Not happy with vet costs these days.

~Chameleon~

hotcookie101 wrote: »

I'm sorry you lost your cat.

Two points to make here.
1) Costs can vary week by week-our costs are directly linked to the costs from the wholesaler, which can change by a small amount week by week
2) Dog insulin/vets being paid. absolute RUBBISH! That makes me really angry, which is why I have had to reply to this. In the UK we have the follow "the cascade" (by law, can potentially be struck off if we don't) which means we have to use the licensed product for the pet. Caninsulin is the ONLY licensed insulin for pets (cats & dogs) in the UK at present (we also used to have Insuvet, but it stopped) so BY LAW we have to use that product in the pet unless we can show it is harmful to the pet. So it has to be our first choice. We get no money from the drug company to prescribe it. We moan about the cascade all the time, but we have to follow it. There are other insulins, which we can use, but ONLY if we have tried caninsulin and it has not worked/suited the pet. That sort of comment re vets and getting paid off makes me so mad. Seriously-it is an incredibly offensive comment to make.

Completely agree with all of the above. This is what happens when people start spouting rubbish on internet forums as fact and other people take what they say as gospel, despite not having a clue who wrote it or what their qualifications to do so are.

I'm a vet (retired) but I cannot prove this therefore I offer no medical advice online other than basic information, or to correct someone else's bad/wrong advice where I see it.

krlyr

You had a bad experience at a vets, OK, but that doesn't mean the vet profession in general all overcharge for their services.
As hotcookie says, it sounds like you've fallen victim to protocol. Doctors do it to a degree too - the amount of times I was prescribed an antibiotic I knew wouldn't be very effective (from experience) for my chronic sinusitis was ridiculous. In that case, though, it would be the NHS considering the cost of the drugs. In the vet's case, they are obliged to by law and would get into a fair bit of trouble for it.
Perhaps you were given incorrect advice, too. It's worth noting that views on medical conditions change a lot - perhaps the way this vet was going about things was how they'd been taught to tret diabetes in Uni, or how the medical books the practice had explained it. The vet has 5/6 years of study behind him, perhaps years of practical experience, some very expensive veterinary manuals (not to mention the research surrounding the licensing of the medication prescribed, it would have had to have been tested before being licensed)..is he going to take the word of some strangers on the internet over that? I have taken internet research in to my vets and to be honest I'd be disappointed with them choosing that over their preferred treatment without questioning me. Rather than say I want x, y and z I've had to prove my point - and say, OK, we can try your way but I'd like to you quite consider x, because it has proved to be quite successful in other quotable cases, I know of vets that prefer to do this (and may be happy to discuss with you on the phone), and I understand the risk of trying unlicensed medications. I recently had to do similar with Kiki's thyroid issues (had to fight that bit harder for it because I ended up with the vet I dislike due to the other vet being ill). Kiki's symptoms weren't the typical physical symptoms but I felt many of the behavioural ones tied in. Her results were in range but they were very low in the range so I had to convince the vet to let me trial thyroid medication - we compromised that she would be very closely monitored (wasn't a compromise for me, actually, as I'd read that you do this anyway to establish the correct dose - but it made the vet happy for me to agree to it anyway) . She improved greatly and the vet did actually eat some humble pie when I saw him next - but I had said all along that it was just a hunch, that it tied in with experiences I'd read online from good sources, and that a vet in the US had found lots of cases of borderline results producing hypothyroid symptoms. A good vet would have listened to your viewpoint on the insulin medication but I expect it would have been listened to more seriously had you provided some solid research on it. Or like I said, maybe it wasn't a great vet you saw - I've seen the odd poor vet in my time. Doesn't make all vets bad.

Regarding the sudden charges - well, many retailers do this to a degree. I don't know if I'm going to go out and find petrol has increased by a penny or maybe even shop up 5p. I went to Tesco the other day to find the crisps I bought at about 89p the other week have now shot up to £1.50 a pack (neither being promotional prices). It's just unfortunate but vets don't have your labelled typical pricing system. I've yet to go to a vet practice that lists their prices on the wall - as someone said earlier, prices can be so subject to changing because of supply costs, plus the fact they can vary from animal to animal depending on weight or species, plus the fact that the nature of them being living things means a routine op might become more than a routine op - e.g. dog stops breathing during a neuter, it will require more care, which will have to be paid for. Their pricelist would be too long and variable to display, and price increase notices would probably plaster their walls.
If you feel the charge was that unfair then question it. They may have let it slide if you'd argued the point that the checkups have always been free and the charge wasn't mentioned to you at the time. My vet tried to charge me for the cremation of a pet rat I'd had euthanised there the other year - they'd never charged me before and I'd had quite a few small animals euthanised there over the years, so I questioned it. They explained that they'd now started charging for it, but as I hadn't been made aware of it, they credited it off the account as a goodwill gesture. Now I know for next time to doublecheck costs of extra services. Most vets will happily print off a quote prior to treatment if you ask for it anyway, and will include a breakdown of the costs to see exactly what's what. So the transparency is there, in my case, even if you do have to go slightly out of the way to get it (but, like I said, I understand why it wouldn't be practical to have pricelists on display)

kara7758

My gripe on vets costs result from being told that dental treatment for my cat ( he was ill, prescribed antibiotics for urine infection and conjunctivitis and then told he needed dental work, old cat) would be £409 plus the £148 already paid for meds and blood work and I simply did not have that amount of money.

I ended up shopping around (thanks to good advice from forum members). I have found a vet a mere 5 miles from me that will do the same work for £180, over half the price.

Yes I understand that overheads are different in surgeries but the difference is quite surprising.

I think that the difference here is that the lower price vets is a small surgery where my usual already has 4 surgeries in different areas. Logically I would have expected the smaller surgery to charge more due to less clients being treated, not the chain of vets, but guess corporate greed rears its ugly head again!

Guess who will get my custom from now on?

blueybug

Ive used the same vet for over 12 years, they are the most expensive in the area, BUT the vets are at the top of their game.

I was told last year the prices were going up due to costs but I didnt mind as I know the service is second to none.

I pay 29 a month for top rate insurance for my two cats, due to having my old gal cost me 22,000 in 6 yrs through having no insurance.

Its like everything in life, prices do rise if you dont like it then visit another vets as you would do for petrol or food @ a supermarket.

I work/help out at a shelter and I agree, we use my vets as they give a discount on various treatments, they dont have to but they do.

I spend as much on my cats as I do myself and I think most people dont know the true costs of having a pet till you need the vets then start complaining about the prices.
Vets are like our doctors/hospitals we pay NI to use them and you pay pet insurance to pay towards treatments.

I'm not sure if there is but if not it would be good to see an online pricelist/costings of basic treatments at each vets so you can compear whats the cheapest/best like you do on car insurance etc.

kara7758

blueybug wrote: »

I'm not sure if there is but if not it would be good to see an online pricelist/costings of basic treatments at each vets so you can compear whats the cheapest/best like you do on car insurance etc.

I think this would be a good idea and at least give a basic cost to start from.

hotcookie101

krlyr wrote: »

You had a bad experience at a vets, OK, but that doesn't mean the vet profession in general all overcharge for their services.
As hotcookie says, it sounds like you've fallen victim to protocol.

Just to say, it isn't protocol. It doesn't matter what is best practice unfortunately, if a licensed drug is available (even if it is not as good as a human alternative) we HAVE to use it first-it's law, not protocol.

However, if a cat wasn't doing well, then we have justification to change. But not just because the owner thinks another insulin might be better (or cheaper etc)

Beetlemama

I took my dog in yesterday, she's started throwing up, and the vet said ideally we'd do blood work but it isn't cheap - made me cringe, I asked how much and was surprised when it was only 96 quid - I thought it was going to be horrific. I told her I only had $65 on me and payday wasn't until the 20th (we get 7 days to settle the bill) and she said well we won't worry about a couple of days.

We love our vet, we moved 8 years ago and they're an hour and a half away on the bus, plus a good 35 minutes walk when you get there, but they give you time to pay, they don't mess about if you need help, they work on a "fix it now-worry about it later" basis and we'll never change them because of that, the dogs don't know only to get sick on payday.

Examination, full blood and urine work and an injection - $153.00. Waking up to a happy looking animal and a vomit-free carpet - priceless.

The girls are insured but we have to pay and claim back, they do offer direct billing but they usually only offer it if the bill is looking like being over $500, luckily, so far it hasn't been. The option was given to me depending on the blood results. Sorry about the dollars, my tablet doesn't appear to have a pound sign.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

Just a quick response.

Re: my cat & diabetes: I did a great deal of research on the subject. I visited a number of forums & dedicated websites before I approached the vet with my findings. They were not happy with me carrying out blood sugar tests & were not willing to even listen to my reasons why. Nor were they willing to accept that cats can & do go into remission. Instead they continued to take my money and prescribing the same dose, even tho' the dose needed to be altered to suit.

As for caninsulin: it isn't the only licensed medication, many UK members of the feline diabetes forums & dedicated websites had said their cats had been prescribed PZI (for example) which is better suited to cats. Some had to argue with the vets in order to get this medication and many succeeded.

hotcookie..I am not going to apologise for my comments re: vets getting paid by huge companies to encourage them to use their drugs. I also believe that many vets sell Royal Canin foods in their surgeries for the same reason. Obviously, I wouldn't expect you to confirm this. However, Doctors are exactly the same.

Re: insurance: I pay the highest premium insurance with Petplan, so I know my dog is covered for every eventuality. A few months ago my dog started limping. I took him to the vets I use now. After many useless and quite expensive visits, they suddenly decided to carry out x-rays on his knee. Turned out he had an old fracture which had started to flare up. He had three tiny fragments of bone floating about which weren't suited to operate on. The vets would've been very happy to continue supplying pain killers had I not discovered there was a local hydrotherapy pool in my town. The vet had not even suggested this as an option, I had to find out through another dog owner, whose dog had seen a marked improvement. My dog did 10 sessions of hydro & it has really helped. However, had I not taken him, he would still be taking costly pain relief.

My problem is the vets I am currently with used to be great and I really felt that I wasn't being used as source of income. However, that has changed & although they do offer a great service, I'm finding it more disagreeable. I don't feel that the service vets provide necessarily merits the increased costs to clients. Maybe they could make a reasonable increase to the initial consultation fee to cover future progress appointments.

krlyr

You are a source of income though - vets are businesses, not charitable organisations (for the most part)

the_devil_made_me_do_it

krlyr wrote: »

You are a source of income though - vets are businesses, not charitable organisations (for the most part)

I agree, however I do think vets abuse this.