Outrageous Vet charges

35har1old

teaselMay said:

How much did you pay the groomer and the breeder?

You had a choice, you could have not gone to the vet, not had the benefit of their years of training and experience and tried simple things first, perhaps including ear drops from Amazon or the supermarket. But you chose to seek the opinion of a professional, training and working as a vet is an expensive, highly regulated, business.

Pets at home £5 for 200ml

35har1old

Mnoee said:

The solution to avoiding large vets bills is insurance from day 1. There's an option out there already for those who would prefer to pay a smaller amount every month over larger fees as and when.

There's also free or cheap vet care offered by some charities - pensioners income and assets vary massively, so I'm not aware of any who offer it to all pensioners, just those receiving means tested benefits. The RSPCA, PDSA, and the blue cross all have similar schemes. 

In the OP case if it was the first time the dog required this treatment the excess would not have been used if insurance was involved so full cost payable 

prettyandfluffy

The consultation fee, you are paying for the vet's experience & expertise as well as their professional memberships and indemnities.  You can always ask if you can buy the medication online with or without a veterinary prescription; I have always done this since our previous vet told me I could buy things cheaper than he could.  Our cat was on thyroid medication that was about £120 from the vet, £49 online.  It required a veterinary prescription that cost £30 but covered 3 repeats so £10 per time.  

truthseeker25

Thank you all for your comments. 
Surprisingly plenty of support for vets (from vets I think) 
I do not think I am naive - of course Vets like any business has overheads, buildings, staff, expensive equipment. They need to make a living which is why I did not overly have a problem with the consultation fee. One is paying for his experience and expertise. 
But does that give him the right to massively overcharge me for medications. 300% 400%??
I think not, and clearly there are still some honest vets out there in some circumstances advising owners to go to Amazon or other on-line suppliers.  I only bought the exact product my vet prescribed taking his advice which I paid for in his consultation fee. 
There are those blowing smoke suggesting that I might end up with some counterfeit product, that the vets would go bust if they didn't overcharge, comparing vet practice with the true charge of  NHS treatments - and the best one of all 'get your pet insured' ah the vets just love that one! Take a pet with a problem to some (not all) vets with a £15k policy and they WILL try to take it to the limit. 
Am I exaggerating? Last January took our poodle to specialist vet with potential colon cancer. Biopsy + MRI £3500, Ultrasound £2000  another biopsy still can't be sure if the cancer is aggressive Operation to remove £2500. Finally a 15min telephone call with oncologist £140 who strongly advised Chemotherapy (he would wouldn't he?)
We loved out poodle dearly we hated to take the decision to have her put to sleep, but she was 13yrs old - the average life expectancy of a standard poodle is 12yrs !
WHY WERE THEY TRYING SO HARD TO PUSH US INTO CHEMO??   £££££££££££££££ we still had some of that £15k policy unspent.
Not all vets are like that - the local practice who referred us to the specialist advised 'should it come to it do not take her down the chemo path' 
Vets need to make a living, we need them to take care of our pets. So we need them to make a fair profit. 
Can they not see that 300/400% on anything is simply exploitative. 
Finally as for the person who seemed to suggest that we should not perhaps have a pet if we can't afford vets bills - shame on you - just play that back to yourself. We do actually have a £15k policy on our lovely new poodle  and although pensioners can manage her vet bills - we just object to being ripped off, or for that matter our insurance company being ripped off as that just increases future premiums for everyone. 
I think legislation is needed as the big vet groups get bigger its going to be more difficult to find an independent practitioner. 

KxMx

Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean they are vets themselves!

You may be interested to know a current investigation is under way

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/vets-market-investigation-an-update-from-the-inquiry-chair

PS I'm not a vet but agree with much of what's been said 😂

Undervalued

truthseeker25 said:

we were with him for 15mins - his consultation fee was £47.50 (£190ph!!!) however he is experienced good old boy I guess this is the going rate. 
  

 

So, how does that compare to the hourly rate charged by other "professionals" with a similar level and length of academic study, premises and support staff?

You will be very lucky to find a solicitor charge less that £200 per hour.

Private GP services around here are £80 to £100 for a 20min appointment.

A private appointment with a consultant level doctor / surgeon (human) is around £250 to £300.

Emmia

I'm not a vet either, you chose to have a pet, pets come with costs. You chose not to insure... And there is no tax payer funded pet NHS. Hence why you have these charges. 

sheramber

I had a 1 hour consultation with a private consultant which cost £200.

I am not a vet, never have been a vet but have been a dog owner for over 50 years. 

I value my vet’s expertise and have  faith in my vets. 

If I didn’t I would have changed vets. 

At one point I  regularly travelled 59 miles each way to a vet  I preferred. He was not cheaper but was an excellent vet. 
, 

truthseeker25

I do agree with both Emmia, although I do choose to insure.
However my insurance premiums will go up like everyone else's due to this sort of overcharging.
Also Undervalued, you may recall that although I found the consultation fee expensive, that is not what really concerned me - I acknowledged his experience and as a professional, as you say he is not really out of line with certainly solicitors, or Private GP's I accepted that element of his billing.

Interesting to consider, but if a solicitor did a land registry search for you that cost £50 would they charge you £200 for that search?? I think not, though unsure of that one.
Would a Private GP prescribe medication at a 3-400% mark up? I think not, but again usure.  
If they wouldn't then why should we accept such blatant overcharging from out vets?
Why would they even consider that 'fair and reasonable' 
It's good to hear from KxMx that an investigation is underway, but I think that is more about the monopoly of service in certain areas rather than overcharging - although the two are linked.

comeandgo

I don’t think all vets are overcharging and I’m not a vet nor married to a vet.  Was in a cafe today.  One tunnocks tea cake was priced at £1.25. You can buy a box of 6 in the supermarket for same price.  I think you’ll find many many businesses price accordingly.

  Last week our vet gave our elderly cat a health check, she has a heart murmur.  (Cat not the vet)  Cost us £25 for 10 mins.