To think vets are overcharging

Vets cannot prescribe a human medicine if there is a suitable veterinary alternative. It's not the vet trying to make money, its the law.
Look up ' the Cascade'.
'You are not allowed to prescribe a human medicine simply because it is cheaper than using an authorised veterinary medicine.
Human medicines and veterinary medicines containing the same active substance may not be interchangeable.
'

We have stopped going to our local vets which was lovely, but eye wateringly expensive. We now go to a nearby ‘Jollyes’ where the have a vet, and it’s a fraction of the price.

No they're not
They were far too cheap for far too long and wages were dire.
British people are Incredibly clueless as to the cost of healthcare. No idea.
You don't have to keep a pet. They are an expensive luxury.

Definitely overpriced. My old boy had a problem with his leg, causing him pain. Took him to the vets, to have it 'fixed'. They gave him antibiotics, ran some tests and i was given a bill of over 1k. Less than a year later the leg pain was back, took him to a different vet, turned out he had bone cancer and it had spread too far for him to be saved, he should have had his leg removed. If the first vets had done their jobs right he might of still been here. After that I refused to pay anymore on the payment plan.

I understand they have bills to pay but vets aren't what they used to be. Its no longer about the animals.

I used to live i na country where private healtcare was £25-50 for a visit with a specialist, and the montly average income was similar to UK. And the equivalent of NHS also provided free healthcare. UK is absolutely robbing people wiht private healthcare and vets.

The thing that gauls me also is that pet owners fuel it - “oh but oh but my dog just needed 10k of treatment so thank goodness for insurance”

the reason it’s 10k is because you ah e insurance ffs!!!!

vets do different and much cheaper treatments if your not insured I’ve discovered

my dog had a brain tumour and my vet said I can do an MRI for 3k but the treatment would be the same regardless and gave me the Choice - so glad my dog didn’t have to be sedated and go through all that

you can bet what road the treatment would have gone down had I had insurance

I know a few vets and they say it is not uncommon for people to be shocked to discover they will have to pay (!).

You do realise that the vets working at the practice are on a standard wage and don't actually get that amount of money for treating the animal, unless they own the practice of course?
It's a really tough qualification to get and newly graduated vets come out of uni with a huge debt. Also there isn't a 'huge module' on business, but they do touch on it briefly.
In relation to them offering treatment for your aged animal. They are required to do so by the RCVS and could have their registration revoked if they did not give you all the options, including euthanasia. They cannot decide for you, but simply tell you that euthanasia is a very valid option if they think that is the case.
Your cynicism shines brightly. It's probably for the best you have no pets.
P.S. your remark regarding the large animal vets is so far off the mark it is actually hilarious. Equine and farm vets get paid considerably more than small animal vets.

Vets are highly skilled professionals, also usually with a wider team and building to pay for.

I think people are a bit unrealistic about how much it should cost - you are paying a professional for their time, it’s going to be expensive.

Sympathies @MyPunnyLemur - sounds like it really wasn't your day!

Nearly £500 to remove a grass seed is patently ludicrous. Unless it was severely infected or something.

Yup, very much. I was charged £160 for a consultation and about 10mls of dog painkiller as a weeks course for an injured mouse that then refused to open its mouth to take it. And recovered fine. I later found out as long as I get the dose right by mouse-weight they can have infant ibuprofen syrup and will fight to drink the strawberry flavour. £3 a bottle and is actually safer for them than the dog one.

I remember when I used to ask for prices in advance and what is being done or “isn’t a health check part of a consultation so why am I being charged £60 for it” being gawped at by the receptionist - I could never get over how we all seemed happy to hand over up to £500 without even a list of breakdown costs..nowhere else in life would you do this

remember that vetinary guy who did an expose in the media a few years ago and got ex communicated by the entire vet community and they made his
life hell..he was saying how unrealistic and unethical the approaches are - he was on “new lives in the wild” recently

We fund it to a point, but there are more people using it than contributing to it.

I think that’s reasonable, was there a choice not to have the cleanse??

You've saved a fortune in insurance so you have to take some responsibility for the healthcare cost.

^ This. We pay £90 pcm for our 14yr old dog.
Indeed, the NHS has given people a distorted sense of how healthcare works.
From what I've read vets don't actually earn that much (in comparison to solicitors, those in finance/banking) and have had to study as hard if not harder than medics.

I would have come home and bathed in Epsom salts..always my go to for paws

We’ll have the choice for ourselves soon, too. Thank goodness.

There is certainly a lack of transparency of costs with some vets. What would be great is a comparison site so you could shop around.

There is a formal enquiry into vets fees going on at the moment. 80% of vets now owned by 6 big companies. It is hard to tell which ones are private or not as they don’t change the names. We changed from our longstanding vets when they were taken over, we noticed a huge increase in fees and a lot of the vets employed there leaving. I have found a good independent vet now, and the prices are less but there is none of the constant upselling we noticed creeping in with the original one.
I came across a relative of one of the lovely vets at the old place recently, he told me she had found the constant emphasis on generating fees intolerable so she had left for an independent.

Human healthcare is not free, it is free at the point of delivery. We all fund it.

It isn’t free. Spoilt? 🤣 Have you had to pass through A&E in Blackpool recently?

When our old boy (15 year old cat) died very suddenly the vets were superb. Not only with the body but they also sent a beautiful condolence card. I don't recall the GP doing that when our fathers died, or our baby son neonatally.

Of course they have to make money.

It is up to owners whether they accept life prolonging options and the vets would be ethically wrong if they did not give those options or told owners to have pets put down. How would anyone feel if they accompanied an elderly parent to an hospital appointment and the Dr said "well chemo could extend their life by 12 months but they aren't getting out much, their knees are dodgy and at 89 it's best to have them put down. Euthanasia bill anyone. At least we have the choice with our pets.

Healthcare is expensive. We just don't understand it because human healthcare is free and we most definately are spoilt, all of us.

But does that procedure need to be done? Vets encourage the view that animals are like people and no price can be put on their recovery, when in fact, often the kindest thing to do would be to ease their passing.

I've heard of and seen cancerous old dogs hobbling along painfully while the vet advises yet another new treatment to prolong its life...all in the cause of money. They encourage owner's selfishness and emotional immaturity. The dog owner I knew would say 'I know I should probably have him put to sleep but I just can't face it!' That dog was in hell.

I think the way veterinary work has gone is scandalous. Apparently, there's a huge module in vet training on business...hmmm. I don't buy the old 'vets care about animals' line any more. They care about money. Nothing wrong with that as long as you're up front about it.

We don't have pets now precisely because of modern vets. But I don't believe in taking treatment for animals (or people, really) to the nth degree. The treatment can sometimes be worse than the illness. And animals don't understand what's happening to them - they don't know it's meant to help them. On at least 3 occasions I've taken a small creature, which in our house has lived a long life because we don't stress them, to be euthanased only to be subjected to the hard sell 'Oh, we could do an operation!' (on 51/2 year old hammy - I don't think so). 'Oh, we could keep him in overnight for observation and then do a dental procedure!' (on an aged gerbil which had lost its appetite and all its hair). I was pretty disgusted by this mercenary bid to make more money by emotionally blackmailing me.

And apparently there's a massive shortage of large-animal vets because they all want to do cats, dogs and hamsters and make a fortune. They don't want to go into a muddy field and help a sheep/cow give birth any more. A far cry from All Creatures Great and Small!

I'm very cynical about vets these days.