Not happy with vet costs these days.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

No wonder pet owners are struggling to keep their pets these days. The sheer cost of visiting the vets is getting out of hand.

I have used the same vets for a number of years now & am getting quite annoyed with how much vets charge for medication & return appointments.

My dog has had to have antibiotic drops for an eye condition. I had to take him back today for the vet to check out how is eye is & whether the drops are helping. The vet never charged for progress updates, however, they now charge the same cost as the initial consultation fee.

As his eye isn't quite healed, I need to take him back again next week. So, in the end, the overall cost, including medication, will be in excess of £80.

I find it totally shocking & I feel for those who just cannot afford these over inflated costs.

In fact, just before the xmas holidays, I was discussing this with my dog's hydro-therapist & she said that she had also noticed this new progress consultation fee which she too wasn't happy about. We both happen to use the same surgery & neither of can understand why they have suddenly started charging this extra fee.

In my opinion, vets are taking advantage of genuine people who want the best for their animals.

krlyr

Compared to private medical care for humans I think vet fees can often look very reasonable to be honest - take a look at how much a private GP would cost for a consultation, and I bet they charge for checkups too. At least my vets have never whacked on more to the bill if our appointment has overrun our 10 minute slot - private doctors charge by the 15 minute session usually and I bet going over 5 minutes would cost you.
At the end of the day, pets are a luxury and in this day and age the cost will rise much like the cost of petrol for cars, forcing people to cut down on non-essential travel, or the cost of haircuts, fast food and so on.
Perhaps your vets have suffered a hike in interest rates on the commercial mortgage, or rental of the premises. Perhaps their electricity rates have gone up, the subscription costs for the software they use, the maintenance contract for their equipment has increased. Perhaps, as technology has developed, they have had to replace older machines or buy in new equipment to offer the same services as competitors. There are many costs behind running a veterinary surgery and they are not static. I see a price rise in consultations to be no different than a price rise in groceries - not something I welcome with open arms but something that is required to keep profits up and therefore keep them in business. I would rather pay the extra to keep my vets around, as I find them very good on the whole (the odd bad experience but nobody's perfect).
Perhaps it would be worth shopping around for a new vet if you're unhappy with your current practice - like any service there will be the good and the bad, those in it for money, those in it for love, and those on a sliding scale inbetween.

krlyr

E.g. http://www.privategpservices.co.uk/Services/fees%20page/fees.html
Full health check, something my vet has done for Kiki recently. Consult cost me about £40 and we were in there for around 15-20 minutes.
For the Well Person checkup, you gget 75 minutes for £300. That's £4 a minute, so my 15-20 minute consult could have cost me £60-80 at that rate.
Repeat prescription charge - my vet does a written prescription for £12. Not bad compared to £35.
And I can cancel my appointment with less than 24 hours notice without any charge incurred either!

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I really don't think you can compare private health care to what vets charge.

However, if you want to, I know that if I chose to have laser eye surgery, for instance, that the initial consultation fee covers all subsequent follow up appointments.

getting back to vets fees...the vets I go to have only recently started to charge for follow up appointments. Also, I was in the surgery longer waiting to see the vet than I was actually seeing the vet. My dog didn't require any further treatment either, she just advised me to continue to use the rest of the eye drops she had prescribed the week previous.

I am well aware of how the cost of things have increased, however, I feel in this instance, genuine pet owners are covering the costs of those people who take their animal to the vet & end up not paying their bill for treatment their animal has received.

The mark up on meds prescribed is quite shocking too.

I also disagree with your idea that pets are a luxury. They are not a luxury, they are, in some case, an integral part of someones life. Certainly in my case that is true and I'm sure it is the same in many homes.

Basically, I wouldn't have an issue paying a substantial amount if my dog was seriously ill & needed surgery. However, £80 for eye drops & a few minutes of the vets time is un-acceptable.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

** Just to add:

I had to take a stray cat & her 3 kittens to a local small family run cat rescue.

Both the mother & the kittens required neutering. However, due to the fact the cat rescue wasn't one of these huge rescue chains such as RSPCA, the vets were charging her the full cost of neutering. She wasn't entitled to any assistance. However, I did pay half of the cost as I felt it was the right thing to do.

Vets do very little to help these struggling small animal sanctuaries and this further fuels my opinion about un-reasonable vets fees.

krlyr

But no doubt the cost of your laser surgery was carefully thought out to minimise loss. Should their costs go up, I imagine their price would go up too. Like I said, that 20 minute appointment could have cost me £80 going by private GP rates - so if I was to pay £40 now and then £40 for a checkup, would that be better than £80 for the appointment with a free checkup? I mean, really, you're better off gambling that you won't need the second appointment and might save £40 - whereas I bet the GP would charge the £80 regardless of whether you missed the checkup or not.
And I'm just saying private GP to keep it simple, but the vets I see aren't just an animal GP. Often I may see the chief surgeon, for example - imagine how much you would have to pay privately for a consultation with your surgeon.

the_devil_made_me_do_it wrote: »

I also disagree with your idea that pets are a luxury. They are not a luxury, they are, in some case, an integral part of someones life. Certainly in my case that is true and I'm sure it is the same in many homes.

Basically, I wouldn't have an issue paying a substantial amount if my dog was seriously ill & needed surgery. However, £80 for eye drops & a few minutes of the vets time is un-acceptable.

A mobile phone is an integral part of many people's lives - many people wouldn't be without them. Does that mean they're not a luxury? People can survive without phones, and they can survive without dogs. They're a non-essential that needs to be budgeted for, and that may not be affordable to everyone at every point in their life. I had to go a couple of years without a dog because I didn't have the funds nor the living situation for one. It was tough, but I survived.
Assistant/service dogs aside, they are a want, not a need.

Your £80 does not just pay for a few minutes of a vets time, either. Much like your laser surgery fee did not just pay for a moment of someone's time and a little bit of electricity. Vets have overheads to cover that they cannot charge for directly - you wouldn't expect to get a bill for the cleaner who came in and cleaned the whole practice daily to ensure sanitary conditions, or the materials they used to do so. You wouldn't see electricity, gas or water itemised on your receipt but they are essential to provide you with that service. The cost of having a receptionist to book your appointment and to register your arrival, the computer software to keep your account notes, even the cost of the furniture you sit on in reception needs to be recouped by the business in some way. The cost of developing a logo, running a website, placing adverts in the area - these outgoings will bring in revenue through checkups and appointments like your few minutes getting eyedrops.
And on the subject of eyedrops - yes, you may be able to order them cheaply online and find it attrocious that the vet marks them up so much. Do you find it equally attrocious that your local post office/grocery shop charges twice as much for a tin of soup as Tesco? I don't - I understand that they do not have the bulk buying power, the immense storage facilities, the rate of turnover or any of the other benefits that a multinational supermarket uses to provide their lower prices. I've seen my vet's store room, it's not much bigger than my (small) bathroom - they cannot store masses and masses of items. And just like the small independant grocery store may have to order smaller quantities of perisable foods, and therefore charge a higher price, smaller vet practices will be limited in the quantity they can order of medications with short shelf lives - I know that my vet often had to just bin an entire vial of rabbit vaccine because they could only be purchased in packs of three and they had to just hope that customers booked their rabbit in within the shelf life of the pack they'd ordered in and part-used for me. In cases like that, they need to recoup that cost somewhere and it gets added on here and there - a few more pounds on the cost of the vaccination, a few pennies on consultations so they make it up over time, and so on.

krlyr

the_devil_made_me_do_it wrote: »

** Just to add:

I had to take a stray cat & her 3 kittens to a local small family run cat rescue.

Both the mother & the kittens required neutering. However, due to the fact the cat rescue wasn't one of these huge rescue chains such as RSPCA, the vets were charging her the full cost of neutering. She wasn't entitled to any assistance. However, I did pay half of the cost as I felt it was the right thing to do.

Vets do very little to help these struggling small animal sanctuaries and this further fuels my opinion about un-reasonable vets fees.

But why should these rescues be entitled to discount? I know of many vets who will happily provide discount to smaller rescues, I know of several rescues I have been involved with who receive regular, generous discounts from their local vets, but they appreciate the gesture, rather than expect it. When I did some small-scale rehoming, I expected to pay full-price for any medical care the animals needed and that was a consideration when accepting animals into my care - if I couldn't afford it then I didn't overload myself beyond my means.
Should Tesco give an automatic discount to people coming in and buying items for charitable causes? Should gas and electricity companies subsidise rates for home-run charitable groups?
Gestures like that are nice but where do they draw the line if it's an official thing - anyone can claim to be an animal rescue, and if they're not a registered charity (as there is no legal obligation to do this) it can get to be a blurry line.

Not to mention that if they start giving discounts out willynilly, where do you think the costs will be recouped? Yup, you and I will be the ones paying higher consultation fees or more for medication - can't win either way with you if that's the case.

Vets are businesses. I would hope most vets have a love of animals too, I imagine they would have to have something there to go through 5 or 6 years of Uni then the hard graft of being a vet (on their feet all day, tough surgeries, upsetting situations and so on). But they can't run their business into the ground or they won't be able to operate - and then you'll be complaining that you can't find a good vet anywhere!

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I still find your trying to compare the uncomparable in all aspects of your reply.

Personally, I can't see the similarities between owning a mobile phone & being a responsible pet owner.

Also, we could go further and say Children are a luxury. The list of uncomparable luxuries is endless. It won't be long before people start believing that breathing oxygen is a luxury or even existing is a luxury.

You do seem to know quite a lot about the veterinary business and I am thinking that maybe I have hit a raw nerve?

I am certainly not saying that small rescue centers should "expect" discounts from vets. However, I find it quite repulsive that many vets do not at least offer to help smaller rescue centers who do a very good and caring job.

To be honest, I would have no problem paying extra if the surgery did indeed offer assistance to small local rescues. I have a lady who is a member of my lost & found pet page on Facebook who runs a cat rescue from her own home.

elsien

Have you ever had to pay the full cost of prescription medication for humans instead of the NHS prescription charges?
That's when you start to realise how much some medications can really cost when not subsidised.
The NHS is a wonderful institution but it does shield people from understanding the true costs of medical treatment, which is what vets are generally charging.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I really don't think it matters how much human private health care costs. I am giving my opinion on animal health care. Completely two different things.

And yes I have had to pay for a private medication prescription and to be honest it was about the same as what I have paid the vets for some tablets my dog needed for pain relief.

krlyr

Because a pet is not an essential in life. You have to budget for it like you would a phone. Or a car. Or, indeed, children (though the benefits system does muddy that somewhat) to a degree - there are threads posted on here every day about whether people can afford children.
I would not go out tomorrow and buy another dog without knowing I could afford its food, insurance, vet fees and so on - and to expect those costs to rise. Much like I have to expect petrol to cost me more next year than this year, for my car to perhaps need more repairs on next year's MOT and therefore extra labour charges (even if it's just a 5 minute job, I'd expect to pay for the work).

Not sure what raw nerve you feel you have hit. Presumably you're insinuating I have a connection to the veterinary business - can honestly say I have never worked for (or been related to, dated, etc. anyone working for) a veterinary practice, so no personal insult here. Well, actually, my OH fixes medical equipment which can sometimes include veterinary equipment, but that is on a private contract and my views were very much the same before I even met him.
I'm just a pet owner who has spent a fair amount of money on veterinary care on many animals, and who has rarely found the charges unfair (I won't deny the odd occasion - there is one particular vet in the practice I use who I have had the odd disagreement with and now purposely avoid), I make sure I educate myself of the requirements of any pets I get, such as the treatments they may be likely to need and the costs of owning them, so they don't come as a nasty surprise. I have the choice to not get a pet if I feel the costs relating to them aren't acceptable.

Why is it repulsive for a vet to not offer a discount to a rescue who do a very good and caring job? Surely you could spin it and say it's repulsive for someone to expect to pay less than full price to someone doing a very good and caring job? If paying a higher consultation fee means my vet practice can employ the great staff they do, I am happy to pay for that, because the majority of them are very good and caring at what they do. I have, in the past, gone to other practices to see if I could get the same service for less, and not been happy with the service or attitudes at all, I think you often get what you pay for.