chocolate lab with conjunctivitis, vet bill for £50?

F_Bear

we've a 4 yr old choc lab called wisper who we adore. i work shifts but the OH works from home so is with her all day. unfortuanlty she occasionaly has to visit head office meaning staying over night.

when this happens by brother looks after wispa with my nephews. sods law when i take her round the other morning her eyes where really red and had 'gunk' in them. my brother has had labs himself so took her to vets who diagnoised Conjunctivtis.

the bill consisted of:

1 x consutation £20.00
1 x fluorescine 1% tube £1.24
1 x fucithalmic vet £6.73
21 x carprieve 50mg £ 11.55

plus vat £7.91

total £47.43.

i just wondered if this is fair?

happily the drops have worked and her eyes are looking alot better. she was never off her food, and seemed happy in herself, still wanting to play and walks etc.

Fosterdog

I suppose it depends how bad the infection was, if they'd only given the eye drops and they hadn't worked you'd be paying a second consult fee and needing a second course of drops along with something stronger.

£20 is probably about average for a consult (mine is £15 but in a cheap part of the country)

The meds may have been cheaper online but you'd have a prescription charge on top and have to wait a few days for it to arrive (my vet charges £19 for a first script and £13 for a repeat, some charge as little as £5)

krlyr

I would say £50 is more than fair to be honest - I know some vets can charge £50 consultation fee alone!
The problem is, as residents of the UK, the majority of us don't pay for our medical care outright. Sometimes we even find a £7.20 prescription fee unfair at times! But medical care is expensive, you only need to look at the costs of private GPs here in the UK, or the cost of medical care somewhere like the US where it needs to be paid for by the individual or their health insurance.
For example, Bupa charge £67.49 for a 15 minute consultation, and that's without any medication!
http://www.bupa.co.uk/individuals/self-pay-treatments/gp-services

£70 here
http://www.privategpservices.co.uk/Services/fees%20page/fees.html

£70-90 for those 15 minute here
http://www.privategp.com/fees.html

And the bonus of vets, at least any I've ever been to, if they've ever run over the 15 minute slot for my appointment, I've never been charged extra for it. Somehow I get the feeling private GPs would certainly be billing you if they ran over their time..

Vets have to study just as hard as doctors. Maybe even harder - there's one Uni in UK where vets do 6 years vs the 5 years a doctor does I believe. Their practices cost a lot to run, medication costs money (and smaller vet practices don't have the mass buying-power of large hospitals so medication can cost them more to purchase), their medical equipment is just as expensive (my OH is an x-ray engineer and his company install the same machines to the vets as they do the hospitals) - so ultimately I think you've got a very fair price for the treatment you received.

~Chameleon~

F_Bear wrote: »

we've a 4 yr old choc lab called wisper who we adore. i work shifts but the OH works from home so is with her all day. unfortuanlty she occasionaly has to visit head office meaning staying over night.

when this happens by brother looks after wispa with my nephews. sods law when i take her round the other morning her eyes where really red and had 'gunk' in them. my brother has had labs himself so took her to vets who diagnoised Conjunctivtis.

the bill consisted of:

1 x consutation £20.00
1 x fluorescine 1% tube £1.24
1 x fucithalmic vet £6.73
21 x carprieve 50mg £ 11.55

plus vat £7.91

total £47.43.

i just wondered if this is fair?

happily the drops have worked and her eyes are looking alot better. she was never off her food, and seemed happy in herself, still wanting to play and walks etc.

Extremely cheap

fannyadams

my Greyhound cut her foot on some glass my vet bill was around £78.00
for
the vet to have a look at her foot and decide that yes the dog is lame and yes it's a clean cut so most likely glass (funny that's what I said and I didn't go to university for 7 years!)
she might have an infection so lets give her some antibiotics (which to be fair the dog took all of them - otherwise she might not have a foot)
and she's lame so it must hurt lets give her some pain relief (she only had one tablet - we've kept the rest in case they need them another time)

AND was told that IF she wasn't better in three days to bring her back and we can
have an x-ray or something to see if the glass is still in her foot
have an operation on her foot to remove said glass
post operative follow up including more antibiotics and pain relief as well as dressing changes

SO I think you got off lightly

zaksmum

When my dog got an eye infection I just got infected eye drops from the chemist.

Cost about £4 and sorted the infection out fine.

JennyW_2

F_Bear wrote: »

we've a 4 yr old choc lab called wisper who we adore. i work shifts but the OH works from home so is with her all day. unfortuanlty she occasionaly has to visit head office meaning staying over night.

when this happens by brother looks after wispa with my nephews. sods law when i take her round the other morning her eyes where really red and had 'gunk' in them. my brother has had labs himself so took her to vets who diagnoised Conjunctivtis.

the bill consisted of:

1 x consutation £20.00
1 x fluorescine 1% tube £1.24
1 x fucithalmic vet £6.73
21 x carprieve 50mg £ 11.55

plus vat £7.91

total £47.43.

i just wondered if this is fair?

happily the drops have worked and her eyes are looking alot better. she was never off her food, and seemed happy in herself, still wanting to play and walks etc.

Blimey, extremely fair if you ask me. Our consults are £35.

However at the end of the day, if your dog needs treatment, then that's what he needs

Helen2k8

Sounds bloomin' cheap to me too

paulwellerfan

yeah sounds cheap...
glad your dog is ok.

MissKeith

My cat has conjunctivitis at the moment and it cost me £50 for the consultation, the eye drops, anti-biotics and painkillers so yes, seems fair to me.

Fire_Fox

Reasonable and better than a blind dog. My sibling (human!) had a bacterial eye infection that was not diagnosed and treated promptly, by the time it was there was a secondary viral infection and damage to the surface of the eye. This required several visits to Moorfields eye hospital, topicals every couple of hours for months. I'd imagine the private veterinary equivalent would be prohibitively expensive! :eek: