what do you pay for blood test at vet?

T

Tamski

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 October 2006
Messages
506
Visit site
Hi all

Just wondered what everyone else pays for a general blood work up at the vet?

My wee border was in today and we were charged £160. Is this the norm as it just seemed a lot but maybe Im out of touch with charges?

Thanks
 
I think I'm normally around £50 for the visit and blood work - mainly looking at kidneys and liver. Meg gets 6 monthly blood work as she's on quite a lot of pain meds / anti-inflammatories so they keep an eye on her liver and kidney function
 
I always had bloods on my old girl before she had teeth out (thankfully she has no teeth left now!) and it used to cost me about £50 for tests done in-house - if they had to send them away then it would cost more, it would be interesting to see a breakdown of the bill in your case as I can't see how they can justify £160 just for blood tests?
 
I've just paid £120 lab costs for blood tests on the dog. plus £18 for the vet actually taking the blood plus £22 for vet interpreting the results. Made me wince a bit.
 
It will really depend on what tests the vets has asked to be done.

If its something like a general health profile (looking at organs etc) and then maybe bio-chemistry I can quite believe it will cost that by the time you have the visit cost in there too. Or it could something they have sent to a external lab.

It's all very expensive
 
About £36 (from memory) to see when a bitch would be ovulating. Would the charge be dependent upon what the test was actually for? Those paying exorbitant amounts should ask for a breakdown of their bill. It's only a Vet, FHS!!

Alec.
 
ribbons said:
£18 for the vet actually taking the blood QUOTE]

This makes me mad! For goodness sake point me in the general direction and I will take the blood myself. Where it he justification for charging £18 to take a bit of blood out of vein. Is it really that blooming difficult???
Imagine if the people at the Blood transfusion service were able to charge £18 every time!! Gosh they do hundreds in a week! They would be WELL rich! :)
Click to expand...
 
I recently paid £60 for a general blood panel but it completely depends on what the test(s) were for and where they had to be sent. Have you asked for an itemised invoice?

applecart14 said:
Imagine if the people at the Blood transfusion service were able to charge £18 every time!! Gosh they do hundreds in a week! They would be WELL rich! :)
Click to expand...

It probably costs the taxpayer £18 or more a time, it's not free!
 
applecart, I'm sure your dog would thank you for that. How many times have you had blood taken - when its done badly it can be very painful. Added to the fact your taking it from the jugular next to the carotid artery, trachea, oesophagus, laryngeal nerves etc You might not feel so confident when your standing in front of your dog with needle in hand...

Although I agree £18 is a lot - surely that should cover examination and interpretation. Costs of bloods vary a lot because there are so many different types of blood tests
 
Last edited:
fatpony said:
applecart, I'm sure your dog would thank you for that. How many times have you had blood taken - when its done badly it can be very painful. Added to the fact your taking it from the jugular next to the carotid artery, trachea, oesophagus, laryngeal nerves etc You might not feel so confident when your standing in front of your dog with needle in hand...
Click to expand...

Err, I was being a little bit flippant. There was no need to take me literally. And I hope you are not referring to my post about our dog and waiting for the result of our blood test - had you followed my post you would know that our dog was pts recently following the result of her blood test. (or maybe that is me being over sensitive now).
 
Oh no, didn't cover interpretation or consultation. Here is the wording of my bill.

Consultation repeat....£26

Blood sample fee....£18

Test result interpretation and handling............£22

Lab CAN1 canine health screen with report relevant clinical history PUO...............£120

Not sure what clinical history means. She's never had a blood test before.
PUO means nothing to me either.
 
fatpony said:
........ Added to the fact your taking it from the jugular next to the carotid artery, trachea, oesophagus, laryngeal nerves etc You might not feel so confident when your standing in front of your dog with needle in hand...

.......
Click to expand...

With all my dogs, blood has always been taken from the foreleg, and not from the neck. Is it usual to take blood directly from a dog's neck? We do with horses and cattle too, but I've never seen it taken form dogs in such a fashion.

Alec.
 
Apologies if I upset you applecart, I have no idea about your back story.
Blood is best taken from the biggest vein as less risk of damage to the vein and haemolysis in the blood sample. Faster sample time so less risk of blood clots. And easier to take a large sample. If only taking a small amount then cephalic is fine
 
As per fatpony, one of my dogs had a snap test done requiring only a couple of drops of blood which came from a leg. Filling up a couple of tubes for full screens and it's neck (and always neck for my white dog on account of him being a zombie, can't get blood anywhere else on him)

PUO is pyrexia of unknown origin, presumably they submitted a clinical history with the sample.
 
ribbons said:
Oh no, didn't cover interpretation or consultation. Here is the wording of my bill.

Consultation repeat....£26

Blood sample fee....£18

Test result interpretation and handling............£22

Lab CAN1 canine health screen with report relevant clinical history PUO...............£120

Not sure what clinical history means. She's never had a blood test before.
PUO means nothing to me either.
Click to expand...

IME that is a high fee
 
Alec Swan said:
With all my dogs, blood has always been taken from the foreleg, and not from the neck. Is it usual to take blood directly from a dog's neck? We do with horses and cattle too, but I've never seen it taken form dogs in such a fashion.

Alec.
Click to expand...

It depends on the dog. Often times if there is a good fat vein visible on the forearm, the vet would prefer to take from there. However, some dogs might be easier to get from the neck.

In my case, where I don't want to have the leg clipped, and the throat area is clipped anyway on my breed, I'd always ask them to take from there. My toys (the minpins, that is) it was always easier to get from the neck.

I was pretty amazed that rabbits get IV injections in the ear!
 
applecart14 said:
ribbons said:
£18 for the vet actually taking the blood QUOTE]

This makes me mad! For goodness sake point me in the general direction and I will take the blood myself. Where it he justification for charging £18 to take a bit of blood out of vein. Is it really that blooming difficult???
Imagine if the people at the Blood transfusion service were able to charge £18 every time!! Gosh they do hundreds in a week! They would be WELL rich! :)
Click to expand...

Okay, the vet doesn't take the blood all on their ownsome. They are probably using a qualified vet nurse to roll the vein. So that's two people on the payroll just to get a little sample. Then of course there are the disposables to account for. Probably pennies worth, but it all ends up at the end of the day.

And I'm assuming that these vets aren't working out of the back of someone's garage. There are overheads.

Why do people assume that everything should be free? Oh yes, because they're used to getting it free on the NHS. Guess what - vets aren't gov't subsidised.

Keeping animals is a luxury.
Click to expand...
 
PucciNPoni said:
.......

I was pretty amazed that rabbits get IV injections in the ear!
Click to expand...

That rather surprises me too, though thinking about it, bunny's have decent ear-veins, I suppose. When we used to vaccinate commercial ducklings, we scratched the sole of the foot, which at the time, was equally surprising. Hey-ho, we live and learn!

Alec.
 
PucciNPoni, I would like to point out you have mixed two quotes in your post. I didn't make the comment claiming I could take blood myself. Your post makes it look like the quote is mine.
Please take care to quote accurately.
 
ribbons said:
PucciNPoni, I would like to point out you have mixed two quotes in your post. I didn't make the comment claiming I could take blood myself. Your post makes it look like the quote is mine.
Please take care to quote accurately.
Click to expand...

Sorry about that - not intentionally done. As you might notice - I'd already deleted one post for that same exact thing -- operator error all the way :/
 
My dogs blood is always taken from the neck, she's a mini poodle.
She had her dental done and general organs blood test and that cost £150 all together, so that's blood test and her dental which had to be done under general anaesthetic, and that would have been the vet and a nurse to do the job, the antibiotics for a week after the dental (she had a few teeth pulled out) and the follow up consultation, so I was expecting it to be a lot more tbh, and my vets are the expensive ones in my area :)

But in contrast, i had to have blood tests done for my ferrets as we suspected adrenal gland disease, and because they're so little and wriggly, their bloods are taken under anaesthetic too, and they cost us £240, that for initial consultation, blood tests for both and then hormone implant for one as it had adrenal gland disease
 
Alec Swan said:
That rather surprises me too, though thinking about it, bunny's have decent ear-veins, I suppose. When we used to vaccinate commercial ducklings, we scratched the sole of the foot, which at the time, was equally surprising. Hey-ho, we live and learn!

Alec.
Click to expand...


And someone this week was telling me that her terrapin had to be treated for pneumonia - with (daily?) injections between the toes.
 
applecart14 said:
ribbons said:
£18 for the vet actually taking the blood QUOTE]

This makes me mad! For goodness sake point me in the general direction and I will take the blood myself. Where it he justification for charging £18 to take a bit of blood out of vein. Is it really that blooming difficult???
Imagine if the people at the Blood transfusion service were able to charge £18 every time!! Gosh they do hundreds in a week! They would be WELL rich! :)
Click to expand...

It does annoy me that people can talk down our services! Its not just £18 to take blood!
You need 2 members of staff (1 of those qualified), syringe, needle, blood tubes, cotton wool, alcohol to clean area, clippers, sharps bin, doop bin and then someone to come and incinerate that waste! Just for information sakes, our blood machines cost us £35,000! So its going to take us a hell of long time to make that back. We still have to buy in all the slides and kits to run the tests.

Blood test cost all different amounts depending on what is being tested and where they are being tested. Some tests are far more involved than others.
Click to expand...
 
Don't worry twiglet - I hear it all the time about dog grooming too. You charge WHAT? It's only a dog's hair cut FFS...never mind that we pay for training, buy equipment, shampoos, have rent/utils to pay, have to keep everything maintained and PAT tested, insurance long before we even think of paying ourselves. And then of course we can only DO so many a day to give a quality service - and yet - we're highwaymen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top