Need advise on vet bills

hiranibio

Hi, we recently took our pet dog to vets for an ear infection, which happens to re-occur every now and then. We booked him for thorough examination coming Wednesday and I got an estimate of £600.31 from the vets. This is to sedate him (he is anxious around vets) with anesthesia and clean his ears, couple of lab tests and 2 x 1ml Neptra ear solutions. I feel like this is a rip off. They have a charge for monitoring him while he is in kennels post sedation and a charge for monitoring him during the process. And in addition whole load of medicines. Is this too much or in general vets are a rip off? I have take a dog insurance luckily and will be claiming (I have to check if they will reimburse for this aliment). Even then, I feel this is quite pricy given this is non surgical and wont take more than 10 mins for the vet to clean his ear. 

Keep_pedalling

Any treatment that requires sedation is going to be expensive (our cat is currently in for dental treatment plus several other things while he is sedated) and am facing a £1,100 bill when we pick him up this afternoon. 

Vets bills are in general horribly expensive and the prices for meds are a nightmare. Luckily 80% is covered by insurance for our old boy.

lisyloo

£600 does not sound like a rip off to me as you have listed - medicines, treatment, lab tests, anaesthesia and monitoring.
The fact that it's a 10 minute job ignores the fact that he needs monitoring and anaesthesia.
You have listed quite a lot of seperate items all of which seem required and them minimised it to a 10 minute job..

You could of course shop around.

sammyjammy

I do think its on the pricey side, my cat recently had most of his teeth removed under sedation with monitoring etc my bill was less than £900, but vets are expensive and having suffered under some not so great vets before I am more than content to pay what my current vet asks.  I guess its also location dependant to an extent, I'm in Sheffield.

Green_hopeful

It’s worth checking who owns your vets. The majority are owned by very large companies. I have an independent vet who I think is significantly better value than the big company owned ones. My cat had a mastectomy earlier this year with a blood test to check her kidneys and it was about £450. 

hiranibio

thank you for quick response. 


lisyloo said:

£600 does not sound like a rip off to me as you have listed - medicines, treatment, lab tests, anaesthesia and monitoring.
The fact that it's a 10 minute job ignores the fact that he needs monitoring and anaesthesia.
You have listed quite a lot of seperate items all of which seem required and them minimised it to a 10 minute job..

You could of course shop around.

Keep_pedalling said:

Any treatment that requires sedation is going to be expensive (our cat is currently in for dental treatment plus several other things while he is sedated) and am facing a £1,100 bill when we pick him up this afternoon. 

Vets bills are in general horribly expensive and the prices for meds are a nightmare. Luckily 80% is covered by insurance for our old boy.

hiranibio

Green_hopeful said:

It’s worth checking who owns your vets. The majority are owned by very large companies. I have an independent vet who I think is significantly better value than the big company owned ones. My cat had a mastectomy earlier this year with a blood test to check her kidneys and it was about £450. 

I was previously with Westway vets, but I didnt find them very approachable. So, I recently moved to Vets4Pets, but, i have read a lot of comments that they are quite pricey. I will see how it goes.