Why are vet bills sooooo expensive???

dizziblonde

nikkilou1984 wrote: »

I've recently had to fork out £1000 for my cat who had bladder crystals - luckily i have pet insurance - unlucky that its with Argos and it took over 6weeks for me to receive it back....

I was impressed with Tesco recently - they got my form on one day and I got the cheque back the following day's post!

I have to say I think the rise in pet insurance has played its part - whereas when I was a kid I know that the vets would try their best to keep bills down for people, these days I don't think there's that same thing going on - I think there tends to be a lot more of "oh their insurance will be paying" going on. When our dog was in recently for some stitches one of the outer dressings fell off literally in the car on the way home (so she hadn't had any chance to lick it) - so I just put the loose ends back on with some micropore tape over the top (it was that vetwrap stuff that hadn't stuck to itself properly) to see us over the weekend before she had a booked dressing change on the Monday... got a right earful for not bringing her back for another dressing (at £25 charge) straight away - because they just assumed that the insurance would be paying and that it didn't really matter how many of these dressing charges they whacked up because the first one hadn't been put on properly... things like that.

londonsurrey

It is expensive, but that thing about the NHS making us forget how much real medical costs is true.

One thing is that my vet doesn't always charge for follow up appointments if it's just a quick checkup.

martinsurrey

I had some medical tests done privately recently after I realised I was covered by my work insurance (saves the NHS and I get it done faster).

For 3 none invasive tests (about 3 hours) and a 15 min consultation it came to over £1,300

People are right that we don’t appreciate the cost of medical work as the NHS is so good!

SqueekyMouse

I am not an animal lover, I don't really understand people who are. Well, I vaguely understand owning a pet that gives something back to you - like a dog...

I will probably get flamed for asking this, but I am interested...

Are pets really worth the expense - £1000 to treat a cat with a bladder problem?? ( I know the poster had insurance for this, but if you didn't would you still pay to treat the pet?) Not to mention the food and other expenses that crop up.

Do they really provide a sense of comfort, companionship etc? Does that justify the expense?

Please don't hate me for asking!!!!

dragonette

SqueekyMouse wrote: »

I am not an animal lover, I don't really understand people who are. Well, I vaguely understand owning a pet that gives something back to you - like a dog...

I will probably get flamed for asking this, but I am interested...

Are pets really worth the expense - £1000 to treat a cat with a bladder problem?? ( I know the poster had insurance for this, but if you didn't would you still pay to treat the pet?) Not to mention the food and other expenses that crop up.

Do they really provide a sense of comfort, companionship etc? Does that justify the expense?

Please don't hate me for asking!!!!

Well, it depends on the owner. If the animal isn't worth enough tp you that you would put money over saving a sentient creature from pain, don't have pets. Personally I would move heaven and earth to stop any sentient creature being in pain if it was within my power to do so. I don't draw much of a distinction between humans and animals - leaving any creature in signigicant pain is unacceptable.

That said, £1000 for bladder crystals sounds mighty expensive

londonsurrey

SqueekyMouse wrote: »

I am not an animal lover, I don't really understand people who are. Well, I vaguely understand owning a pet that gives something back to you - like a dog...

I will probably get flamed for asking this, but I am interested...

Are pets really worth the expense - £1000 to treat a cat with a bladder problem?? ( I know the poster had insurance for this, but if you didn't would you still pay to treat the pet?) Not to mention the food and other expenses that crop up.

Do they really provide a sense of comfort, companionship etc? Does that justify the expense?

Please don't hate me for asking!!!!

I think the key to this is a matter of understanding that people just have different tastes and priorities.

So, someone might spend £30 on a blusher from the Chanel counter, and be really happy with that. It's a treat, it's nice to handle the nice packaging, and be confident about the luxury product.
Someone else might think that they're nuts, when you can get a blusher for £3. And a third person would think that they were both nuts for bothering about something as odd as blusher.

Likewise with a dog. Another animal lover might find that a critter that demands so much attention just annoying, and actually prefer the fact that a cat is less "in your face" but yet still desire that presence of a another living creature.

The important thing, having decided to be responsible for another living creature, is to treat it as such, and not as a disposable commodity.

Think about what kind of person would be able to go through the trouble of obtaining another living creature to include in their home, and then just watch it suffer, or write it off. Then think about how these people are likely to treat "useless" old relatives.

GlynD

Vet bills here in Northern Ireland are on average around 50% of those we paid in GB for our cat. We are led to believe that the reason for that is many vets in GB are part of a chain which has fixed pricing whereas that hasn't crept in over here yet.

Examples within the last month:

1. Night-time call out with medication supplied for kidney problem. £27
2. Dematting (best we've ever seen) £35.

londonsurrey

One of the ways to lower bills is to shop around for medication.

One of my cats is on a long term course of prescribed medications. By paying the vet £5 for a prescription and asking for higher amounts in the prescription, I can then shop around, and get them 2.5-4 times cheaper.

Tropez

SqueekyMouse wrote: »

I am not an animal lover, I don't really understand people who are. Well, I vaguely understand owning a pet that gives something back to you - like a dog...

I will probably get flamed for asking this, but I am interested...

Are pets really worth the expense - £1000 to treat a cat with a bladder problem?? ( I know the poster had insurance for this, but if you didn't would you still pay to treat the pet?) Not to mention the food and other expenses that crop up.

Do they really provide a sense of comfort, companionship etc? Does that justify the expense?

Please don't hate me for asking!!!!

Justification for any expense is a personal and subjective thing. You could take nigh on anything that isn't necessary to one's survival and start questioning whether the money spent on it is worth it or not but as people differ so vastly in their motivation and interests then it is quite safe to assume that for some people the money spent on pets is very much worth it.

krlyr

londonsurrey wrote: »

I think the key to this is a matter of understanding that people just have different tastes and priorities.

So, someone might spend £30 on a blusher from the Chanel counter, and be really happy with that. It's a treat, it's nice to handle the nice packaging, and be confident about the luxury product.
Someone else might think that they're nuts, when you can get a blusher for £3. And a third person would think that they were both nuts for bothering about something as odd as blusher.

Likewise with a dog. Another animal lover might find that a critter that demands so much attention just annoying, and actually prefer the fact that a cat is less "in your face" but yet still desire that presence of a another living creature.

The important thing, having decided to be responsible for another living creature, is to treat it as such, and not as a disposable commodity.

Think about what kind of person would be able to go through the trouble of obtaining another living creature to include in their home, and then just watch it suffer, or write it off. Then think about how these people are likely to treat "useless" old relatives.

Great post. To go to the extremes, I really don't "get" the idea of having kids - holds absolutely no appeal to me at all and looking at the costs of raising a child to 18 (and beyond..) makes my dogs look very cheap! But I can see why many people want children. Horses for courses.