£84 to see vet about hamster

[Hamsterloversrme]

Still reeling now. My hamster had sticky eyes, was gently wiping with cotton bud but thought I should get her checked out with a vet.

Was in and out of vet consultation room in under 5 minutes. She listened to his heart, looked at his eye and prescribed an ointment for his eye.

Almost reeled I’m shock when receptionist told me the cost. I like to think I’m a responsible pet owner but can see why some people just wouldn’t bother taking a hamster to the vet when the cost is extortionate.

Presumably you have spent a load of years training as a vet and are happy to now give your considerable expertise for free or minimal cost?

Wow. Such intelligence.

The inability to consider for even a second that people's circumstances could dramatically change since acquiring a pet is mind boggling.

I'm glad to know that you've never had to choose between feeding your children or getting ointment for a hamster. What a lovely life you've had.

Check your damn privilege.

And before you whinge about how poor people should just give the family pet to the RSPCA at the first sign of financial hardship, consider the fact that hardship may be only temporary, home remedies can help, charities are running over capacity and very often have to refuse new animals and family's love their pets and don't want to lose them. This sort of thing shouldn't need spelling out to fully functioning adults.

No one is saying that. But costs have risen way beyond inflation in the last few years. And expensive unnecessary treatment gets pushed.

I hear you OP. Last visit to the vet for one of my Guinea pigs cost £350. Emergency appointment on a Sunday, X Ray and 2 lots of medications. Luckily made a full recovery.

Also agree about home remedies.
A vet years ago said we could use ordinary anti-fungal treatment on rabbits. A tube costs a few pounds. Recently had to take a rabbit to the vet for another issue, she also has a bit of a fungal patch I am treating, and the vet wanted to sell me a very expensive rabbit anti-fungal treatment. It is no different from ordinary stuff just in different packaging. Vets did not use to do this.

Lots of things can be treated with home remedies just as in humans. Vets use to help you with this and we spent way less on subsequent rabbits than we did our first rabbits as a result.

I fear animals are suffering because owners can not afford vet fees and treatment and vets no longer advise home remedies.

So some people would like you to believe. I can’t say it never happens but I’ve had a lot of animals over the years and seen a lot of different vets. Not once have I felt a vet is trying to do more than necessary. In fact, many times I’ve been advised that if it was their pet, taking everything into account, they would do the lower costing treatment or pts rather than try treatment. I’ve always felt they’ve had the animals best interests in mind.

The only people that I hear saying they try to push unnecessary treatment on you are people that begrudge spending anything on their pet. They want that narrative out there. If you feel that you have been charged to much or the vets conduct is bad, complain to the surgery. You can escalate it if you’re not happy with the response.

The inability to consider for even a second that people's circumstances could dramatically change since acquiring a pet is mind boggling.
I'm glad to know that you've never had to choose between feeding your children or getting ointment for a hamster. What a lovely life you've had.
Check your damn privilege.

I believe the PDSA can help pets when their owners cannot afford to?

I agree that treatment isn’t always the best option.
we adopted a kitten and I knew straight away she wasn’t right. Took her to the vets and she was severely anaemic. She was taken to the local pet hospital. Scans, tests, a week of being in the hospital for observation and a >2.5 k bill (paid by insurance) and we still didn’t know what was wrong with her.

we were recommended fortnightly blood tests but after the first one, which she hated and ended up bleeding afterwards due to her struggling I stopped taking her. I spoke to the vet and they said they suspected a brain tumour but didn’t know and said if it was a tumour there wasn’t anything they could do to treat it… so what was the point of knowing how ill she was if it wasn’t treatable 🤷🏻‍♀️

she died 8 months later following a seizure. Really sad but I’d still make the decision again. She had a happy 8 months rather than spending half of it being stressed out with vets and blood tests.

As veterinary medicine advances it becomes more expensive. Practices need to invest in more and more equipment, training and staff to be able to offer the standard of care that many owners want and expect. That's not to say that expensive gold standard treatment is always the only option. As long as welfare can be maintained other options, including euthanasia, may be valid. Pet owners often (understandably) want to get the highest standard of care but this necessarily comes at a cost. If a practice is unable to make a profit it will be unable to continue to run for any patients at all.

The example of vets previously using human of generic products much more cheaply than newer species specific ones is not a choice vets are making to increase profits. It is a legal obligation to use licenced medications where they are available.

You not wanting to understand is not the same thing as it not being understandable.

I'm not defending those who neglect their pets, but surely in the current financial climate you can understand why many would hesitate to take a pet to the vet when it could cost them £80+? Especially when it's something like a hamster which might have been bought with little planning or expectation of future cost, and yes, people ought to check whether they can afford a pet before they get it, but the fact is not everybody does.

Only if they cover your area, we have one fairly close actually, they cover every local postcode except mine! I found out when my dog ripped out her dew claw rather conveniently while I was on sick leave for an operation and only had SSP coming in - a temporary state of affairs - and my usual vet suggested trying them first, because they require payment even when insured because the insurance companies are so useless at paying out in decent time (dog is insured) but as I couldn't get treatment there and couldn't afford the treatment cost upfront and the dog was insured and the cost fairly low, my vet agreed to wait for the money, I still managed to pay it off before I wrangled it out of the insurance company though at a bit a week.

That's one thing that needs some tighter regulations, how long it takes insurance to pay out because you're paying out insurance and then still have to pay the vet anyway - the vets shouldn't have to wait months for their money.

I do understand that it's expensive though any kind of treatment, but I have not experienced a vet pushing for treatment, rather putting all the options on the table and the pros and cons of both and letting me make the decision based on that.

Did the same for my hamsters, they gave me antibiotics or something for his eye. Didn't work and it turns out it's just something hamsters get when they first wake up - sticky eye. I was so angry

I know people do it. But I don’t have to think their reason is justifiable. I know people get pets without proper research. I don’t have to have any sympathy with them for their irresponsible behaviour. If you take on an animal, then one way of another, get them treated or put them to sleep. It is sick to leave them to suffer.

@antelopevalley there’s legislation called the cascade.
We must prescribe veterinary licensed medication in the first instance. You can only prescribe a human one if there’s a non animal alternative. Because the majority of vets are corporate there’s so many rules and hoops to jump through- you can’t just go recommending remedies off license or you open yourself up if something went wrong, the RCVS wouldn’t have your back and you risk being struck off.

In veterinary everything is extortionate to buy. To buy in drugs they cost 10 times more than a human version, even myself buying a drug at cost price is more expensive than a human alternative. The vet does not get the mark up.

Online pharmacies are so much cheaper because of the huge bulk discounts they are able to buy in.

Treating a small animal sometimes takes the same level of time and care as a bigger one. The cost you bought it for is irrelevant…a breeder churning out hamsters by throwing them together is hardly an expert on veterinary medicine. It’s not comparable.

There is no NHS for animals. Even with pet insurance it can be expensive to see the vet for unexpected appointments. However I can see why. It takes at least 5 years to qualify, and they earn to pay for their staff, premises, medicines, anaesthetics etc. as well as their own income. Even experienced vets usually earn less than doctors and dentists.

OP, our hamster gets sticky eye now and again, we use a Q-tip, dip in water then gently wipe the hamsters eye and it clears it.

We took our tiny dwarf hamster to be PTS & they tried to charge us £94, I refused to pay so the vet said ok £25 that's just extortionate

I'm not sure advertising that you refused to pay to put an animal that was presumably in pain/suffering to be put to sleep, so the vet had to reduce it to likely below their costs as they cared about your pet when you didn't quite shows you in the light that you thought it might.......

@3ormoredogs I did not know about the licensing. But it costs more to get medication from the vets e.g. for mites, than from Pets at Home. It's not all about online pharmacies.
I know treating pets is not cheap and use to defend vets' fees. But there has been a massive increase in just a few years.

The overheads for a pet store or online pharmacy are very much lower then for a veterinary practice. They also may have access to better deals from drug companies due to volume of sales. It's not a fair comparison. If vets could/did cut drug prices they would need to increase fees elsewhere.

As someone who works in this field i despair at yet another vet fee bashing thread - medication from pets at home for whatever the ailment is more than likely not going to fix the problem.
All in our job will be experienced with the annoyed customer who has no choice but to spend yet more money on our POM products that work ,after spending a fortune on inefficient stuff from the aforementioned or supermarket .
We work our backsides off , we stay behind , we go out of our way for your beloved animals , we smile politely when you ask if we have a payment plan to cover neutering of the extortionately expensive puppy you have just bought.
It costs a bloody fortune to run a vets ,our meds cost a lot from the wholesaler we have no choice but to use unlike you the consumer who has an option to request and pay for a written script from the vet to then purchase your meds cheaper from an online supplier.
After your consult fee you are not committed to use our services and as with any product can shop around and transfer vets .
Believe it or not we are not trying to rip you off , we really do want to do our best for your pet.
We actually really care a lot about most of our lovely clients too and quite a bit of our job includes social work😊.
The ungrateful ones ,of which we don't see too many thankfully actually do us a favor when they go elsewhere , we have enough to deal with day to day .
If you ever get the chance to see behind scenes at your vets you may be quite surprised at what we actually do, and how warm it is as we have to keep your pet warm , at how their bedding smells of lovely clean washing powder and how delicious the fresh chicken in their bowl looks after someone just popped up the shop to see if they can get your pet to eat, you get the picture.

I have rabbits. And the mites treatment sold at stores is the same as the vet sells. I know as I can look at the percentage of the active ingredient. It may be very different with cats and dogs. I am not talking about other medications that may be available.

I think vets are different. Some want to do a scan of any lump and charge you. Others are experienced and say that looks like cancer and we will know from a blood test if that is likely the case.

Perhaps I am more cynical as so many vets really know very little about rabbits so it does not feel like you are paying for much expertise. The ones who have known a lot were all exclusively close to retirement.

OP brace yourself! I posted last week about my £101 vet bill for our Hamster and I got RIPPED TO SHREDS! MNHQ had to step in! So pop your hard hat on....

@tsmainsqueeze It's ok saying all that but surely when it's reached the point where it costs £101 to euthanise a Hamster the size of the palm of your hand, then something is wrong somewhere... I'm not suggesting for a second that it's the vet's fault. But how are people expected to take on these small animals when they cost so much to treat? Even if breeders stopped completely, there's still going to be Hamsters, Guinea Pigs etc that need caring for but if only the elite can afford it then we're going to start seeing some new types of wild animals, surely?!

@Sparkles29 I posted last week after I was charged £101 to put a Syrian Hamster to sleep. I paid but swore never to step foot in there again