vets bills

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hunteress

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Ive had 2 vets bills this month just for jabs and a fly bite to colts face they were there minutes, jabs bute feel of leg etc both bills were £200 plus no call out as vets on site so in theory quite cheap as if I was 35 mile radius it would be £35 call out ! then I took my jack russell to the vets as she had a sore ear all I wanted was some ointment but oh no couldn't do that checked by a nurse I new more than her !! bill £50, £18 just to walk through the door. No wonder people don't take there animals to the vet I think they charge exortionate prices what do you think !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
since october i have spent a horrid amount in vets bills. junes bill alone was £535. between october and june it was £1300. and i had an emergency call out last week! who said horses were cheap to keep! i have just run into a bit of bad luck with mine but hoping thats it finished :) (at least for a while)
 
hunteress said:
Ive had 2 vets bills this month just for jabs and a fly bite to colts face they were there minutes, jabs bute feel of leg etc both bills were £200 plus no call out as vets on site so in theory quite cheap as if I was 35 mile radius it would be £35 call out ! then I took my jack russell to the vets as she had a sore ear all I wanted was some ointment but oh no couldn't do that checked by a nurse I new more than her !! bill £50, £18 just to walk through the door. No wonder people don't take there animals to the vet I think they charge exortionate prices what do you think !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Couldn't agree more!!!After all vets only have to spend a minimum of five years at University, provide a vehicle stocked with (often) many thousands of pounds worth of equipment and medication, maintain and fuel said vehicle, employ lay staff , pay for services, finance continuing professional development, work antisocial hours and THEN have the audacity to charge realistically for their services.........
And, to cap it all, they then have to provide services to clients who 'new' more than they or their qualified staff do anyway.

Think about it?
 
Well I spent over £400 this month alone .
Total in the last year over £ 6000. The things we do for the animals we love.

Alot of call outs on my list have been justified the rest either check ups or my *When in doubt get the vet* thought. :)
 
My vet seems reasonable!

I had the vet out for laminitis, gave her a thorough check over, diagnosed the lami and thrush, gave me a 2 week supply of bute and treatment for the thrush as well as the flu/tetnus jab - £87 :O)
 
hunteress said:
Ive had 2 vets bills this month just for jabs and a fly bite to colts face they were there minutes, jabs bute feel of leg etc both bills were £200 plus no call out as vets on site so in theory quite cheap as if I was 35 mile radius it would be £35 call out ! then I took my jack russell to the vets as she had a sore ear all I wanted was some ointment but oh no couldn't do that checked by a nurse I new more than her !! bill £50, £18 just to walk through the door. No wonder people don't take there animals to the vet I think they charge exortionate prices what do you think !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Does sound dearer than mine, which includes a call out fee as they're 12 miles away.
Have also just taken a terrier to the vet with a sore ear. Exam and drops were £35. I was pretty pleased.
 
£50 to have the vet come out and treat my mare for mites (15 miles away) and about £90 when my gecko needed a lump removing. That included the consultation, operation the next day and 2 further consultations. I was pleased :)
 
My local vet - non horsey - four miles away came out and did one flu/tet booster, was on the yard 2 minutes, and charged me £77. I am pretty annoyed about this.

Then last week I took my mare to my wonderful proper horsey vet, an hour and a half away, who has a proper equine hospital with all the equipment, examination and operating facilities you could wish for. He and another vet spent two hours with my horse, did a full work up, 8 xrays, sedation, sacroiliac injections under scan, mesotherapy, and spent a huge amount of time with my 11 year old son, showing him round, explaining the xrays and scans, showing him bones and bits of leg and answering all his questions ... and charged me €300 (about £240)!!! :D Now I do refer a lot of clients to him, but even so that is cheap! I just wish he was a bit closer.
 
hunteress said:
Ive had 2 vets bills this month just for jabs and a fly bite to colts face they were there minutes, jabs bute feel of leg etc both bills were £200 plus no call out as vets on site so in theory quite cheap as if I was 35 mile radius it would be £35 call out ! then I took my jack russell to the vets as she had a sore ear all I wanted was some ointment but oh no couldn't do that checked by a nurse I new more than her !! bill £50, £18 just to walk through the door. No wonder people don't take there animals to the vet I think they charge exortionate prices what do you think !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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How much would you like to pay your vet for their time,education and availability?
How much would you like to be paid in a job that can involve working fulltime doing on call every third night and weekend?
and how much money do you think your vet is actually earning?
Just out of sheer curiosity

Also vets are not legally allowed to prescribe medication without someone having seeing the animal or having an existing ongoing case. While most dogs do likely need x treatment there is always one that on closer examination needs a different treatment or worse that x treatment will cause serious issues. For example using certain common medications on a dog with a ruptured eardrum can cause serious side effects...Handing out medication simply because the owner wants x medication is poor practice as well as illegal.

However if you have an issue with the bill why not ask for an itemised bill?
200 might be steep depending on your area and an itemised bill will let you know what you have been charged for...

The another thing I am curious about is how were the vets there within minutes if they were on site? were they in the local area on another call or were you at their practice?
 
OP - I don't think it's so much questionning the bill, which sounds really confrontational, just politely ask them to give you the breakdown. As has already been said, people often expect professional services at knock down prices. And there are laws that say a small animal vet must have seen the animal within the last 6 months before they can prescribe or treat. If you'd been given the "usual" eardrops with no check up and a few months down the road it turned out to be something totally different, you'd be the first one shouting.
 
Griggster1990 said:
My vet seems reasonable!

I had the vet out for laminitis, gave her a thorough check over, diagnosed the lami and thrush, gave me a 2 week supply of bute and treatment for the thrush as well as the flu/tetnus jab - £87 :O)
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There seems to be a big difference here, even if they are on a yard there should be a shared call out charge, and if some vet practices can offer discounted days and so on, well they are still making a profit. I know that they have an expensive training and so on, but I was charged £87 for a shared call out, a jab [by a student], eye exam and the quickest tooth rasping in the world, time with horse 35mins, had a similar charge this year for an abscess with ten Danilon. I would say the £200 was excessive.
I have stopped using local cat vet as they are more interested in maximising profit than helping owners, and have heard several horror stories about out of hours practices, including moving a dog three times in 24 hours, dog died.
I have the choice of three vet practices, just use the one which is going to be cheapest due to call out charges, though only one has good equine facilities, but we can be referred to vet hospital in Glasgow.
 
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I was recently charged £101.00 for the vet to treat mites. I will have another two bills as had different vet up to look at wound who gave a different diagnosis of thrush not mites and then an emergency call out to give a dectomax injection as the horse was now self harming due to mites!!!! I am sure it will be at least £400 :eek::eek:
 
Noodlebug said:
I was recently charged £101.00 for the vet to treat mites. I will have another two bills as had different vet up to look at wound who gave a different diagnosis of thrush not mites and then an emergency call out to give a dectomax injection as the horse was now self harming due to mites!!!! I am sure it will be at least £400 :eek::eek:
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This is ridiculous I know we don't wan't owt for nowt but this is stupidity and greed !!!
 
The vets I used to use charged £62 to have a cat castrated, I rang the one I'm with now & it was £35 - needless to say I went to the 2nd one!! They are known in the area for being very expensive. I had a cat get run over In the middle of the night once so I rang the expensive vets as it was an emergency & the first thing she said when I told her he had been hit by a car was, "well its £90 for me to just open the door"!! Poor cat had broke its pelvis in 2 places so would not have waited while the morning!!!

I understand that the process of becoming a vet & then running a practice is expensive, but why the massive variation in prices between practices?

Op I would also ask for an itemized bill & don't most vets also offer a discount if paid by the end of the month? xx
 
Aru said:
How much would you like to pay your vet for their time,education and availability?
How much would you like to be paid in a job that can involve working fulltime doing on call every third night and weekend?
and how much money do you think your vet is actually earning?
Just out of sheer curiosity

Also vets are not legally allowed to prescribe medication without someone having seeing the animal or having an existing ongoing case. While most dogs do likely need x treatment there is always one that on closer examination needs a different treatment or worse that x treatment will cause serious issues. For example using certain common medications on a dog with a ruptured eardrum can cause serious side effects...Handing out medication simply because the owner wants x medication is poor practice as well as illegal.

However if you have an issue with the bill why not ask for an itemised bill?
200 might be steep depending on your area and an itemised bill will let you know what you have been charged for...

The another thing I am curious about is how were the vets there within minutes if they were on site? were they in the local area on another call or were you at their practice?
Click to expand...
I Agree with most of your comments my vets have there practice at my yard.
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
OP - I don't think it's so much questionning the bill, which sounds really confrontational, just politely ask them to give you the breakdown. As has already been said, people often expect professional services at knock down prices. And there are laws that say a small animal vet must have seen the animal within the last 6 months before they can prescribe or treat. If you'd been given the "usual" eardrops with no check up and a few months down the road it turned out to be something totally different, you'd be the first one shouting.
Click to expand...
Yep I agree.
 
Well next week I will be spending around the £500 mark for a fasting blood tea, skin biopsy and X-rays for both front tootsies to check for ringbone.......:( oh well I don't need to eat for a while anyway
 
I have just recieved a £200 vets bill for my horse who got a nasty deep cut on his hock, which was caused by a kick from another horse whilst in the field. Hock required a flush, probe, stitches, plus sedation and local anaesthetic. He also had another cut which required a clean and a stitch put in to close it. Luckily he's insured, and petplan are willing to pay out.
He's having his stitches out on thursday, so another bill.
I'm lucky in that all my bills are itemised, can pay in installments, over the phone, by cheque etc.
 
Maybe anyone on regular meds from their Doc should ask next time they collect the drugs from the Pharmacy how much they actually cost! Then you might realise the costs of any drugs.

People are 'conned' by the fact you pay so little (if anything) for prescriptions, but many many of the drugs cost a fortune.

I spent 20yrs+ working in Pharmacy and know how much these things can cost.
 
Ive recently had an out of hours call out to my little mare who needed a steroid jab for a severe reaction to a horsefly bite on her navel, I then had to rush my JRT to the emergency vet on a sunday as she too had a nasty reaction to something and looked like a pitbull x sharpei when we woke up in the morning. Pippa (jrt) was £75, Im sure that when I get the bill for my mare it will be £150 + as we pre-emptively padded and buted her (had both but not on me, so had a sachet of danilon and bandages off the attending vet) due to her high lami status.
I wont query the bill, thats the price you pay for having animals, and for having a lovely vet who gave me and the horse a hug and told me to call any time even if she wasnt on call! (just as she did when my broodie was due to foal)

However, if the vets are on site OP, then £200 for 1 jab and fly bite treatment seems high...was this out of hours, or did the horse require further treatment?
Might be worth asking for a breakdown of the bills.
 
I was really mad when I got my hospital bill. I don't have any problem with how much any of the procedures cost but they were just peeing my money down the drain when they used betwen £60 and £70 of disposable bandaging materials on five bandage changes. The hole in his leg was less than two inches long!

Next time I'm going to take my own bandages and do the bandaging.



ps anyone need a £50 hock pressage that they made me take home (and charged for!) and I never used?
 
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