Vet bill £151 for a wee cat !!

blossom30

Hi I just wondered what all the animal lovers think about vet bills . My wee cat who is 16 took ill with urinary problems. After 2 courses of antibiotics after 2 months she was still suffering. She was admitted to animal hospital Tuesday night and before admittance I had to sign a document to say I would agree to pay fees due. Imagine my horror to find that after 1 nights stay, urine/blood test x-rays and sedation the bill was £151. I just think it is unfair that animal lovers are held to ransom like this Of course you are going to pay whatever it takes to stop the animal suffering but it just seems the fees should be made known beforehand so that the owner can see what the overall bill is going to be . If I were to phone a BUPA hospital today and ask for certain tests to be conducted on myself I would be given the costs up front. Why are vets allowed to do this? My wee cat hasn't been cured as it is kidney stones but I could've told the vet this before putting the wee animal through an x-ray. So we have to wait for the results of the urine test so that they know the type of anti biotic to fight the urine infection and break down the kidney stones. I'm a bit dubious about this as I thought they could just zap the stones as they do in humans. I just hope this wee animal hasn't been put through all these unnecessary tests to fill the coffers of the vet surgery.

catkins

I think vet's bills in this country are absolutely disgusting. I recently took my dog to the vet and he needed some tablets. The bill came to £56 which was £25 consultation fee and £31 for the tablets. I counted them - there were 22 of them so they cost over £1 each!

A few months ago I took my dog because he had a small lump on his chest. The vet felt it said "oh it's probably a cyst, nothing to worry about". That took all of a minute and yet still charged £25 consultation fee.

In France not only where the bills much much cheaper, things such as Frontline much cheaper but when I took a cat with a swollen pad the vet took at least 5 minutes examining it and then said he thought that the cat had originally had something in there but it appeared to have come out so he should be okay. Charge? Nothing - in fact the vet was highly amused when I asked how much to pay. He said "pay, what for? I have done nothing". Shame the vets here don't look at it the same way.

Just remember when my dog was a puppy and I was in France he broke his toe and had to go to the vets every other day to have his dressing changed. He also had a couple of x-rays, some antibiotics and I think some sort of injection. This went on for 8 weeks. The cost? £100!!! What would it be here?

heatherw_01

I think vets bills are high, but I have insurance so that I don't pay for them.

I must say, I think the worst fee is the consultation fee.

summerday

Yes, vet bills are high but then they have to study for many years, about as long as a human doctor I believe, so they have gone without much income for all those years when they studied. They have very specialist knowledge and their income comes from what they charge for treating pets, plus of course they have the premises and equipment costs. So my view is that anyone who chooses to have a pet either pays for a very comprehensive pet insurance policy or you have to pay the fees as and when, I don't think this bill by the OP is extortionate TBH.

However I do hope your kitty recovers quickly.
Sarah

Fleago

Hi shrewdal,

I'm sorry your puss is poorly, poor thing, hope she recovers soon. We're very fortunate in that our vets are very reasonable and if any of our pets need treatment they are more than willing to give an estimate of costs prior to carrying out the procedures. But as saraht says, vets have to cover absolutely everything - staff costs, premises, utilities, equipment etc - out of their fees so we are never going to have very cheap fees, just as going privately for human healthcare would not be a cheap option.

One thing I noted is you said animal hospital in your post - it's my understanding that if your vet's is a veterinary hospital it will be more expensive than a bog standard practice as the hospitals have far more equipment and expertise than average, hence normal practices sometimes having to refer on to a hospital for special cases.

I've never felt that my vets have held me to ransom; quite the contrary, I've had bills where I've thought "is that all?" and wondered if they are underselling themselves. Plus, I have two pets insured and two not and have never felt that this has made any difference in the way they have been treated nor the procedures suggested.

All that being said, I have friends down in the south of England and am utterly gobsmacked at some of the bills they have! Maybe I'm just lucky, but I really cannot fault nor complain at all about our practice

Fleago

wigginsmum

Vets fees are high - one of our cats broke her leg in April and took until last week to heal, and the total came to something like £3200 including two operations. Fortunately Direct Line settled directly with the vet.

Montymoo_2

get insurance saves us a fortune

aeuerby

7 Years ago one of my moggies broke her leg. The cost? £120.00.

The other week one of my Dads moggies wouldn't come home. When he did my dad got him checked out at the vets because we wondered if he'd gone blind. The cost? For 1 night £160. This included a drip and various blood tests.

The other day my sister took her moggy to the same vet for a broken tooth. The cost? Guess what £160 for 1 night and an operation.

Not to mention the consultation fees for check ups!

Yes vets charge alot and yes they have overheads but so do many many other businesses.

The result? My daughter wants to be a vet!

Eels100

aeuerby wrote:

The result? My daughter wants to be a vet!

If she wants to earn decent money tell her not to bother. She'd be better off in dentistry.

Vets when they graduate earn between £18-£22k. They have spent YEARS studying towards this goal, and they have to study hard - I mean really hard. Then they have to convince a university to let them in - at one point one institution had 14 students applying for each place available. Then they have a further 5 years of very intense study, while devoting all their holiday time to unpaid work placements (therefore they cannot earn anything to supplement what was in my time less than £4000 a year student loan to cover living expenses). Then they qualify and go into jobs where they work long hours (most days probably between 8 and 10 hours) and then have no free time because often they are still on call all night! They then have to get woken up in the middle of the night because clients think it's ok to phone asking about their cat being in season, or the fact that their dog's been off colour for several weeks but they've decided that at 3am it's suddenly an urgent case. Then they have to get up in the morning and go back to work to face people moaning about the fact that it cost X amount to make their pet better, and threatening to sue them! Not forgetting that fact that a huge proportion of veterinary clients don't pay their bills ...

I love my job, don't get me wrong, it's my life - but when I see how much of my monthly income disappears paying off the massive student loan I had no choice but to rely on, I lose the rag. Profiteering? Phone BUPA and ask them what overnight hospitalisation, drugs, haematology, biochemistry, urinalysis, radiography and a consultation would cost. I think you'll find, shrewdal, your cat got a good deal.

Incidentally, had the vet NOT taken an xray of your cat, and subsequently she became sicker because the large bladder stone she may have had was never surgically removed, I wonder if you'd have been knocking on the vet's door with a negligence claim?

chalky_bertie

Insurance, insurance and insurance!!!

Had our dog for about 6 months and have allready had our monies worth out of it. We chose M&S with 'no excess' so we get everything back - it's great.

We used to have a rabbitt - Bertie - and he had to have his teeth filed down every month. The cost wes on average £60 a month, every month for 3 years. We would have paid anything really butt the vet is really nice and looks after the animals very well. They are treating somebodies best friend.

Poppycat

But insurance is missing the point, who pays the bills? the people who pay insurance do so its everyones interests that vets charge a reasonable rate.

Sure they have to work hard and study for many years so do over trades. But I think that it must in some cases where people just cant afford hundreds of pound either 1. do without things to pay for the beloved pet or 2. Borrow money 3. have the pet put down, God forbid.