Where do vet practices get their prices from?!

Zero00000 said:
One of my vets gives free prescriptions, the other charges £4.70 for the privileged, charge £20+ for something that costs under £10 online, and rabbit vacc £30+ per vacc when it is £11 per vile, I understand overheads, but surely they are shooting themselves in the foot.
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so they are only charging £19 plus vat for the correct storage of the vaccine, someone to order the vaccine, someone to take the delivery and out it in storage, the needle, the syringe, the fully qualified vets time to health check your rabbit in their facilities, the vets time to fill out a vaccination certificate (that only a vet can sign, the receptionists time to book your appointment/welcome you to the building/book you in, the insurance that covers you/the vet/your animal and the building facilities. I would say that is very good value myself. you would not get a mechanics time that cheap.
 
There are so many complaints on here about vet prices and I just think it is completely ridiculous and unfair.

Really compared to other professions Vets are massively good value.

Horses are expensive. If you want a cheaper pet buy a guinea pig :-). Stop moaning!
 
just to put a bit of perspective on all of this. I went to see a human Gastro-intestinal surgeon for a 2nd opinion on an issue with my health. I was in with him for 10-15 mins in total, his bill for his professional time which didn't include a physical exam, just talking to me was £120.00 - now i know that a lot of people see vets as overcharging, thieving etc but when compared to what human medicine costs even when we don't pay for it up front, I think Vets in reality wildly undercharge for their time.
 
took my mare to my vet last week to be sedated to have her teeth done, the vet only does basic rasp so i had a EDT as she needed power tool work, so bill from vet was £75.00 this was for 1 1/2 mil sedation and £30.00 to stand in his stocks for half hour, sorry but i think that is pretty excessive however much it cost him to train. Edt charged £60.00 and he did an awaful lot more than the vet
 
My horse was diagnosed with Cushings last year.

The drug to treat this is Prascend and v. expensive. My horse has 1 tablet per day. It has made such a huge difference that IMHO it's well and truly worth the expense.

When I investigated the price online I could get it for approx 90p per tablet plus the cost of the prescription from my vet - which is approx £20.

My vet charged approx twice the price per tablet compared to the online price.

So, I thought I had nothing to lose, and contacted the vet practice to see if they could match the price if I bought a good qty of the tablets.

They came almost straight back to say if I bought 6 months worth at a time that they would match the price of the tablets plus what I would have paid for the prescription.

It's a win win from my perspective and the vets get the cash flow and presumably they'll still make a bit on the translation.

I would definitely recommend speaking to the vets to see if they can give you a better deal - they are in business and nowadays used to people shopping around.
 
twiggy2 said:
so they are only charging £19 plus vat for the correct storage of the vaccine, someone to order the vaccine, someone to take the delivery and out it in storage, the needle, the syringe, the fully qualified vets time to health check your rabbit in their facilities, the vets time to fill out a vaccination certificate (that only a vet can sign, the receptionists time to book your appointment/welcome you to the building/book you in, the insurance that covers you/the vet/your animal and the building facilities. I would say that is very good value myself. you would not get a mechanics time that cheap.
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As in I paid £30 for one 5ml syringe of calpol from a whole bottle that cost £11.
Im not very good at technical words, but it isnt 1 vile per vaccine.
 
horsies4coursies said:
just to put a bit of perspective on all of this. I went to see a human Gastro-intestinal surgeon for a 2nd opinion on an issue with my health. I was in with him for 10-15 mins in total, his bill for his professional time which didn't include a physical exam, just talking to me was £120.00 - now i know that a lot of people see vets as overcharging, thieving etc but when compared to what human medicine costs even when we don't pay for it up front, I think Vets in reality wildly undercharge for their time.
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I think some private doctors take the pix, they are paid megabucks, ongoing training, paid holidays, negotiated working hours [ok some do work hard], then at night they go and do ops at private hospitals!
 
I work in a pharmacy.
I recently had to get a POM from the vet. I think the product cost £12 from them, or else they would have written a prescription for £10 (and then I would have to pay the cost of the item on top of that).
I looked the item up on our pharmacy ordering system - it cost about £3 from our wholesaler...
 
irishdraft said:
took my mare to my vet last week to be sedated to have her teeth done, the vet only does basic rasp so i had a EDT as she needed power tool work, so bill from vet was £75.00 this was for 1 1/2 mil sedation and £30.00 to stand in his stocks for half hour, sorry but i think that is pretty excessive however much it cost him to train. Edt charged £60.00 and he did an awaful lot more than the vet
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but the dentist does not maintain the buildings and stocks, does not pay for the area to be cleaned and disinfected or for the insurance for the practice facilities
 
Fides said:
You are kidding aren't you? There is no such thing as a free education any more. I couldn't do veterinary medicine due to the cost of the course... It's not like other degrees where you can work in the holidays even - vet school holidays involve unpaid work placements :( works out about £25-30k a year for a 5 year course
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Not sure how you got this figure, with tuition fees now it would probably cost around £50,000 for the whole 5 year, and accommodation on top, but certainly not £30K a year. You are right of course about the unpaid work placements, but on the plus side very few vet students spend much on going out because they don't have time.
With regard to the cost of drugs, my daughter is a vet and we can get Prascend for our Cushings pony online cheaper than she could get it through the practice, even at discount rates. The online companies have so much buying power they can undercut everyone, be it with drugs , clothing, furniture or whatever.
 
I still cannot believe some people are complaining about prices being marked up.

We live in a CAPITALIST country. Every product you buy is marked up! I can tell you vets products will not marked up by anything like as much as other products and services.

What a load of pointless moaning!

Sorry to be direct but this is annoying me now tbh.
 
TigerTail said:
I recently ordered 2 wormers online for £14.44 each, pramox. Due to migraine at time of ordering I forgot that I didnt have a half left over so actually needed 3 as one is part dinosaur!

Never mind thinks me il pop to the vets and pick one up so I can get on and get them done - £32 :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I nearly passed out on the spot, yanked my card out of the machine and said er I don't think so even with postage to order another one saves me over a tenner!

That is on top of a recent call out, costing me £35 for the call out plus £25 for an 'examination' fee - the vet didnt lay a blinking finger on the horse as he couldnt get near her as we discussed her ulcer symptoms for 5 mins - really grinds my gears tbh !
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Totally ridiculous for the wormer, I agree.

However call out and examination fee sound reasonable to me. And it's not the fault of the vet if they can't get anywhere near your horse......
 
twiggy2 said:
but the dentist does not maintain the buildings and stocks, does not pay for the area to be cleaned and disinfected or for the insurance for the practice facilities
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No accepted the dentist dosent but i had to sweep out his garage (the vets) beforehand where the stocks are located and then I hosed out afterwards as she had a pee that was before I paid him !! lol
 
Fides said:
You are kidding aren't you? There is no such thing as a free education any more. I couldn't do veterinary medicine due to the cost of the course... It's not like other degrees where you can work in the holidays even - vet school holidays involve unpaid work placements :( works out about £25-30k a year for a 5 year course
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Buddy'sMum said:
No, I'm not. Vet science courses, like all other uni courses, are subsidised by the govt. You don't really think it only costs £30k to train a vet do you? Where do you think the rest of the money comes from?
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Fides said:
No it costs £30k per year - 5 years would total £150k! Which is why I couldn't afford it
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Buddy'sMum said:
Sorry Fides, misread your last post. In that case - wow! I take it all back, I'll be buying all my wormers from my vet from now on, clearly they need all the help they can get to pay off those student loans! ;-)
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VioletStripe said:
How does it work out at 30k a year? I'm starting vet school in September....
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Spring Feather said:
Hmm it may cost International students this much but British citizens do not pay that. UK residents pay subsidised fees.
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MurphysMinder said:
Not sure how you got this figure, with tuition fees now it would probably cost around £50,000 for the whole 5 year, and accommodation on top, but certainly not £30K a year. You are right of course about the unpaid work placements, but on the plus side very few vet students spend much on going out because they don't have time.
With regard to the cost of drugs, my daughter is a vet and we can get Prascend for our Cushings pony online cheaper than she could get it through the practice, even at discount rates. The online companies have so much buying power they can undercut everyone, be it with drugs , clothing, furniture or whatever.
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Having just come out of vet school two years ago, I worked in at:

£3.5k per year fees (now up to £9k a year for current students)
£5-6k term-time accommodation, plus short term accom for various placements all over the country coming in at £2.5k
£250 a year on books (minimum)
£250 a year on general materials inlc dissecting kit and fresh scalpels, lab coats, PPE, and lab fees
And then I was about £300 a month for food/bills/internet/printing/memberships to BVA, BEVA, Uni vet society, uni exotics society, AVS etc

However mine was a six year course rather than 5 as went to Cambridge, so more expensive... Ultimately, I didn;t do the full six years and finish, mainly due to realising I didn't love it like I thought I did, but partly due to huuuuge outgoings, and very little likelihood of ever paying of my student loans...

This isn't including money spent on drink, as obviously that isn't necessary ;)

So I was about 12.5k a year minus fun things in life ;), current students looking at around 18k. You can get university bursaries and grants, but some unis offer more than others.

Without govt funding, unis would have to charge very student international fees to make money - sciences and engineering are HUGELY subsidised, even with the fee hike. As it is, unis complain about the undergrads being time and money drains - hence why they encourage lots of grad and post-grad students and take on loads of post-doc research too - that's where the money is, and then they make the grad/post-grad/doc/post-doc/research fellows etc give up their time to teach, helping keep costs down.
 
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TigerTail said:
I recently ordered 2 wormers online for £14.44 each, pramox.
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Sorry to hijack but OP where did you find Pramox for £14.44? Cheapest I could find was £16 each.

I would never buy anything from the vet that I can get online - they're always horrifically overpriced. I hate that I have to call them out to vaccinate one of my horses very shortly, wish they'd just give me the stuff and I could do it myself and save the call-out fee!
 
My daughter is a vet, she would never want to be a partner as the amount of money, time and stress needed to set up and maintain a surgery is HUGE.
 
The vet practise probably buys from the same place as you, then adds the mark up.

I certainly shop round for my workers.

Re the fees, I think They decide how many holidays they plan to go on, look at the cost of these, throw in a new vehicle and then divide by ten!

Our Horse of the Year has great bargains and I've bought a full box of wormers there because they are so cheap. Vet also advised that although there is a use by date on the wormer they are usually good for a few years after.

Occasionally I've bought expired wormers at silly prices and the horses have been fine
 
Darremi said:
I can tell you vets products will not marked up by anything like as much as other products and services.
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I can buy my vaccinations online for $6. I can buy them directly from my vet for $10 and he'll drop them off at my farm. If I have him come and vaccinate the horses for me then he charges me $15 plus the call out charge. I don't mind buying them directly from him as I'd pay for shipping anyway if I buy online. And I also don't mind paying him to come and share the vaccinating when there are loads of horses needing doing. If I only have a handful of horses to do then I generally just buy them from him.

So you can see the markup is almost double to buy them and do them myself, and almost 3 times the price if I have him come and share doing all the horses.
 
I was quite impressed by how reasonable my last vets bill was. I had 2 vacs done, and one horse had bad mud fever. (she has immune system issues) I needed antibiotics and steroid cream, plus something else. I also stocked up on danilon, around 15 sachets I think. It was just over £200, plus she didn't charge me for looking at the mud fever.
I had a lengthy discussion with one of the partners of the practise a while ago, and he said they can't buy wormers cheaply, but on the subject of other drugs, he did say that bulk purchasing and quite importantly money upfront, would make a difference. Don't forget, vets offer credit, if you buy something online, you pay for it immediately.
 
Being in the veterinary industry there are comments in this thread that upset me. You all have a very valid point however in comparison to other services for the knowledge and skill required to treat your animals I do not feel these fees are overpriced.
A practice cannot buy in the products you discuss for the same price as they are online, it is very unfair for all practices however we actively encourage our clients to find expensive meds cheaper online.
A lot of issues stem from certain 'chain' practices taking advantage and charging the earth. I work in a small single vets where our prices are as cheap as possible however the next local practice will charge £36 for one injection when we would only charge per ml so maximum of £6!! Even we as professionals are shocked by this and they get away with it a lot because people don't question it and where insurance companies are involved they seem to take the p!
Sorry for long message but just wanted people to know there is still vets out there that do it for the love of the animals not the profit
 
pretty sure they just think of a number and double it however they are businesses and have a right to charge to cover expertise and overheads on top of cost of drugs what gets me is we have a big practice about 50 yards from the ponies field and they charge me £56 as a call out+ 30 consultation fee the other vet comes about 12 miles doesnt charge call out for more than two ponies and doesnt charge consultation the jabs are slightly more expensive but the whole thing works out at half the price of the big practice
 
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