To not pay the whole vet's bill

Vet's bills can ramp up fast.
Blood tests aren't cheap.
That's the way the cookie crumbles.

Even with insurance .
One can try do one's best by taking care to to buy a ''Healthy'' breed, without severe issues and to do routine care oneself {Teeth cleaning, nails}, but if you can't afford adequate vet care, don't get a pet!

Some people can use Charities, which must be a relief, but they are unlikely to do advanced treatments like a specialist practice would [?].

Its not sneaky , if you went for basic routine surgery you would very likely have a general health profile to check that you were a suitable candidate for a general anaesthetic, unless you went private you wouldn't pay a penny for either bloods or the surgery.
In practice we offer a pre anaesthetic profile for every single animal pre ga , when its a young animal in for ie spay the majority decline , that's fine we don't mind , we don't judge you for it ,but we would probably strongly encourage it for an elderly animal .
Believe it or not we really do want the best for your pet and we want to lessen the chance of a medical emergency whilst in our care , why shouldn't we offer it to all ? every pet in our care deserves the best we can give.
If this blood was offered free of charge i bet you wouldn't think twice about having it , decline it if you choose but please don't accuse us of being sneaky .
Ask your vets for a behind the scenes tour , lots will oblige ,you may have a shock at what we do, at the obscenely expensive equipment we have no choice to buy because we need it , the pharmacy stock etc etc .

YABU - there is no NHS for animals. Of course the charges will be high for blood tests or, in fact, any other medical procedure. This is why we need pet insurance.

Thanks @NamelessNancy

Sorry, if you are referring to my comment I did not mean to imply that you were agressive, rather that anger over this issue can cause some clients to act in a confrontational manner. Apologies

I don't know about your Vets, OP, but at mine there is a notice in the waiting room that says that anyone who has problems with payments should mention this to the reception staff before treatment.

If you can afford it why have you arranged a payment plan?

To be fair my vet always explains the costs even though we have insurance.

PetPlan, aged cat with arthritis (he has had a lot of lives and it's been worth it). About £800 per year. £135 excess and due to age I have to pay the first 20% of everything. Over 14 years I reckon we have broken even.

PPP about £2400 per annum £200 excess pays £1250 max for out patients.

The cost of full blood screening privately is £320.00.

For those who have said how grateful we should be for a free NHS. It is not free, it is free at the point of delivery and elivers too frequently sub-optimal standards. I'd have more faith in my vet tbh and they create far less waste and are significantly more polite and helpful than NHS staff.

I do think there is probably an assumption that you’ll be covered by insurance. That’s what it’s usually like with private (human) healthcare anyway.

calm down @LosingMyPancakes
be terrified over real fears

Having a dog (or cat, rabbit etc.) is expensive. You should.not have one if you can't afford.big bills at the drop of a hat. Hard lesson most pet owners learn! But well done for taking your dog to be investigated, I hope you get answers and have insurance

To be honest I was expecting a higher bill from the title. Vets are expensive

Reasonable expectation if this is the 3rd visit to the vet in all these years.
Average just to say hello/check up nearing £60 by now. Any extras for basic tests and medicine for a one off I'd be prepared (but nit happy about it!) for a £200 bill.
Quite insane and never ever know how much it is going to cost until I go to pay. And (the absolutely lovely receptionists who I love) don't bat an eyelid.
No idea how much neutering costs until after the event.
Or even cremation until afterwards- at least you're not asked to pay when the dog is put to sleep.

However, the entire team at our vets are absolutely amazing and work unbelievable hours. Although it's probably the owner of business making the biggest earnings. And I trust all the staff are on decent wages. I certainly hope the main vet gets a very high salary as he is absolutely brilliant.

And yes the vet should have given you an idea of costs. But it was naive to expect tests to be included in the consultation. Ive had to prompt mine before as they can get carried away thinking about the clinical side of things that they forget to discuss the costs. Just ask for an idea of costs and ask for an estimate of each of your options, they will do that no problem.

Terrified by one of the pp's saying they hope their pet doesn't need treatment cause they can't pay for it 😐

Poor animals, paying the price for their owners stupidity and entitlement.

Possibly with a 13 year old westie he assumed you knew that blood tests equal cash 🤷‍♀️

Our vets tell us if they believe tests are needed and then tell us cost before we even leave the room ... your vets receptionists must get so much grief when presenting bills if the vet isn't clear ...

He told you that he was going to do blood tests, that was the time when you should have said no. I agree that he should maybe have emphasised that it would cost more but experience tells me that they think that you are prepared to pay up. By not saying anything you agreed to it. Pay up.

I am not single handedly causing vets to leave nor am I aggressive, weird responses

Blimey

I do have pet insurance

Not the case at the practice i work at , protocol is that we quote before client agrees with what the vet suggests needs doing .
Perhaps your vet made the wrong assumption you understood that there would be extra costs but surely you knew that the consult fee was purely for a consult , you wouldn't expect a fractured leg to be fixed or a wound sutured for just a consult fee.

YABU. My daughter wants to be a vet, I’ve asked her to reconsider because I’ve read how both badly treated and paid they are. All fuelled by the entitled society we have today that believe you should be allowed to have everything even if you can’t afford it. If you can’t pay insurance don’t have a pet. Simples.

That’s because they have a legal obligation to have seen your pet within a certain time frame to be able to treat them. A lot can change and vets can lose their license for prescribing medication without examining your pet properly. It’s the law and part of their duty of care. Honestly ungrateful ignorant nasty comments like this are part of the reason people are leaving the veterinary profession in droves.

188 /13 years works at at 14.46 pounds per year of your dogs life. I think you can afford that, seeing as though you have neglected all your pets annual vaccines, check ups, worming and flea treatments over the years. Why would you assume anything is free. Pet ownership is a luxury not a right, you pay for treatments and you should have asked the vet how much this will cost, you agreed, you pay the bill. You dont pop into Tesco assume its all free, fill your trolley and walk out the door

This. All the this. I’m another statistic who left and because of the attitudes of people I had to deal with daily. I’ve had friends commit suicide and seen more vets and nurses leave a profession they adore and train for years to do, only to get told they aren’t good enough/money grabbing/don’t care about animals all from people who don’t understand how expensive healthcare is because we’re so lucky in the UK and we’ve got the NHS.

having said that - I rang my vets to ask for a prescription to get anti-inflammatory drugs online, I had a phone call from the vet within half an hour telling me that they were happy for me to have a prescription, but they wanted to blood test my dog to check her liver and kidney function before they’d give me the prescription. I don’t have much of an issue with that - obviously it’s good to know what is going on, but the fact that the phone call happened so soon after me requesting a prescription for a new bottle rather than buying it straight from them did make me raise an eyebrow and you can see why people sometimes think it’s all about the money…. ( no mention of them wanting to do tests until I asked for the prescription to get it online - as we know, the bulk buying capacity of the online pharmacies makes it impossible for a vet to compete price wise)