Vets Bills - Nearly fell over with shock!

showjump

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Maybe i am out of touch with vets bills, so though you lovely people might know better than me. Open my vet bill this morning, and cannot believe the price!
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Ok so call out £45.75 + VAT
Examine one horse. £19.42 + VAT
Sedate another horse (for clipping) using
Inject Domosedan £29.49 + VAT
Inject Torbugesic £15.63 + VAT
Inject Domosedan £29.49 + VAT

Total = £164.23 (inc VAT)

Now if this is normal rates, i wont be clipping him again!! Fair enough about the examination of the first horse, but the price of the rest is mad!
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Or am i out of touch with vets bills??
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I don't know about the injection cost but my vets examination fees are £27.20 + VAT and the call out fee £22.73 + VAT but it depends on how far away they are to you.

Probably about right though
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The call out is fair i think, it the price of the drugs that im not too happy about.
He had some then when we started the clippers he reacted, so he gave him some more.
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I pay around £35 for call out...and I'm pretty local to the surgery.

I recently had a vet out because I wanted my old TB to be lightly sedated because my other horse was being moved to another yard and he suffers separation anxiety. For the call out, examination and dose of sedalin, it cost £90.
 
Id ring them up and ask why there are two lots of Domosedan... the fact that they are in different places on the bill (rather than being put on sequentially) they make have just charged you twice by mistake. its worth a phonecall...
 
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He had some then when we started the clippers he reacted, so he gave him some more.



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This would explain the two doses.

The bill seems pretty normal to me.
 
When my horse had a vet visit for colic I was charged a call out fee, an examination fee on top of that but I was really miffed to be charged on top of that for the rectal examination! The same vet came out to me another time; it happened to be the last day he was working at that practice. He gave me a real eyeopener on the billing system, and even told me that he could provide a drug for my horse which would cost £38 or I could walk into my nearest pharmacy and buy it over the counter for around £5.00!
I have not trusted vets since I arranged to have a sarcoid removed with the liquid nitrogen, vet turned up (who had removed several sarcoids from the same horse in the past), took one look, said he'd be back in a couple of days to treat it. When I said I'd called him out to treat it that day he said they can't carry the liquid nitrogen as its a highly volatile substance and he had to diagnose that it really was a sarcoid, he couldn't have owners diagnosing things for themselves. I refused to pay the second callout until they passed my details to a debt recovery firm. Then, when my friend rang up to book a joint visit for vaccs they said to her that I had to pay up front because I was a bad payer!
Sorry, this is turning into a rant!!!
 
u think thats bad darling horsey always decides he needs the vet on a sunday or bank holiday!
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when he went lame at bath and west the next day (a sunday!) he was very very lame so had the vet and charged over £200 for a callout, examitnation which took all of about 20mins then a shot of bute and some antibiotics!
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Ridiculous isn't it?!

I had my foals passports done about 1 month ago, it cost £122 for the vet to come out, do 2 identity diagrams and it took half an hour. Oh and the vet was bl**dy moody and miserable
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Crikey - all sounds expensive. Last time my vet was out was in June for booster vaccs & check everyones teeth.

call out £23.03 + VAT = £27.06 (divided by our three horses)
5.5mls of sedivet £21.75 + VAT = £25.56
wolf tooth extraction £31.42 + VAt = £36.92
booster £21.81 + VAT = £25.63

no extra charge for examination

Fantastic horse vets aswell, with their own hospital & AI centre. I feel extremely lucky as their fees sound quite reasonable, especially considering I am in the middle of no-where.
 
How much has anyone been charged for Sedalin (tube) as a matter of interest?? Mine was £18.10 per tube!! Seems a lot to me. Our vets will come on a routine yard visit on a friday for a £8.00ish call-out to our yard so maybe I can't complain though!
 
you think thats bad! ours came through with a load of old bills as the accounting people at the RVC are absolutely cr*p

it was £2857...(for the first treatment) we just had a new letter today with another £200 for a couple of injections etc!
 
[ QUOTE ]
When my horse had a vet visit for colic I was charged a call out fee, an examination fee on top of that but I was really miffed to be charged on top of that for the rectal examination! The same vet came out to me another time; it happened to be the last day he was working at that practice. He gave me a real eyeopener on the billing system, and even told me that he could provide a drug for my horse which would cost £38 or I could walk into my nearest pharmacy and buy it over the counter for around £5.00!
I have not trusted vets since I arranged to have a sarcoid removed with the liquid nitrogen, vet turned up (who had removed several sarcoids from the same horse in the past), took one look, said he'd be back in a couple of days to treat it. When I said I'd called him out to treat it that day he said they can't carry the liquid nitrogen as its a highly volatile substance and he had to diagnose that it really was a sarcoid, he couldn't have owners diagnosing things for themselves. I refused to pay the second callout until they passed my details to a debt recovery firm. Then, when my friend rang up to book a joint visit for vaccs they said to her that I had to pay up front because I was a bad payer!
Sorry, this is turning into a rant!!!

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Ok I understand its annoying for you but you have to see it from the vets perspective, you made paying difficult in the past and they need to make sure you pay this time.Ive seen similar cases with people who get the vets then refuse to pay for some stupid reason (not saying yours was a stupid reason) and then call up in the middle of the night expecting you to come out. Yes what they did here to you was a bit off but you have to see it from their buisness point of veiw.
 
Just realised how lucky we are then. Needed to get vet out in an emergency 9pm one evening so phoned our usual vet who told me he was the other side of the county so to phone a colleague who was on emergency call. He came out and when my bill came it had £63 for call out on it plus examination, treatment etc. When I saw my usual vet I told him about this and said we'd never been charged a call out fee (save the few pounds mileage expenses) and he told me to forget it, he would write the amount off and when my bill was re-sent out a few days later, no call-out fee charged at all. I suppose it depends on how well you know the vets and how quickly you pay the vets bills usually.
 
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Ok so call out £45.75 + VAT
Examine one horse. £19.42 + VAT
Sedate another horse (for clipping) using
Inject Domosedan £29.49 + VAT
Inject Torbugesic £15.63 + VAT
Inject Domosedan £29.49 + VAT

Total = £164.23 (inc VAT)



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Mmm - looked at one of mine for comparison:

call out £30.43 + VAT
Examine horse. Anything from £12 to have a quick look up to £37 which included rasping teeth!
Sedate another horse (for clipping) using
Inject Sedivet (part of sedation) 16.38 + VAT
Inject Torbugesic £10.52 + VAT

Obviously sedation rates will vary depending on size of horse - that was for a 16.2 gelding to have some extensive tooth work.

I would say your chap is a bit pricey by local standards round here (Shropshire/Worcs. borders)
 
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The call out is fair i think, it the price of the drugs that im not too happy about.
He had some then when we started the clippers he reacted, so he gave him some more.
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Did he give him DOUBLE??

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I had my foals passports done about 1 month ago, it cost £122 for the vet to come out, do 2 identity diagrams and it took half an hour. Oh and the vet was bl**dy moody and miserable

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To do an ID document properly - if the foals behave - probably takes 15-20 minutes per foal depending on colours (coloured jobs take a lot longer!) We usually have 3 or 4 done at a time and it works out at between £25 and £30 - which includes taking a DNA sample from the pure-breds (although I yank the hair out for him - he's crap at pulling manes!
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) Visit fee £30.43 + vat on top (but I'm usually dividing that between half-a-dozen horses - I try to gather up a nice 'job lot' for him. We're half an hour from the surgery.)
 
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When my horse had a vet visit for colic I was charged a call out fee, an examination fee on top of that but I was really miffed to be charged on top of that for the rectal examination! The same vet came out to me another time; it happened to be the last day he was working at that practice. He gave me a real eyeopener on the billing system, and even told me that he could provide a drug for my horse which would cost £38 or I could walk into my nearest pharmacy and buy it over the counter for around £5.00!
I have not trusted vets since I arranged to have a sarcoid removed with the liquid nitrogen, vet turned up (who had removed several sarcoids from the same horse in the past), took one look, said he'd be back in a couple of days to treat it. When I said I'd called him out to treat it that day he said they can't carry the liquid nitrogen as its a highly volatile substance and he had to diagnose that it really was a sarcoid, he couldn't have owners diagnosing things for themselves. I refused to pay the second callout until they passed my details to a debt recovery firm. Then, when my friend rang up to book a joint visit for vaccs they said to her that I had to pay up front because I was a bad payer!
Sorry, this is turning into a rant!!!

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Ok I understand its annoying for you but you have to see it from the vets perspective, you made paying difficult in the past and they need to make sure you pay this time.Ive seen similar cases with people who get the vets then refuse to pay for some stupid reason (not saying yours was a stupid reason) and then call up in the middle of the night expecting you to come out. Yes what they did here to you was a bit off but you have to see it from their buisness point of veiw.

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But if the vet has treated my horse for sarcoids already, knows that I an not a complete pleb around horses, why not just come prepared to treat the sarcoid?
Also, my credit history should not be discussed with any tom, dick or harry phoning the surgery!
 
I must admit I completely sympathise as I nearly did the same when I received our vet bill!!...

I have to say that I think that sounds pretty average - we pay approx 55.00 call out,
one of our horses had 2 vet visits recently for treatment an for infection (plus teeth had to be rasped under sedation), and for the visits, plus 2 different lots of antibiotics plus anitibiotic injections it has come to 500.00, and because its for my elderly pony obviously the insurers wont pay out!-
Think I'll be eating beans on toast for the rest of the month/or rice and water!!
 
you think that's expensive lol. i work in small animal practice. we charge flat rate of £45 plus vat for sedating an animal (what we do under that sedative is extra and so are the drugs!) equine vet bills are nothing compared to smallies.
 
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But if the vet has treated my horse for sarcoids already, knows that I an not a complete pleb around horses, why not just come prepared to treat the sarcoid?
Also, my credit history should not be discussed with any tom, dick or harry phoning the surgery!

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Ok fair enough they shouldnt be discussing it with other people phoneing the surgery, at least not into any detail with confidentiality ect. Yes also true that they should come prepared but perhaps it is a formality that they don't have a choice in. Also he may not remember treating your horse as they see alot of horses and may not have checked the records
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