To think vets are overcharging

It’s not the amounts charged by vets that surprise me but the fact people agree to pay. I love animals but I wouldn’t pay out loads for treatment. Paying thousands to keep an animal alive when you are skint seems crazy to me. It’s irresponsible to have pets if you can’t afford insurance or to pay for treatment.

Genuine question. Why are there so few British large animal vets? For the last 10 years ours have consistently been Spanish.

Yup, same advice but from third person with large old dog breen.
Calpol is ok bcs dogs are fine with paracetamol.
Anything ibuprofen based is toxic.

Basically like pregnancy.

I have a relative with a vet friend who advises what to get from chemist rather than paying vet prices. One example; my dog had a sticky eye, Goldeneyes from the pharmacy cost £5, cleared it up in no time. Vet would have charged £30 consultation & who knows how much for ointment!

You need these to get a dog out of the country anyway.
Also, you can get your dog vaccinated in EU and spare yourself the UK bill bcs it lasts three years ;)

Obviously I am not saying that it is more affordable to fly to another country for 350£ dental cleaning all bills included...
But
If you already visit France,Croatia or probably most other EU countries for a holiday it is worth exploring getting your pets yearly checkups, general health procedures that are known and can be scheduled etc. abroad.

Btw, I lnow a person who paid for 2kg yorkie well above 1500 for scheduled operation. In that case, yes, you can just take yourself and a pup on a holliday.

Several posters on the thread have said that people need to educate themselves about the cost of medical care for their animals and not get pets if they can’t afford it. How are people supposed to educate themselves before they decide to take on a pet about how much it’s going to potentially cost them, if practiced don’t all display pricing for procedures, they can’t find this information out because practices say “well it entirely depends”, and apparently you need to shadow a vet to be able to understand why it’s not possible for vets to give consumers an estimate prior to treatment being carried out or even tell them upfront what the initial examination will cost?

I’m not quibbling over the fact that vet care costs money, but if my private GP and dentist can manage to be transparent about procedure costs then it’s reasonable to expect the same of vets.

How long has it been illegal?
My little cat lived happy and well until she was 19 thanks to the vet, they did say it was exceptional circumstances as they couldn’t get the animal meds she needed quickly, she was bleeding behind her eyes due to high blood pressure and went blind I thought she was dying.
The vet examined her and told me what it was. Luckily there was a pharmacy three doors up and we got the meds and my cat got her sight back. They wrote me a prescription for further doses rather than change to the vets meds as I couldn’t afford £100 a month on top of the weekly vet visits, blood pressure tests and heart scan she needed so they did me and my cat a huge service. There was nothing shady about the vet they just let me carry on giving the same meds as she was stable on them and so I could afford to treat her.

Then he is committing a criminal offence.
I would be changing vet. If he is behaving sketchily on very clear, fundamental rules then I would worry what other corners he was cutting.

The vet treating my cat for high blood pressure wrote me prescriptions for the chemist for human meds because they were cheaper. £6 for a months supply.
The vets version of the same medication was over £50 for two weeks supply.

No they didn’t.
Partially yes- but some of it is greed.

It’s not so much the vet though I do wonder if they’re scared of insurance companies…. It’s the hedge fund companies that own them.
IVC run vet £80 consultation
Independant vet £55

Boots gets discounts for bulk buying. Independent vets don’t.

if you talk to your vet practice they tend to be very open about telling you you can buy elsewhere .

And this is one of the reasons why vets leave the profession in droves. Vets want to look after animals. Practice owners want to make money. They are not the same people, but it is the clinicians who get the blame for it.
I would never go back to clinical work. You couldn't pay me enough.

You hit the nail on the head. Quality health care is expensive.

I once bought Hibiscrub from my vet and then realised they were charging a 250% markup compared to Boots.

Ah that’s great- at least you manage to save some costs that way! I don’t think i know of any farm vets that have vaccinated with btv for the farmer to be honest. You’ve also chosen the right time to vaccinate - it has been out of stock for months (despite there being 3 different vaccines for it!)

Youre right about the cost of vaccines but we administer them. We also deal with problems like prolapse ourselves. We put the prolapse back in and then put the sheep in a harness.

Our vet is an independent vet that mainly specialises in farm animals but also does pets. We don't pay anything like the prices mentioned above.

And the cost of your blue tongue vaccine is probably around £3 per sheep? Plus then throw in your abortion vaccines, chlamydia vaccines, orf and foot rot treatments!! and the vet to come out when they prolapse - or when the sheep just want to live to die - they are good at that!! Being a farmer is so expensive. I’ve seen farmers owe their vets around 10k just for necessary vaccines let alone emergency treatment!

A horse will be stitched in a field with a bit of local ( or in a stable) this is not ethical or possible for most dogs and cats. As soon as their is an anaesthesia involved you have 1 nurse just monitoring this, another nurse to prep the animal and the vet suturing, then a nurse recovering the animal from the anaesthesia....voila....3 people, drugs, monitoring equipment, GA equipment etcetc...most likely 1.5 hours ish altogether....£350 would be a bargain!

I agree completely with you!
And what owners need to remember is that it is their pet. They make the decisions about treatment and investigations.
I certainly always offered all options ( including no investigations, just pain relieve etcetc) this is what I learned early on in my career. And at my practice we certainly try to work WITH the owner. But then I don't work for a corporate.
We also can't buy drugs for the same price as they are sold online and are ALWAYS happy to write prescriptions for owners to order their meds online.

I had a pony euthanised in England 8 years ago, vet bill including emergency call out was £435 (and the idiot vet totally effed it up). I've just had a pony euthanised in France, vet bill including emergency call out was €145. So yeah.

Ex vet nurse here with over 20 years' experience. I have NEVER encountered anything like that and find it extremely hard to believe.

Ask for an itemised invoice.

Qualified vet earns £34-40,000. If specialise might earn up to £60,000. Vet nurses a disgusting £28,000. No extra for weekend or out of hours.