Vets bill for George arrived today

This is a robert jones bandage. There was a 100 euro worth of cotton wool in it, about 6 vetwraps, gauze, 3 flexoplasts, a roll of duct tape and 2 wooden splints. Your bandage does sound a bit expensive for what it is though, I would ask them to break it down further for you into cotton wool, gamgeee, vetwraps etc. It is cheaper to buy your own materials in bulk and then give them to the vet to use. My mare needed hers changed every 10 days for 3 months and the vet had to come out as she needed to be heavily sedated (she freaked out as soon as it came off, dead leg and then pins and needles!). Towards the end I was able to do it myself under sedalin though. Hope he gets better soon!

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Who did you use? , with my vets my call out is £30 out of hours £45 and are very reasonable I would question that bill too
 
Hi, it is a fairly substantial bandage which was supposed to immobilse the fetlock (it does to some extent) to stop the stitches splitting as right on the joint, these is def no splint in it. As someone very well remembered I wasn't there as I was at my niece's baptism, so I never saw the bandage go on, there was definately only the vet there and no nurse. On top of the £70 for the bandage there is also £8 for a dressing. I have also been charged for 4 injections:
nerve block £47 - ok no what that is
intra epicaine injection £30
equimidine injection £22
torbugesic injection £15
I'm assuming one of these is a sedative?
I will be ringing today to query, and I'll say I'm paying and see where we get.

(Ship I use Blaircourt but the on call vet was Marc from Oak Equine and I seem to have been charged extra because of that!)
 
£70 for a bandange! Thats cheap. I *think* I got charged £150 for a pair of Pressage bangages. The worse bandage in the world - very badly designed and I took it off after the first bandage change has it had rubbed her legs and has now caused permanent scar damage - I was suppossed to leave it on for 2 weeks.
 
It depends on what they actually did to the cut, and was he sedated? Did they staple it? For an ordinary cut I would say yes excessive but I think this was quite bad? I had one 2 years ago for a SUnday call out, after my boy had cut his leg open striking into himself at a show, he was sedated. cleaned up, stapled and then dressed and that was £48something.
What did scare me was when the vet finished the dressing he said he is insured isnt he? Gulp no!
And I am not going to jinx us by saying what I want to add but you can probably guess!
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I had a bill for 1k just after christmas for a cellulitis case - for 4 days of anti-b's, a 4 day stay in horsepital and 2 vet visits........Your bill sounds about right
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I personally think they are taking the p***. I'm pretty sure they think you have him insured and have bumped their costs up accordingly.
I understand this wasn't just a little cut but why did they feel the need to nerve block - I've never experienced that before?
 
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ok it was a Sunday, but there are 3 different call out charges itemised amounting to over £150, £70 for the bandage (it says robert jones??), a nerve block and 3 other injections, £30 for nursing - eh? £45 for anti b's and then various sundry items incld £5 for a pair of surgical gloves! oh and £40 for stitching. Yes he is in insured and the xs is £120 I was hoping not to claim to avoid an exclusion but i'll have to now
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I would expect to pay around £80 for a Sunday callout. I would certainly call them and ask for an explanation of their costs - especially the sundry items and nursing.

Seems like a very heavily stacked bill to me - and I would not be a happy bunny.
 
just run through the bill item by item.....

as for the bandage...did you apply it or the vet? if vet,
you are probably being charged for him to put it on as well as the actual bandage.

TBH...it doesnt sound THAT bad....
 
Hi Trish, how is George doing now?

That seems a massive vets bill, I would definitely be querying.
I've never been charged for surgical gloves before, and as it doesn't seem to be a Robert Jones bandage they've used, so how on earth has it cost you £70?

I assume the jabs were sedative, antibiotics and painkiller? I'd want this confirmed by the vets though.

Hope you get to the bottom of it - thank goodness for insurance!
 
In my experience, once the vets know you are insured, some of them see it as a license to use one of everything in the back of the car, and often to run as many tests as they can think of!

Hope George is recovering well.
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£70 for a bandange! Thats cheap. I *think* I got charged £150 for a pair of Pressage bangages. The worse bandage in the world - very badly designed and I took it off after the first bandage change has it had rubbed her legs and has now caused permanent scar damage - I was suppossed to leave it on for 2 weeks.

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I was given a pressage when Axel got kicked on his knee, I thought it was good and I got charged £45 for it!

Actually OP for that injury which inclued having him sedated and his knee joint flushed out, a £90 call out charge and antibiotics for a week came to £287.

Yours sounds like a horrendous amount
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Hope you get it sorted.
 
A Robert Jones bandage is very impressive - these days they don't seem to put splints in but there is a considerable amount of bandaging used to immobilise the leg. I think you would know if you had an RJ. Check your bill and query it!!!
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When our pony fractured a leg whilst on loan, the loaners vet charged £87 for a Robert Jones bandage (this was in 2004), when we got pony back home,as I wasn't satisfied with treatment, our own vet charged £37 for the same bandage! But with increases in costs I suspect if George had a Robert Jones £70 may be about right. I think £5 is a bit much for surgical gloves, you could probably buy a box full for that.
Having now looked at the pic, that is nothing like as big as the RJ our girl had, the fracture was the tibia so her whole hind leg was immobilised. There was also a lot more padding, so whilst George does look to have more than an ordinary bandage, I would def query the cost of the bandaging.
 
I have just rung the vets and they are going to query it and call me back, the bandage is the one in the picture on page 2 of this thread. Yes it's large but not £70 worth?? I also told the vets that I was paying not the insurance so we will see what happens.

Thanks for your advice everyone!
 
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£70 for the bandage (it says robert jones??), a nerve block and 3 other injections

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If the £70 was for the bandage, nerve block and 3 injections, I think it's pretty reasonable....have I misread that?
 
Just to point out that although you wont be claiming off your insurance you will have to notify them of Georges injury. thus there will be an exclusion next time you renew AND they will undoubtedly put your premium up whether you claim or not. IMO you might as well claim as your insurance will go up anyway!!!

Hope George recovers well!!
 
i think it's £70 for the bandage alone, seem rather expensive to me, think i'll keep a perminant supply of my own bandages so i don't need to pay that much in an emergency lol
 
Agree with Stinkbomb here - if there is a problem with the old injury in the future the insurance company will ask your vet if there have been any problems. As soon as they find out there have they won't pay out anyway, so you might as well use them - that's what they're there for
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Unless the cut causes a joint infection or severs a tendon or muscle etc then will they really exclude it as it should have not bearing on the joint in the future?????

I would still claim for it but would not expect an exclusion unless there was a liklihood of it affecting the leg in the future as a direct result of that cut.
 
I told the insurance company about the injury the next day, but explained I may not need to claim, but they (NFU) said they didn't need to be informed? I thought it was a bit odd, thik I will ring them again to clarify.

Jumpthemoon - the £70 was just for the bandage
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Equimidine is a sedative, OH has a horse toy thing lying around given by one of the drug companies. Think they often use both torb and equimide for sedating, no idea why though.

Intra epicaine is local anaesthetic I think.

Call out charge is probably made up of basic call out, plus distance from practice base, plus weekend call out charge.

Get them to give you a break down of what they used bandage wise, but looks like a few of rolls of cotton wool (softban), a conforming layer and then the vet wrap - min 3 types of bandage.
 
Just been to Boots to buy some latext gloves - £2.40 for 10!

So the first thing to come of the bill should be the £5 charge for the gloves they used when treating George!!! Ridiculous.
 
Blimey.... That is the current size of my bill for 3 different incidents ( gash to head and broken poll bone, eye trauma (3 visits) and patching one back together after a road accident)

I would seriously question that bill

I try and have most of the consumables to hand and insist that they use mine... helps to keep the cost down


<<<<<< Hugs>>>>> to you for the shock and for George because... well.... just because
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Ive had my first emergency call out bill since been in denmark.

It was for easter sunday, for the largest equine practice in the country.

He came out and tubed my horse for colic early afternoon and then returned early evening to check on him (although the check was his personal decision, not a call out).

Soooo my bill for the whole lot came to 80 pounds...

I remember why i love this country! The vets here rock
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