£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.

I took our dog in a couple of weeks ago because he was off his food and seemed to have an issue with one of his back legs. They kept him overnight, went to fetch him the next morning, they said there was nothing wrong with him and charged me £671!

@passport123 By the time they charged PP, the Hamster would already have been put to sleep...

WTFFFF? What on earth for?!

I am really far from 'elite' but i only had my hamster as a pet and honestly £100 is nothing when compared to dogs and cats. The puppy alone cost thousands unless you rescue.

They did some blood tests (all clear) and some IV fluids.

I agree far too much , but as i said people can shop around ,at my practice that would have been around 30.00 , i appreciate not every one has a choice of vets in their area but most do.
In this case the practice /group has decided on this fee , unless this was an out of hours call out then yes it is far too much and the vast majority of vets would not be charging such a high amount to pts a small furry.
Please don't assume we are all the same.

Brilliant..you win the thread!

If I remember correctly (apologies if not) the hamster PTS bill included cremation which would explain some of the fee. The practice will have to pay the crematorium for disposal irrespective of whether it is a private "ashes back" cremation or not and this is an amount over which the vet has no control. It's another area where I think clients are maybe unaware of the degree of regulation, hence expense. Likewise disposing of the sharps, expired drugs, clinical waste a practice gets through are all expensive.

I do agree it is best to keep euthanasia fees as low as possible to protect welfare, but think practices generally do this.

Shocking ethics by some of these veterinary surgeries, as if there aren't already enough things in life to shop around for trying to keep up with rising costs.
I thought I had got off badly a few weeks ago. Our usually greedy puppy went completely off his food and wouldn't touch anything so we took him in. Vet didn't check anything on his body, said he was an acceptable weight and gave a 5 minute speech parroting back ideas to entice him into feeding that we had just already told him we'd tried- £65 for the privilege.

OP hope your hamster recovers quickly.

I’ve also been to the vet about my other Guinea pig who had a number of lumps we were concerned about. The vet was knowledgable about cavies, not all are (not a criticism, you can’t be an expert in literally everything), and said it was basically fat lumps which are v common in pigs. If it’s not causing distress no need to go further although they could also do a needle biopsy, which he advised against given no other symptoms. Did a mini health check whilst there and charged £30 which I thought was v fair even though only 10-15 mins appt as it was their expertise.

I took my cat to the vet 10 days ago for a respiratory issue and vet charged £50ish to include a steroid, previously it'd have been around £40. My boy seems to have recovered, but looks like his DB has the same thing. Really glad it's not going to be as high as others are paying.

We've really struggled financially before and I've gone without, and also would go without for my cats, but there's going to come a time when those that are going already going without food/heat, just can't afford a vet's bill. Really sad.

Mine has CT and MRI scanners! When I broke my toe recently I said to DH I'd get better treatment at the vets!

We've just spent £1500+ on our cat as he's been diagnosed with heart failure and his medication will cost around £1k a year without any further treatment. We're lucky as one of the vets has trained in cardiology and could do the heart scan there rather than send him to a referral vet.

My cat had a bone infection in his jaw nearly 7 years ago and had several thousands of pounds worth of treatment. Apart from having very few teeth left he's been fine ever since and it was money well spent (he's insured but we have a high excess because of his age).

He's now on 3 medications a day for heart failure. He's fine in himself, you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with him apart from the bald patches where he was shaved for a scan. It wouldn't be fair to PTS now while he's doing well.

I rang our local vets a couple of weeks ago as I found a dead cat that had clearly been hit with a vehicle. They asked me to bring it in, scanned it and cremated it for free. I think most vets practices do similar things for the benefit of the community for no charge. I know some will also treat wildlife where appropriate even though they are under no obligation to do so.

Just wanted to add that if you can find an exotic pet vet, they tend to be cheaper.

Our consults are £24 for small animals. Much more reasonable.

Our regular dog vet however is £79 for a standard consult plus anything else on top. Thank god we have insurance because he would have cost us a fortune over the years!

🙄 No one is ‘expecting’ you to ‘take on’ these animals. If less people bought them, they wouldn’t be bred in such high numbers.

@FallingsHowIFeel Nonsense!! The Hamsters need to exist to begin with, in order for people to buy/adopt them! 🤣🙄

@tsmainsqueeze Oh I know you're not all the same. I did have a choice of vets but the little Hamster suddenly began suffering out of nowhere, so I just went to the nearest one to be quick as possible. It definitely wasn't out of hours. I do know to avoid Vets4Pets!

I paid £37 for a hamster consultation and antibiotics. He was 19 months old at the time and is still going strong at over 2 years. “Doing the right thing” won out over economic sense because I needed to be able to look my wee boy in the eye…but did think “he could have three new ones for that!” Yes, any animal in distress ought to see a vet but they should discuss cost with you and also offer the option of euthanasia if it’s more appropriate.

What gets me is that vets' costs are not transparent- when I go in for an appointment I have no idea what I'll be charged.

When my cat was as the vets I was told how much each procedure was going to cost and asked if that was ok. When we left him I told them to do whatever he needed provided it was in his best interests, no need to contact me unless it was to discuss PTS.

Surely if someone wants to know costs before treatment the best thing to do is ask the vet?

They’re bred for sale.

🤦🏻‍♀️ Oh dear god.

If people stopped buying them, breeders would stop breeding them. Because they wouldn’t be making any money. For a short time there would be the hamsters they’ve already bred that they can’t sell.

Basic costs need to be explained beforehand-I had clearly called Pets at Home to say our hamster needed to be PTS, at no point was I told it would be £94 until the end of the appointment.The £25 I paid in the end was for this-the other £69 was apparently for the cremation which I hadn't even asked for? Can't help feeling some elements of the pricing are questionable in some cases.

Sparkles29 a mandatory cremation is ridiculous! Why can't people just take their deceased animals home in a shoe box for a "home burial" if they want a sense of honouring of life. Equally, as these things are always done for the benefit of the living rather than the dead, if the owners don't feel strongly about it, nothing hygienically wrong with disposing of said small animal in the bin. Just think how many packs of mince, chicken bones are disposed of in the bin with noone giving the dignity of the animal that died a second thought. Mandatory cremation for a hamster ..honestly.