To be shocked at how high vet bills are

[Cherrybloss22]

So obviously I’m paying them as id do anything for my cat.... but approx £1000 for 2 days treatment for pancreatitis She had to stay in overnight and have Sedation for blood tests etc
Didn’t get her insured as I thought that insurance doesn’t always pay out Anyway if it’s the cat, I’ll always find a way to manage Guess it’s a lesson to get insurance when you get a pet ....

yousick one illness can wipe out the money you've saved in a single day. And what if they get sick the month after you've began saving? There isn't going to be much in the pot for treatment

PetPlan have been fantastic over the years.

2 cats,1 liver issues (£2K) 1 plant poisoning (£450). 1 dog, cancer (1.5K)

Pet plan paid every time, to the penny, direct to the vet.

I agree with others, the NHS shields us from the true costs of medical care

We’ve always had pet insurance for our dog and horses and have never had a problem with them paying out

Our dog was a nightmare and we certainly got our money’s worth with his insurance. He was forever getting into some sort of scrape, then developed cushings disease.

I don't begrudge paying it but what I do begrudge is the extortionate mark up that vets put on drugs, a probiotic for my dog costs me £9 on viovet, the vets charge £36 for the same thing.

Totally agree. I’m happy to pay a reasonable mark up but our vet is more than double what I pay online

Our dog was on Vetoryl. A month’s medication was £100 from the vet or £47 online

DD’s retired pony is on daily Danillon £140 for 60 sachets from the vet, or £65 online

I have to pay for the prescriptions (they give me a 6 month prescription for £18) but it’s substantially cheaper to buy online

I wouldn’t self insure, if something happens early on in your ownership you wouldn’t have had time to save enough

DD’s pony had to have a back tooth removed - £1200 bill plus the expenses of getting her to the vet hospital. At that point we’d only owned her 3 months

I think double is a reasonable markup for smaller things. They have to pay staff wages including vet nurses and receptionists. Internet, phone line, water electricity rent tax... that's a lot to cover

springers I don't think my horse insurance covers dental. It's my biggest fear!!

Sometimes insurance doesn't pay off, if you have a pet with a chronic condition from when they were a puppy.

That's why you should use insurers that provide "whole of life" policies. They are slightly more expensive, but they won't be able to stop insuring your pet and most will not exclude an ongoing condition. It pays to shop around. One of our dogs has a lifelong condition and our insurers cover it.

I have pets but I don't insure because of previous trouble with pet insurance companies. I do have a large savings account for vet bills though, as I have quite a menagerie. Vet bills are pricey and why shouldn't they be? Drugs are expensive, medical equipment is expensive and if someone has trained to do their job for seven years, they want more than minimum wage. We have just received a £2600 bill for key hole surgery on a horse with an infected cyst in her sinuses. Considering they had to drill into her head to get to it, I want the very best of everything listed above to make sure she pulls through!

Wow! That is a lot. Ddog was diagnosed with pancreatitis on Saturday. Had a consultation, 3 blood tests, antibiotic and morphine injection, more antibiotics and metacam for the pain to take home, and a follow up consultation on Monday. It cost £370. And I thought that was a lot! But he didn't stay in on a drip, they offered but he'd have been so miserable.

evaperonspoodle
That’s interesting about the PDSA rule - when I got my cats (who’ll be 7 in a few days) as 8-week-old kittens I factored in paying for [the rather pricey Petplan lifetime-cover] insurance for them from my cripple!cash benefits payments rather than using the PDSA. Disability benefits are sadly not as plentiful as the government & tabloids would like people to believe but I wouldn’t have felt right getting cats if I couldn’t be the one to provide for them - the PDSA is meant to be an emergency safety-net & I feel bad about how much I cost the NHS I could imagine willingly draining resources from a charity when I had another option. (The cats also eat far better than I do - I save up to do bulk orders from ZooPlus...)

My black!cat has had one overnight stay at the vet when he had a pseudo-obstruction of the bowel (poor cat felt decidedly miserable, as you’d expect). He’s terrified of strangers so I was really worried about how he’d cope given his brother has form for burying himself under the vet bed & refusing to exit the cage-thing, but apparently he was super-calm & sat there staring all the other animals down. My strawberryblond!cat has turned out to have genetic dental & renal issues so has had a couple of stays for associated treatment. He’s so scared of the vet when he first went in with a UTI he didn’t need to be sedated for an ultrasound because he froze in terror. Am worried I need to take him in again because he’s having difficulty eating his wet food. Oh, he’s going to be such an unhappy cat...

There’s no way I could get together the costs of a vet bill unless I did a Go Fund Me. You’re not allowed to have the sort of savings you’d need if you’re on benefits. (I think it’s £6000 we’re allowed before they start reducing payments.)

Anyway, to answer, I suppose YABABU to be surprised - they do definitely cost more in some areas than others. My vet is REALLY expensive - & it’s a small independent practice. In one of the most deprived Wards in the UK. But in London

We don't have insurance and I'm regretting it - but, we moved house five years ago and vets fees here seem to be at least a third more expensive, and in some cases twice what we were paying. The new vet also pushes much more expensive options.

I love my cats, but I do think there comes a point with some of the treatment options where it would be more for me than for them.

No, I don't find it shocking. It does make me really bloody grateful for the NHS.

Here in Ontario, I don't think many people have pet insurance. I considered insurance, but the cost was high, and the reputation was poor.

Our cat has diabetes, insulin injections twice a day, plus tests, and so on. Damn cat.

I’m another poster applauding Petplan. First DDog had elbow dysphasia which meant xrays, surgery and latterly anti inflammatory medication for life. DDog 2 has pancreatitis - fortunately controlled by medication which is also covered by the Whole life policies. Phew.

My cat was hit by a car recently and had to have her tail and back leg amputated. Luckily she was insured as the bill was upwards of £2000. Pet insurance is around £10 a month so would urge everyone to get it if they haven’t already! Hope you cat gets well soon OP.

Yes you need insurance, it's very short sighted not to. Anything can happen to animals that can cost a lot of money, from xrays, operations, to over night stays etc. It can run into thousands.

And our pets are like members of our family, it's very hard to have an animal put to sleep because you can't afford the bills.

Howcer one word of caution, our dog was repeatedly ill and pet plan constantly paid out, the bills totalled about 15k over three years, but the year he had to be put to sleep, the final bill was 3k because they operated etc first trying to save him, and we had not noticed that pet plan had put an exclusion on the policy saying they would no longer pay out for anything stomach related at the point of renewal.

However it wouldn't have changed anything, we would still have done all we could to save the dog, but it was like a just another punch in the gut when the final bill was refused by them. We simply had renewed the policy and not read to the end, where they had wrote the exclusion in.

Really? The NHS has areas which are no longer free at the point of use for all?
No but large parts are being privatised. It's the first step.

Pet insurance is around £10 a month so would urge everyone to get it if they haven’t already!

Get it when they're young.

Our cats are 15 and 18. Getting it now would be very expensive, with lots of exclusions, a high excess plus having to pay a percentage of the bill.

My dog had surgery last week she has a skin condition which develops into growths. Surgery, consultation, two follow up visits, antibiotics, cost £460. Cat had an ulcer a year or so ago which burst, overnight care and cleaning £45. This is a little village vet. All five of our animals have been spayed at the same vet.

I also recommend petplan, vet deals with them direct.

Pet insurance is a con.

Just put the cost of a premium into savings each month. If you need any treatment you will have the money. And if you never use it, then at least you have some savings.

My brother in law is a vet. He has bored us to tears over Sunday dinners talking about his work.

He will "rince" (his words) the insurance company for any treatment he can legitimately prescribe.

For anybody who doesnt have insurance, the bill is about half as he only charges for what is needed to sort the issue. So no blood tests as precautions, no x-rays unless absolutely necessary. Our collie was in for her "annuals" and he found a lump just inside her vulva. If we were on insurance he would have done an x-ray of her abdomen, then a £550 ultrasound plus a biopsy (under sedation) requiring an overnight stay. About £2500 all in. For us, he said he would just do an x-ray to see if anything else was showing.

So no insurance was £125. With insurance would have been over £2000 more. The x-ray did show a slight thickening of the bladder but nothing else. The lump disappeared after a few months.

Ah I wish mine was a tenner. It's 78 quid a month.

Confusedfornow, it's not the pet insurance that is a con, it's your BIL and other vets who do unnecessary procedures who are the real con artists.

@confused our old vet was like that. For the £45 treatment on our cat the previous vet quoted a min of £500. Our current vets are very pro animal not pro costs. Their surgery is clean but basic, no fancy reception and the vet lives at the back of the surgery. It’s bascially an extension to his house. The staff are amazing and their reputation is really high.

Very different to the very expensive building and shop of the more expensive vet.

Our vets was not like your brother in laws. We always had final say on what treatment the dog got, and as we were insured then obviously we did all we could. It's ludicrous to suggest it's a con because your brother in law is conning the insurance companies.

It is not so much a con as that the vets will throw everything at it, knowing the insurers will pick up the tab - and it isn't necessarily in the animals best interests. I am not a 'life at all costs' person, for animals or humans - but I only have a say over my animals. Probably because I have horses, the approach is very different and more discursive about different treatments, benefits and costs. Small animal vets can take a very different approach and just assume the owner will want absolutely everything done. I always ask about treating conservatively first and it is often the better, more humane approach - as well as cheaper.