Complain to the vet

[Cheripie64]

Poppy was just not right, hesitant on walks, didnt really want to move, knew she was not right. Went to vet on friday, who checked her over, no problem with legs or back, vet thinks maybe a stomach problem. Gave her anti inflammatory injection and pain killer injection. £118.00 bring back on monday after monitering. A bit brighter at the weekend, but not eating her dinner. Back to vets today. Poppy nervous, does a wee on the floor. They keep a sample, say to me, blood test £98.00 they take that, wait for 20 mins for result. Blood test clear, oh should they do a urine test as they have it there, £18.00
Eureka! Water infection. But really vet should have done urine test first as much cheaper and far less painful for Poppy. AIBU to complain?

Lonecatwithkitten absolutely agree. I think if those people moaning about the cost of vet care had to pay for their own medical treatment they would be glad of the relatively low price for pet care. We as consumers want the same level of care for our pets, X-rays, MRIs and all the other investigatory procedures which cost money.

I get private medical care from work so see the invoices and believe me I am more than happy to pay what my vet charges.

On the insurance front as our pets have got older it has turned out not worth it when you end up with a 25 - 40% excess for example.

Re the costs comparisons I am intrigued how it costs £80 to have a private scan of a baby in my womb including all measurements but £180 to scan a cat (no sedation needed).

It depends what you are scanning the cat for. A full abdominal scan of a cat or cardiac scan of a cat can take much, much longer than a pregnancy scan. Partly as there are many more measurements to take, you need additional personnel to hold the cat and you often have to give the cat rests every so often. So easily double, but probably treble the time.

Jassmells private hospitals charge different amounts, same for seeing private consultants. There are many vet practices and most have their own scanning equipment. I am sure if they all sent pets to a centralised vet (similar to what we have for nhs and private hospitals) the price might be lower. Vets have to charge a price that covers all the overheads as well as purchased equipment etc. It's a business after all.

Do you pay VAT on a private scan of the womb?

To all those saying that vets fees are extortion and a "rip off", have you actually read that Telegraph article linked to in a previous post?

@desertmum
We are in the North east of Scotland, and so luckily for us we have the best farm Vets virtually next door to us.
The service is so fast, they do open surgeries so anyone can get seen on 3 separate opportunities a day but if a farm emergency calls in they’ll be there like a shot.

I’ve never had anything but praise the Vets that work there. We had one vet out who took over 200 blood samples in a morning for our routine MV screening, didn’t blow one blood tube and again at a totally reasonable rate. I did drop off a lot of chocolate to the surgery afterwards

My mum was through staying with us once and her dog who’s got reflux had a funny turn, they treated the dog as an emergency and despite not being a regular client it was still cheaper and she said they dealt with the dog far better than her own Vets.

@claudiawankleman
Absolute tripe. I don't need to insure my dog because I have sufficient funds to cover all eventualities if she ever takes ill.
As do many others.
I also have no issue paying a fair price for any treatment.
I do have an issue when certain treatments are obviously inflated.
A flesh wound requiring a few stitches being £150 more expensive than neutering resulting in a scar three times as long, never mind the internal work can never be justified.

Earthmover
A flesh wound requiring a few stitches being £150 more expensive than neutering resulting in a scar three times as long, never mind the internal work can never be justified.

Did you stop to consider that rather than stitch up costs being inflated, neutering costs are often heavily subsidised?
Additionally stitch ups are often more expensive for several other reasons:

They are dirty wounds (not surgical incisions) and require cleaning and tissue debridement
Antibiotics are often needed
Closure is more difficult and time consuming due to wound tension and irregularity.

Claudia. Rubbish. It was not worth insuring our pet as it became older and even though we are paying for ongoing medication and are able to finance any eventualities in the future.