To not pay the whole vet's bill

""am annoyed at my vet
i wanted some worming/flea tablets,
not seen the vet since 2020, surprise surprise, no problems with ddog,
i have to see the vet since she has not been seen for 2 years!
crazy
money grabbing, recuperating their losses after covid like dentists""

Well. That says it all really.
As a vet nurse I am extremely used to taking phone calls that display the attitude above.
It is A LEGAL REQUIREMENT BY THE RCVS that the animal needs to have been seen within a certain timeframe before we can prescribe certain medications.
We are following the law.
If something were to go go wring with one of your pets because the vet just "gave out" any old drug without an examination of the patient, I'm sure plenty people would have a lot more to say then. Then it would be that the vets were money grabbing NEGLIGENT so and so's.
To address your point about covid.
We stayed open using a tag team system all through covid, putting our OWN health and the heath of our families at risk so that we would be available to see sick pets. Most of is worked MORE than we ever have before to cover for sick colleagues.
But no, we're all just money grabbing, and make the rules up as we go along.

It's no wonder people are leaving the profession in droves.

In contrast my lab bitch was stung badly by wasps and had a (mild but requires the vets) reaction so the stings and had consult, meds etc and only £60 I was equally stunned 🤣🤣

vets are a lottery

@MrsLargeEmbodied

The flea and worm treatment sold by vets are POMs (prescription only medications). This means that your vet cannot legally sell you these drugs without seeing your pet at least every 12months. This is to ensure that your pet is healthy, and the medication is suitable for them.

You could of course go to your local supermarket or pet shop and buy something like Bob Martins, but I can guarantee you won't clear the flea/worm issue, and could possibly make your pet ill.

Comments like yours re money grabbing, are partly why many talented vets and vet nurses leave the profession (and sometimes, horrifically end their lives). There are many veterinary professionals who are also members of Mumsnet - please think before you write such disparaging comments 🤔

I don’t think you are unreasonable to be shocked OP, I am an experienced dog owner with a lifetime Petplan policy but was still stunned to silence a couple of months ago when my boy lab but his foot and it cost me £500 for the op to stitch it and his meds etc etc

i had to pay on the spot but Pet plan covered it and I had the money back in about 5 days, sadly my vets stopped direct payments with insurer as people were saying there were insured then not paying and that was the last they see of them 😢

Surely you knew blood tests wouldn’t be free? Last time my cat had basic blood test it was £100+

Always a good idea to have insurance or you could end up with huge vet bills.

To be honest you should pay - and that’s pretty cheap for an old job to have blood tests! We’ve been stung by tests before for more than double!

Sounds reasonable to me.
Also as someone pointed out, 3rd trip in his life, so you don't vaccinate your dog or take him for a check up. I think it's obvious who is unreasonable here.

What would the vet telling you the costs in advance achieve? Would you have refused your dog treatment?
You are using a service and yes you have to pay for it, like everything else.

That's because vet flea and worm products are POM-V, prescription only medicines, therefore pet has to have been examined in the previous 12 months. You can buy over the counter products elsewhere.

Consultation never includes the cost of tests etc. but that does seem really steep! Coincidentally I took my 13 year old dog to the vets today and consultation and blood tests cost £105. I also have insurance, but my excess is £80.

Of course blood tests are not part of the initial consultation, and therefore they have to be paid for. What would you have done if you had known the cost - not bothered about trying to find out what was wrong with your dog??

Sounds very cheap to me, too @lunar1.

I spent £thousands on my little dog and she ended up dying anyway. Vet bills are outrageous.

Can't believe people don't ask beforehand
Eh? But that’s literally what you did, you didn’t ask beforehand. Consultation means literally that - consult/discuss - not also do blood tests etc. You say you’re a ‘professional’, it’s odd you seem surprised by this tbh.

I think people are being a bit too hard on the OP. THat's an awful lot of additional money and it isn't unreasonable to think that the vet might have signaled the cost in some way.
I know it is a bit borderline, given that an assumption is that a vet's reccommendations about tests should be folllowed regardless of the costs, and costs aren't routinely made explicit in advance. But the prices do seem high. Consultation charges at my vet are around £20-odd pounds, and I don't think I would expect to pay more than another £30 or so for bloods -- at least not without the cost being flagged.

Of course you need to pay the fee. The blood tests need to be sent off to a lab and that needs to be paid for. But the price does seem steep.

You need insurance for this type of occurrence. It isn't fair on your dog for you to have taken them on as a pet without the means to pay if they are unwell. I'm so sorry to sound harsh but I work in animal rescue and I daily deal with animals who've either been neglected or given up because owner couldn't afford the cost of vet treatment. Insurance is vital unless you have savings or the means to pay if something happens.

Oh behave FFS!

ill thought out comment really, after 13 years what do you expect the op to do?

I'm with you OP! Absolutely NO other professional would ever get away with presenting a product and having the customer agree without pointing out that it costs extra, regardless of how obvious! Even the charge for carrier bags has to legally be pointed out to every customer who wants one! If this was, say, a tree surgeon who you agreed a price with to fell some trees and he said "Would you like me to fell that one over there for you as well?" but didn't mention an additional cost and then presented you with a bill with the added cost on, you'd rightly be annoyed! I also expect you'd have everyone on here saying "YANBU OP! He should've made it quite clear before he carried out the works"

I'm surprised at the number of people not having yearly vet appointments - you know for jabs, health checks etc - that's basic pet care!

Also insurance!

One of my 6 cats tore a ligament recently - £800 for consult, pain killers, x-rays etc - £160 for a 5 min consult at the vet hospital to decided is they needed to opertate (they don't) - I paid £80 of that - insurance covered the rest!

<<Scary place here - backs off>>

i weighed her at the vets on their machine
but i appreciate all your points of course
and yes of course i could buy from a petshop worm and flea treatment.

Why on earth are you having a pet if you cant afford it>? Your vet bill is very reasonable.

A 13 year old westie with breathing problems is going to cost you a whole lot more than £190. The blood test will be the tip of the iceberg if you want to pursue a diagnosis and treatment/management