Veterinary Charges

967stuart

Our dog hurt his hind leg last night and we took him along to the vet this morning, they sedated and done an x-ray, they also gave him some pain killers.

The cost so far is about £617 !!

They couldn't even see what is wrong with the leg so they want to send him to a specialist to do a CT Scan at further cost of £1300 !!

So that's over £1900 just to see what the problem is, I'm getting seriously worried that the costs are getting out of control here, we have him insured with pet plan but they only cover up to £4000, if the dog needs an operation etc then we could be looking a bill for 1000's and 1000's !!

Of course we love the dog so we will have to find the money, just cant believe these bills for a quick x-ray, it's all computerised these days so the I think the cost is outrageous to be honest.

Steer73

Thats rough.

threemuttleys

Pets are expensive

McKneff

Hopefully the scan will show nothing so no operation 'fingers crossed' so you will only have the excess to pay.

Can you imagine how you would feel without any insurance.:eek:

~Chameleon~

People always seem shocked at the cost of veterinary services because they're so used to getting personal medical treatment free on the NHS. If you were to compare the cost to private medical services you'd see that veterinary medicine is quite cheap in comparison. It's your choice to have a pet after all

Nilrem

I'm sorry to hear your dog's poorly

However iirc the costs to do x-rays etc for animals are pretty high due to the cost of the equipment and relative lack of use it will get (IIRC x-ray machines cost a reasonably large sum, and need very routine maintenance*).
From memory for a human to get a simple ankle/hand x-ray if a GP refers someone it costs something like £150 to the Surgery, and that's on equipment that will be getting used much more frequently than a Vet's (so cost per use is lower).
And things like CT scans may require an animal to be sedated so they don't move, and that costs money (and again a CT scanner is not cheap, requires specifically trained techs and someone with the training to read the scan).
IIRC in the States you'd be paying similar sums of money for human tests of the same type, despite the human versions tending to be easier to do (we're fairly insulated as to the costs of a lot of healthcare in the UK, as we rarely get faced with a bill ourselves for most of it).

Unfortunately having a pet you love can be very very expensive
I've been lucky in our vet tends to be reasonably cheap (the practice runs from a converted house, and does a lot of farm work - and training new vets, unlike several of the other practices which have lovely office type buildings, and only do small animal).

I hope that whatever it is that's wrong with your pooch isn't serious and gets sorted soon.


*To avoid the Vet glowing in the dark

zaksmum

When my old dog needed to get a tooth out years ago, the bill was £800!!

They itemised the bill for me and even charged for use of a recovery crate for one day or part of one day - he was in the recovery crate for about 45 minutes!

Thank God for pet insurance.

hotcookie101

I like this article which compares costs of human vs animal. It is an american article, but even so it is comparable in UK as we have no real idea of costs of human health care because of the NHS...

ses6jwg

insurance?

Hoof_Hearted

Yup, the fees vets charge are quite fair. My vet has to rub along with a year old Aston Martin and a new Range Rover.

~Chameleon~

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

Yup, the fees vets charge are quite fair. My vet has to rub along with a year old Aston Martin and a new Range Rover.

Assuming you're telling the truth, I can assure that is the exception rather than the rule amongst vets! My GP on the other hand... :rotfl: