£12.50 Charge For Perscription From Vet

missbargain

P.S. for lowis,

Gosh, your vet sounds so lovely, I wish that Kensington to Islington traffic (and the tube line) is not such a pain. They are not even that far from one another, it is just that the traffic is horrible, as you probably know. And it is quite a few tube stops on the tube.

However, if my new vet doesn't work out for some reason, I will ask you for the name of your vet in Islington, he sounds really lovely. On that note, I better sort out that pet insurance...

simontheiceman

snowman2 wrote: »

Trust me, your vet is not going on holiday to Barbados

Actually I am! but not on the basis of one tube of flea drops and I saved thousands by using this very site! So to recap I have low prescription med prices and I still manage a profit. My car is very old now and needs a lot of attention but again this is "bangernomics". I will save enough to get a decent holiday by not having a new car. It also pays to have more than one business, I find.

missbargain

Very nice.

simontheiceman

MrsE wrote: »

They do charge a lot.

We rushed our cat to the vets recently just before 9pm.

He was dead when we got there, he had died in our house.

We were charged £120 to be told that.

What I'm still upset about is while my husband was at the front desk paying the vet & I was still in the examination room sobbing my heart out over his body, the cleaner actually came in & asked if I minded him cleaning the room. He could have waited 5 minutes.

I'm still very very upset about that.

Added to that, as he was a Persian & went outdoors fleas were a constant battle & when we went to collect him the next morning the nurse explained that as he was cold, the fleas were leaving & you could see them on him.

We had a cremation service & all through it, I could see the odd flea moving about.

Seeing as he was already dead & we had paid them £120 for 5 minutes of their time, would it have been too much to have sprayed him with some flea spray to have given him some dignity.

I usually fail to charge clients if I have a DOA out of hours - !!!!!! its dead, they dont need a bill for £120. They have to go home to an empty house - thats bad enough and with luck they will come with their new pup/kit and you can start again and "win" a second time. It really is worth not charging for events such as you describe - I often will see if clients will donate to the RSPCA / PDSA. As for a bit of time in the consult room - easy done and always offered - leave when you are done.

missbargain

Simon, that's lovely.

Even if some vets have to charge, how about saying to the pet's owner something like "We'll sort it out next time, don't worry about the payment now", or offering a discount, or just showing in some way that they cared about that pet and its owner just a little.

Anyway, when are you moving down to London, then?

moggylover

MrsE wrote: »

They do charge a lot.

We rushed our cat to the vets recently just before 9pm.

He was dead when we got there, he had died in our house.

We were charged £120 to be told that.

What I'm still upset about is while my husband was at the front desk paying the vet & I was still in the examination room sobbing my heart out over his body, the cleaner actually came in & asked if I minded him cleaning the room. He could have waited 5 minutes.

I'm still very very upset about that.

Added to that, as he was a Persian & went outdoors fleas were a constant battle & when we went to collect him the next morning the nurse explained that as he was cold, the fleas were leaving & you could see them on him.

We had a cremation service & all through it, I could see the odd flea moving about.

Seeing as he was already dead & we had paid them £120 for 5 minutes of their time, would it have been too much to have sprayed him with some flea spray to have given him some dignity.

Oh Mrs E! I am so sorry to hear about your beloved puss! I know how heartbroken you must be. The last time I lost one - a very kind friend of mine bought me a little fridge magnet that says: "cats leave pawprints on your heart" - she gave me a big hug and said that it probably means I have the dirtiest heart for miles around, but that she hoped it helped, and it did!

Big hugs to you. At least you know that your bully boy had all the love in the World during his time with you.

orlao

Milford_Cubicle wrote: »

I'll be interested to see how people feel about vet prices when the NHS folds and we're all forced to pay for private healthcare...

But the NHS isn't "free".....we all pay for it through taxation;)

Like a lot of people, I have private health insurance, admittedly heavily subsidised by my employer but they don't want me off work due to long waiting lists!

But that's another thread......:D

I think the point here is that too many people feel that some vets are overcharging and that their concern and love for their pets are being taken advantage of. Also, pet insurance or not, every policy has an upper limit and the last thing any of us need or want be it vet or owner is for insurance to become unaffordable due to greed on the part of some practices.insurance companies will raise premiums to ensure they make an overall profit ..if vet costs continue to rise at the rate they have over the past 5 years. Ask anyone who's had horse insurance over the past decade.....insurance companies in that sector are now considering only paying what they consider a "fair rate" for each treatment and then it would be up to the owner to top up the payout if their vet charges more.....this is a result of practices assuming that they could charge whatever they like as it was a faceless insurance company paying IYSWIM. I don't have a real problem with that business decision myself but for a lot of people it wouldn't be acceptable and it does rely on insurance companies setting realistic prices for treatments ie. taking location into account as missbargains and lowis experiences of pricing in Central London is very different to someone who lives in a less expensive area.

~Chameleon~

missbargain wrote: »

lowis,

That is fabulous that they did that for you, they obviously want to keep your business and can afford to do that. You are very lucky, although, it still is a lot. Perhaps it would pay for you to drive/hop on the tube and go slightly further away and half the cost, like I have done.

So you would be prepared to cause unnecessary distress to your cat by taking it on a tube journey just to save a few pounds off your vet bill? Also, what would you do in an emergency if you had to take a really sick animal on the tube?


How can they all charge differently? I already wrote about it that I think that it is the part of London thing, they just can. But if they have new and modern equipment, it is probably the part of it. But I find that you don't neccesserily need the cutting edge of technology to have a cat's tooth out, I mean, that procedure has been done for years with no problems and without some hooty tooty equipment. Still, your vet's gesture is very, very nice, I guess your 12 years of loyalty had to be rewarded.

Have you performed many dental extractions yourself? Do you even know what's involved in the procedure?

If you think modern technology isn't necessary in veterinary medicine, I wonder if you would be just as happy for vets to go back to the old days and use a wooden box filled with ether to anaesthetise your cat (very distressing to the animal and can take several minutes to even sedate let alone anaesthetise them!) rather than the highly effective and safe drugs and equipment used today

lowis

So you would be prepared to cause unnecessary distress to your cat by taking it on a tube journey just to save a few pounds off your vet bill? Also, what would you do in an emergency if you had to take a really sick animal on the tube?

my cats get ferried to the vet in taxis as I do not have a car, i am not sure i would take my cat on the tube, i would take them on a mainline train though on a short journey if needed (outside rush hours)...and a 'few pounds' in my case is actually £275 difference between the cheapest quote and the most expensive (all within a 2 mile radius). heck, i could charter a stretch limo to the cheapest vet and still save money

missbargain

I never said that modern technology is not necessary in veterinary medicine.

I said that teeth extractions have been done for decades now without the latest and most expensive equipment. You are trying to generalize, which is not what I had said. I myself go to 3 different dentists (in 3 countries: Germany, here and Croatia) and their equipment vary in "modernity" level fairly considerably, so do the prices, but guess what: all of them are great and my teeth are well looked after in all 3.
Of course they don't use the plyers any more, nor I would go there if they did, all I am saying is that it is not neccessary for all of them to have the laser what-not equipment to have the job well done. The same with the cats.

Also, I probably would not take my cat on the Tube, I only mentioned it because it can be much damn quicker than by car, but I have never tried it. But I WOULD ferry the cat by car for 1/2 hour, 40 minutes to the vet if it is half price saving, not a few quid as you say. I am talking here about routine check ups and treatments, obviously, not when the cat is terribly ill. Because, that saving would alow me to take him more often for check ups, grooming, treatments etc. that perhaps I might if the price was astronomical, obviously.

I have many neighbours who have weekend houses in the countryside, some of them 1 or 2 hours away, and they regularly (every couple of weeks or so) take their cats by car from London to their country houses, and there is nothing wrong with those cats. So I don't see why I would not take my cat a bit further away for the treatment, if it is saving me considerable amount and the vet is good.

So yes, it was my mistake for mentioning the Tube, I do apologise. I admit I thought about it (for shorter journeys), but I have actually never tried it, nor I would when I think about it better. Ok, PERHAPS I would if it is a stop or two on overland line (better then sitting in a jammed traffic for 30 minutes), but I would not for longer journeys than that.