Veterinary referrals

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ottodyl1

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I just wondered what experience people had of referrals to specialist vets? My dog has unfortunately started to suffer from seizures & my vet has referred him for an MRI/CT to rule out brain tumour/lesion prior to starting him on epilepsy drugs. The referral centre wants to charge £200 for an initial consultation with a specialist neuro vet prior to the scan. Although I can claim this back off insurance, this does seem excessive to me.
I could understand if my dog had a condition which could be assessed but other than the seizures he has had (4 in 3 months) he is a normal, happy, fit & healthy dog, so it's not clear to me what this £200 will cover, that has not already been covered by my own vet.
Just wondered if this was the norm in these circumstances - if so it's no wonder insurance premiums are going up!
 
MY GSD bitch was referred to a veterinary opthalmic specialist, the initial consultation fee was around £150. The next stage after this was an MRI and the possible cost of that was quoted at £1200, I didn't go down that route as it wasn't really going to make a difference, maybe give us a reason for her sight problem but not a cure.:( Even though she is not insured I didn't begrudge the payment as the specialist was very thorough..
 
My dog is at a referral vets atm for cancer surgery. She went in Wed, comes home tomorrow.
Abdominal Ultrasound, chest xray, liver and spleen biopsy, surgey and reconstruction, all nursing and kennel care etc. Quote 2-3K. Hope the insurance pays up! Should do it's NFU.
 
My GSD has been referred to our local dermatologist for her 46 out of 50 allergies (according to skin tests :rolleyes:) and the initial consultation was around £120 I think but this was 7 years ago now...And usually very very good service at referral centres too. I know it sometimes works out expensive but I don't know how we'd have managed without insurance!
Think we'd be living on tins of sardines and tap water! :D
K x
 
Thanks for the replies. If my dog had a condition that the specialist could assess I would be more than happy to pay the amount for the consultation fee. However, there is nothing physically to be examined, unless my dog happened to have a fit whilst at the referral centre, which is unlikely as the others have all been in the middle of the night. My vet referred him for a scan, so all I can see that I will be paying the £200 for is for the specialist to take a history & then agree to scan him or not! Think I might have a chat to my vet. Can't do anything til I get written authority from my insurers anyway, who are also NFU, as unfortunately can't afford to pay for the scan up front (too many horse vet bills at the moment!)
Thistle, hope your girl is ok after all her surgery- bet she will be glad to be home!!
 
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Picked Hera up at lunchtime. She is very happy, so am I.

Very pleased with her care, so far all the extra tests have come back clear so fingers crossed for complete removal.
 
ive been refered twice now with my dog. Her bill stands around 2k and they didnt know wtf is wrong with her..... she runs like a weirdo (lol)... but she dosent seem to be in any pain - (according to the vets and i atm agree).....

pm me if you want to know anything as i dont want to post on a public board about it :)
 
I think the standard consultation fee at any of the vet colleges/referral centres is £125 - £200 + and yes, that is just to take a history/decide what to do from there.....

Think it's £150 at the RVC
 
Think it's about £175 at Leahurst. It's why I always take my time taking extra thorough histories - I figure I might as well help people get their money's worth.

Unfortunately it is standard to repeat history and some basic diagnostic tests at referral centres. Imagine if you had a particularly useless vet wrongly refer an animal with some horrendous condition and the referral centre went ahead and did surgery/expensive diagnostics without checking the initial diagnosis?

There is always the possibility that the neuro specialist will pick up something that your vet has missed - that is why they are a specialist, because they are better at that area than a normal vet!
 
Thanks everyone- guess it's just one of those things I'll have to grin & bear! My vets have checked bloods & all normal there. Unfortunately, unless the vet witnesses a seizure they only have my account of what's happened to go on- the scan is just to rule out brain lesion/tumour before my vet starts him on epilepsy medication. I agree totally with what you've all said - I just think in this situation there's not much the specialist will be able to do prior to a scan anyway, but I guess that's just the way these things go!
 
Just a thought but try and take a video if he has another fit. Buffy has very violent "dreams" when she is totally out of it, I took a vid on my phone to show vet as it was the only way she was going to see it.
 
When we took our dog to the vet with epilepsy, as soon as they knew she wasn't insured they didn't say she need to be referred. Wejust had some blood tests done to rule out anything organic. As it is we keep a record of her fits and as yet they haven't recommended that she start medication yet.
 
My vet gave me the option of going down the route of a scan,although they did recommend it & as as he is insured seems sensible as would be pointless him being on medication that wasn't going to work if something other than epilepsy causes the fits. Also, she said as the fits are occurring less than 6 weeks apart, it would be a good idea to take further action - if they was quite a long time between it would be less necessary.
Good idea about the video - if can be that quick thinking at 2am!! The symptoms he displays are fairly classic as described on the canine epilepsy website - unconscious, loss of bowel & bladder, legs running, then v disorientated when he does come round for 5-10 mins, then back to normal. Just wanted to rule anything else nasty out really.
 
Murphy88 said:
Think it's about £175 at Leahurst. It's why I always take my time taking extra thorough histories - I figure I might as well help people get their money's worth.

!
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random question but are you 4th year?

just that i was at leahurst with my dog a couple of months back and i had a massivly long consultation with 2 lovely 4th year vet students and 1 vet lol.

and yes, my bill was lovely. lol.
 
Yes I'm 4th year (well actually now final year, eeek) - what is your dog? I was in the SATH in April/May I think.

TBH it could well have been any of us - our standard consult length is 30-40mins depending on which clinician is in charge, and there is an hour allocated for every new case overall to allow for owners to talk to the clinician as well. They do seem to go on forever though, especially when most vets do 10 or 15 min consults!
 
Murphy88 said:
Yes I'm 4th year (well actually now final year, eeek) - what is your dog? I was in the SATH in April/May I think.

TBH it could well have been any of us - our standard consult length is 30-40mins depending on which clinician is in charge, and there is an hour allocated for every new case overall to allow for owners to talk to the clinician as well. They do seem to go on forever though, especially when most vets do 10 or 15 min consults!
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I will pm you her name. Yeah i was in there around 40ish mins? + that walking ramp thing *technical as always * :D

Very efficient even though my dog looked like she was faking it lol!
 
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