vets https://www.vetpartners.co.uk/our-practices/ A friend tells me that a practice I used to use if now 'pricey'.
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My equine vets are now part of vet partners.
Callout has jumped to £58 plus vat for working hours appts, then another £35 for consultation fee per animal, plus vat. 3 x callout for ooh.
So it's over £110 before the vet does anything in a weekday daytime appointment.

But, in comparison, the local BMW garage is charging over £220 per hour, plus parts etc (glad I don't have one!) plus vat.
Plumbers are averaging locally £90 plus vat callout in working hours, usually includes the 1st half hour on site, plus parts on top.

Trained professionals doing their jobs.
 
Exasperated said:
Where possible (routine, non emergency), clients best call is for the creatures to be seen on same day - that saves both vets’ time and yours, and expect the ‘call out fee’ to be at whatever the lowest rated category of animal on that visit day is.
If it wasn’t, I’d be wanting to know why, given the practice has been saved professional hours.
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paddy555 said:
in the last couple of weeks I had 2 vet visits. Both planned not emergencies. Same distance to travel, one was a horse vet the 2nd a more general vet who did horses, pets, cows etc etc
Absolutely nothing different about the visits, both on week days around mid day. Both vets from the same practice.

The horse visit was £45.2 plus the cost of the treatment

The "pet' visit was £86. Whilst the vet was there he also dealt with 5 horse vacs and 1 horse prescription check. However there was also a "pet" involved.
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So following that logic it would be reasonable to expect that the pet call out fee would either be the same as the previous visit (for the horse) or lower as the call out was shared with the 5 other horses.

I appreciate that there may be different price lists for different 'divisions' of the same practice, eg pet vs equine, however from a customer perspective it does seem a little unfair.
 
Polos Mum said:
Maybe they don't make any money then and that's why the corporates have left them alone.

The local mixed ones have been acquired. Aireworth has a good chunk of equine and that's owned by vetpartners - one of the big six.
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The vet practice I use for my horses (equine only and mobile only, no clinic facility) has been taken over by CVS.
 
paddy555 said:
why do small animal vets carry the highest costs? just curious.
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Small animal vets have to have a clinic which they must staff, light, power, heat, pay rent, insurance, provide staff and client facilities, hospital facilities, there is lots of expensive equipment (Xray, Ultrasound, possibly CT or MRI) to buy, maintain, update. They have operating theatres, consumables, labs. Importantly, they have to cater for multiple species so a separate cattery and a kennels are needed, and all the multi species meds in a large variety of doses need to be kept in stock, plus sundry equipment reflecting the need to treat everything from a mouse, through chickens, rabbits, G pigs, right up to a 70kg Leonberger, as well as the local wildlife. They also tend to have longer opening hours - ours are 8 -7 weekdays and 9-1 on Saturdays, and all those hours need staffing.
 
Tarragon said:
Well, my husband had to take our two cats to the local vet for their annual checkup and jabs...
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That reminds me...

We would take our dogs in for vaccinations or whatever, and these perfectly healthy looking dogs would require a check up? Listening to the heart, checking gums, whatever other 'important' things were done. I think that's just an excuse to charge extra. (Sorry, a bit off topic perhaps.)
 
I would assume that the standard of knowledge for an equine vet is greater because 1. They break a lot 2. We require them to live long happy lives and perform.

Take for instance my recent foray into the vets. Smelly poo and loss of performance + 3x windsucking is now likely £6k of treatment for an essentially worthless animal (priceless to me).

What would happen to a farm animal in that situation? Probably very little as clinical signs were so minimal and wouldn’t have affected their purpose of breeding/milking/being eaten.

To a degree farm animals would be treated in a less invasive way (hence why most horses are signed out of the food chain).

Just my thoughts, I’ve never owned a farm animal though but I certainly wouldn’t invest in a chicken like I would a dog or horse!
 
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HopOnTrot said:
My dog’s heart murmur was picked up at his routine vaccinations and is monitored every month when he’s back for his arthritis injections.
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Our cat’s dental issues were recently picked up at her annual jabs and health check.

I hadn’t noticed any symptoms, but once the vet pointed it out I could see the gum inflammation. She needed 3 teeth out.

I don’t understand anyone begrudging a vet needing extra payment to do a brief annual health check in addition to jabs.
 
Lois Lame said:
That reminds me...

We would take our dogs in for vaccinations or whatever, and these perfectly healthy looking dogs would require a check up? Listening to the heart, checking gums, whatever other 'important' things were done. I think that's just an excuse to charge extra. (Sorry, a bit off topic perhaps.)
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Seriously?!
I've read some baffling things on this forum, but this one probably beats them all!
 
Arzada said:
Vetpartners have many equine vets https://www.vetpartners.co.uk/our-practices/ A friend tells me that a practice I used to use is now 'pricey'.
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The mixed practice I was with for over 30 years was taken over by vet partners . Within a short time the equine vets left (as one vet said to me, she hadn't trained to work like that ). Luckily for me they set up their own practice and are brilliant. I moved my dogs from the practice shortly afterwards, but due to my cats age I kept her with the original practice. The vet I see is very good, but has said to me that the vets hands are tied in charging as everything is in "packages". She does her best to get me the best price
 
Lois Lame said:
That reminds me...

We would take our dogs in for vaccinations or whatever, and these perfectly healthy looking dogs would require a check up? Listening to the heart, checking gums, whatever other 'important' things were done. I think that's just an excuse to charge extra. (Sorry, a bit off topic perhaps.)
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Or it could be they were checking the dogs had no underlying issues before administering a vaccine. I have had health issues with both dogs and cats picked up at health checks, when outwardly they appeared fit and well.
 
Lois Lame said:
That reminds me...

We would take our dogs in for vaccinations or whatever, and these perfectly healthy looking dogs would require a check up? Listening to the heart, checking gums, whatever other 'important' things were done. I think that's just an excuse to charge extra. (Sorry, a bit off topic perhaps.)
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MurphysMinder said:
Or it could be they were checking the dogs had no underlying issues before administering a vaccine. I have had health issues with both dogs and cats picked up at health checks, when outwardly they appeared fit and well.
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Indeed. A vet administering any drug needs to be checking as far as possible that the animal is fit to receive it, they would be remiss not to. You would be amazed at the number of issues picked up at annual vacc/health check (and health check can include talking to the owner, especially if the pet is stressed or non co-operative). Perfectly healthy looking pets with heart issues, large tumours in the bowel, kidney issues, dental disease, all sorts. I don't think a week goes by in our practice when all planned vaccs go ahead, or when something isn't revealed at a routine health check.

You are paying for the vet's time as well as the cost of the vacc. The day is broken up into 10 minute or 15 minute consult slots and charged a flat rate for a slot, plus the cost of any medication. Most (all?) small animal practices include the consult charge within the vaccine cost when quoting vaccination prices. It's called preventitive heath care, and it's duty of care to provide it - most definitely NOT an excuse to charge extra!!:mad:
 
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ester said:
My equine vets was bought by corporate and they closed it within the year as non profitable which I think demo’d the fine margin the previous partners were working to.
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Perhaps it was just not profitable enough for them? I don't think it's morally right that corporate practices make an obscene profit out of other's misfortune. Most other small businesses I know are operating under a fine margin, or they wouldn't be small. If a business makes enough profit to operate, grow and give the owner a decent standard of living, I think it can be deemed successful.
 
I looked at the fire safety floor plan of my vets whilst I was waiting and there is quite a lot of onsite accommodation. That’s not cheap to pay people to be on call all night. Bigger vets = bigger overheads
 
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