Vet Bill - £500 and mounting :-)

krlyr

cjmumto2 wrote: »

Another story a friend was paying £300 per month for meds til she looked online and found them for £100, told the vet she no longer needed the meds and the vet said we can price match. So had basically been overcharging her by £200, disgusting

The overheads of a veterinary surgery are higher than that of a warehouse/online pharmacy though, plus they don't have "bulkbuying power" to the same extent (your local corner shop costs more than your nearby Tesco for the same reason). Less sales can result in more wastage with medications that have a use-by date too - my vet will order in unusual medications for my pets but I may have to pay for a whole 3-pack when I only need one vial, because my vet cannot afford to just bin the other two when no other customer needs the same stuff. Whereas an online pharmacy may find it easy enough to sell the 3 vials individually.
Of course, vets are businesses too and some are in it just for the money, and are happy to rip their customers off, but many just can't beat online prices like any other local, physical shop with extra overheads.

rising_from_the_ashes

[quote=[Deleted User];50024489]Just looked at insurance. £5 a month but excess is £100. So this means unless its serious they aint gonna pay so I wonder if its worth it.[/QUOTE]

Glad Keith's on the road to recovery .....

The only thing I'll say re the insurance issue is ... what if the bill had run to many £000s and not £00s - would you still have been abl to pay .....

For me, personally, although I could stretch to a few £00s in vets bills, a few £000s would be beyond me and I'd hate to be put in the position of having to pts if I couldn't afford treatment ...... my wee cat is 3 - if I'd put the insurance money away, I'd have around £300 saved now ... that wouldn't go very far - especially for an ongoing condition.

geri1965_2

I've had all my cats insured - it was 13 years before I claimed for Spook and 14 years for Geri (just paid almost £500 out today) so I probably would have been better off not to have the insurance, but you just don't know what will happen and when. It's pure good luck that neither of them got injured or ill before they were old, but you can't know that at the outset.

With insurance you pay for peace of mind.

snowman2_2

cjmumto2 wrote: »

I think vets in this country are a rip off, they all seem interested in the money and not the pet. It is criminal how much they charge and really they dont need to. My cat was hit by a car in France, broke his pelvis in 5 places, cost 50 euros for xrays and all meds then a check up xray was 20 euros. So all in all 70 euros.

You were very, very, very lucky then. It cost me 44 euros for 1 tube of frontline, a worming tablet and a stamp in my dogs pet passport in France last year. For 50 euros to get xrays and medication it sounds like you managed to find a charity clinic. My xray equipment was second hand (ex-NHS) and still cost £10,000 to buy, let alone running costs, safety checks, anaesthetic, etc. You had a bargain and you cannot go making wild claims based on that (ridiculously cheap) experience.

The vast majority of vets want to help your pets first - they also want to make a decent living but I know I can do that by looking after my patients / clients and charging a fair price.

winterwhite11

cjmumto2 wrote: »

I think vets in this country are a rip off, they all seem interested in the money and not the pet. It is criminal how much they charge and really they dont need to. My cat was hit by a car in France, broke his pelvis in 5 places, cost 50 euros for xrays and all meds then a check up xray was 20 euros. So all in all 70 euros. A cats protection league cat had the same issue here in UK and it was £2000. How can they charge a charity that? Another story a friend was paying £300 per month for meds til she looked online and found them for £100, told the vet she no longer needed the meds and the vet said we can price match. So had basically been overcharging her by £200, disgusting

Hope Keith gets better soon

my vet is fantastic
i was not insured and had aprox £2000 bill when my dog needed a live saving op but they told me after they did not charge me for a lot of things.
they charged me for 1 overnight stay instead of around 10
i think every overnight stay was around £40 or £50 as they need to have a nurse watch over him plus some other things not charged for..
i think i was saved around £1000
i know thay are making a good amount of money still but a lot of vets would have charged full amount.
a also found out the lady vet who done my dogs op was spending her spare time at home reading up on the breed and his anatomy etc to try and work out why problem started...she is fantastic.

winterwhite11

i forgot to say.
i have a new kitten coming in a few days and i am getting insurance for sure.
even if i never claim , at least i know that if a really expensive bill is coming then it will be taken care of.
i can make my self terrible ill from worry so insurance now is a must for me.

HRV

I actually think insurance has increased what they offer at vets- before insurance I dont think lots of things would have been offered as people couldnt pay it

Having said that Im not moaning- my little kitty- RIP Guinness- had lukemia and we had to have lots of tests done- including a bone marrow biopsy and a sort of blood transfusion- we had insurance but only limited cover- in a way though Im glad we stopped when we did- we enjoyed her last few months without medical interventions- we knew when it was time.

Our vets was lovely- the vet did loads of reading up on it as it was pretty rare as she was only 2 when diagnosed- we think she was probably born with it :-(

bugslet

Gentle woofs from my 5 to Keith; I hope he recovers well and that he's back to his happy self soon.

I've never had insurance and in 25+ years of being a multi-dog household have only just had a heavy vets bill to remove a tumour and a small muscle from one of my dogs back legs just before Xmas. Cost of £1600.00....deep breath:o. I still think that over the period of not paying insurance, I'm probably still ahead. Obviously it depends on your circumstances and whilst I wince at that amount, I appreciate that for some people it would mean the end of the road for their pet. It boils down to what you feel you are able to do in an emergency and your risk tolerance.

On the subject of vets, mine runs an exceptionally well equipped surgery, have a top vet who has taught at university and has a lot of experience and I don't feel that they ripped me off at all. They laid out all the options and permutations of the operation, it could have been a lot more expensive. I can't do what a vet does without many many years of training, a vet could do what I do with a few weeks training, I don't mind paying for his/her time and experience.

rising_from_the_ashes

bugslet wrote: »

I've never had insurance and in 25+ years of being a multi-dog household have only just had a heavy vets bill to remove a tumour and a small muscle from one of my dogs back legs just before Xmas. Cost of £1600.00....deep breath:o. I still think that over the period of not paying insurance, I'm probably still ahead. Obviously it depends on your circumstances and whilst I wince at that amount, I appreciate that for some people it would mean the end of the road for their pet. It boils down to what you feel you are able to do in an emergency and your risk tolerance.

It is total luck of the draw (and I do think you've been really lucky) - my old cat had an ongoing condition for over 8 years and cost £2 to £3k / year to keep going - he was happy and had a great life and I'd have been devasted if I hadn't been insured and had to take the pts option in Year 1 (I couldn't have afforded that each year - no matter how hard I tried).

My old lab (sadly recently departed) had a couple of trips to the vet / year for tummy upets / sore ears etc @ around £50 - £80 a go ....

Total luck of the draw .... as Geri says, you're part paying for peace of mind in case something does happen.

dawnie1972

dawnie1972 wrote: »

I do sympathise with you.
My dog got seriously ill just before xmas, trip to the vets on the Friday night, bill for £180ish plus another £30 for meds from the pharmacy, admitted to the vet hospital on the Monday, once ultrasound done had to pay another £150 as a deposit to continue his treatment, collected him on the Friday and bill was another £650, plus 3 visits since both around the £50 mark. None of mine are insured but the eldest is 9.5yrs old, he's 8.5yrs old and the youngest is 7, to insure all 3 would've cost me approx £50 a month and this is the first big bill i've had, no-one will insure the poorly dog now so i'm going to put so much a month away into a savings account, i've found the money but the credit card bill etc had to wait. One thing I will suggest is, if your pet has to have tablets do some research into whether you can get them online/at the chemist - my vet gave me a prescription for the antibiotics my dog was on (synulox) - at the vets it cost me over £40 for 21 tablets - at the chemist (Boots) it cost me £11 for 63 of the same tablets!!

Add another £100+ to that figure - been back to vets tonight he's gotta go back on Friday for another ultrasound/blood test and been quoted over £100!