Veterinary Charges

mhairim

Last year my cat had lymphoma cancer, we tried different kinds of chemo for her and in the end had to give her intraveneous chemo at a cost of £140 a week, after her first lot when I picked her up I was told that I was not allowed to touch her for 4 days and had to use gloves, after 2 weeks there was no improvement so I asked the vet to do the tests again (£90 a time) and if there was no improvement I did not think we should carry on as we were told this would only prolong her life by about 6 months and I felt it was not fair to her as she had no quality of life. They pushed and pushed for me to keep going with the treatment untill the finally agreed it would be best to have her put down (which cost £100). When she was put down as you can imagine myself and my husband were distraut and crying, the made us pay for her to be put down there and then and would not send us an invoice and let us pay another day! She was insured, but my vets policy was I had to pay for it first and then claim in all back from the insurance and did not get this back till a month later (minus the £100 excess and the cost to have her put down), all in all in a month I had to pay out £1000, that is a lot of money for someone who has none! If I had known that the vet would make me pay for it before and claim for the insurance I would never have gone there! I also feel that they were wrong to push for us to carry on with the treatment when it was terminal and she was suffering, it just made our desicion even harder and more upsetting to deal with. Needless to say, I won't be using that Vet again!

krlyr

Many vets won't accept direct claims any more so always worth clarifying before you need to use it. Some vets will only deal with certain companies - yes, it's tough and in a way can make insurance seem a bit pointless, but it is the insurance companies and customers who are to blame - vets are businesses and need to be paid to continue to operate, they cannot run if they just keep allowing customers to use the services without payment or if the insurers refuse to pay out. I got a credit card for this very reason, though I am fortune that my vets are happy to deal with my insurance company (but then again, that was part of the reason I chose a slightly more expensive, but well-known company)
As for the treatment, yes, some vets may push for more than is fair but they are living animals not cars or TVs, there is way of knowing whether a treatment like chemo will work unless they try it - had it saved your cats life you may well be thanking the vets for giving her a chance that another vet may not have bothered to do.

mhairim

Krlyr, that is what I am saying though, it would not have saved her life, it was terminal and it would have only prolonged her life 3-6 months! The vet did not tell me this, I had to find this out myself and then asked the vet, they then confirmed this. Also they did not tell me that I would not be able to touch her for 4 days out of 7 and that my 6 month pregnant sister would not be allowed in my house at all. They did not tell me all of this till after she had started the treatment, I suppose that is the thing that I was most angry about. I should have been told this before we agreed to going ahead with the intravenous Chemo. The poor wee toot was so ill and could not even move off the sofa and I could not even give her a cuddle to ease her, it was heart breaking! It was not till I put my foot down and told them that I did not want her suffering anymore and she had been put to sleep did another vet at the practice admit to me that I had done the right thing and it would have been cruel to make her go through it anymore. To me that just screamed to me they wanted to make more money out of us! i really just wish that they had been honest with us at the start and not got our hopes up. I wish they would have been more about the my animal than the amount of money they would have made out of me!

thistledome

I think vet's bills have gone up a lot more than they need to in recent years due to so many people having insurance. They know they can get away with charging more and they know they can lash out for fancy equipment and still get a good return on their investment.

I also think they're prolonging pet's lives way beyond what would have been acceptable years ago. Not just because medical science has moved on, but also because of the insurance payments. No pet owner should be made to feel guilty about having their animal humanely PTS if it's suffering. JMHO, of course.

Having said that, I don't believe that anybody becomes a Vet with the idea that it's a licence to print money. They need to start out with a sincere interest in animals to go through such a long training period.

DKLS

Mindless_Clone wrote: »

OK, are you serious? I mean, assuming you are serious... :eek:

Yup serious, think about it Human scanners come in a pretty much set size, if a patient is too big for them, what do you do? they need a referral to a specialist.

Using London as an example you have two options, The Royal Vet College, which has a scanner suitable for a shire horse, if that isnt big enough its off to London Zoo, where they have an elephant sized scanner, and a non marked heavy duty ambulance.

Can you imagine, "Wont be long for your scan now Mr X, they are just clearing up after Nellie had an accident"
http://westminster.londoninformer.co.uk/2012/01/doctor-told-refer-obese-patien.html

http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2012/jan/too-heavy-nhs-patients-are-sent-vets-scans-royal-veterinary-college-say-obese-have-had

dacouch

Inflation in vet fees runs at between 10% and 20% annually.

Animal treatment advances alongside human advances, when new developments are discovered for human treatment eg CAT scans, they cascade through to animal medicine. New treatments are often very expensive initially.

yangptangkipperbang

Would I be a tad cynical to suggest that high vet's costs are driven by the fact that most pets are insured ?

hungrynurse_2

you might preferr then to train as a vet (7yrs uni [no pay & having to live off a loan to pay back later], then junior training post [hideous hours & not for high pay) & buy/ hire the equipment.
Yes vets are well paid, but everyone has the chances to do it and seek the same pay. Its known as rewarding hard work, years of it!

moggymutt

A plumber, builder or electrician will charge more for a callout than a vet, and yet the vet was the one who stayed on for 2 years at A level, 7 years at uni, all unpaid, while the other proffessions were all earning a living. I've seen kids work so hard to get to vet school.

I'd love vets to be cheaper, because our charity spends £4-5000 a month on vets bills, but the reality check is that they want a standard of living that reflects their many years of training.

TJI999

Actually the Office for National Statistics say that the average vets wage is around £36,000. Not good considering the time taken to qualify (5 years) and the long hours stress etc...