To think vets charge too much **title edited by MNHQ on OP's request**

[Looobyloo]

I took my 10 yr old cat to the vets earlier for a check up as she has seemed a little lethargic. Vet examines her and says she has a little arthritis in her hip and needs these tablets, one a day. I ask how much, she says £9 a tablet! Everyday for the next, however long she lives. £63 a week!

She gives me a free sample and says if they work she'll give me a prescription So I can get them online. I checked online, 49p a tablet.

We don't have insurance as we've never been able to get her to the vets for injections etc as she's very stroppy (she attacked the vet today)

I know people say don't have an animal if you can't afford and we do have a private cat fund where we put £60 a month into. But even then £63 a week! I'd be torn if it was life and death as much as I hate to admit to it.

Are vets just taking the piss nowadays?

For repairing the dog's ear, and with the dog at the vets for just 2 hours - he charged £1500.

You're claiming this is unreasonable, but do you even have an idea of what the vet's costs are? How much do you reckon the following cost the vet:

Rent / mortgage for premises
Veterinary medicine degree
Vet salary
Vet nurse salary
Cleaner's salary
Receptionists salary
Professional indemnity insurance
Electricity
Water
Tax
Phone and internet
Ongoing training
Local anaesthetic
Antiseptic
Anti-inflammatory
Painkiller
Surgical equipment
Other misc equipment
Sterilisation machine
Ongoing pain medication

There is probably a whole host of other stuff I've not even thought about on top of that. Every time you use the services of a vet, you're paying your share of all of this stuff.

It's easy to say a vet is over changing but do you actually know what their costs are like? Or are you just assuming they could do it for significantly cheaper but have chosen to shaft you instead?

Also, when it comes to a long-term condition, (like if a cat or dog is diagnosed with diabetes or epilepsy,) and they need long term treatment that costs £70-100 a month or so, the insurance companies will cover it, but only for a limited amount of time, like 12 months, or 2 years maximum.

That depends on the policy. Some will only cover for a set amount of time but the better ones will cover for life.

@GlasshouseStoneThrower

Nope. You're not convincing me.

Nice try though.

@SkiingIsHeaven, I can't believe your ridiculous comment. So, you expect a free consultation for your cheap pet, you expect the Vet, receptionist and nurse to receive no wages at all, you expect heating, lighting, insurance, rent, rates, clean premises, kennels and bedding, water, investment in training, equipment and updating to cost nothing at all? Don't you think that HAS to be factored in to your eye drops? What about profit too? Tax? Your utter lack of knowledge here is disgraceful.

@missmouse101

Bloody hell, calm down.

People are entitled to comment, and post their own views.

@Ravenblack, did they have a bill breakdown? Initial consultation, post op checks, antibiotics, analgesia would have been included too. Was it out of routine hours too? Presumably full GA and incredible surgical skill needed. How do you know what the cost should be?

@GlasshouseStoneThrower great post. I hate these threads where people moan about the cost of vets. It’s only because having the NHS fools them into thinking it all costs nothing

Also, when it comes to a long-term condition, (like if a cat or dog is diagnosed with diabetes or epilepsy,) and they need long term treatment that costs £70-100 a month or so, the insurance companies will cover it, but only for a limited amount of time, like 12 months, or 2 years maximum.

We have lifetime cover on our insurance so it’s covered for life.

We used to be with a big chain vet and we found them to be very expensive.

Our old dog was on long term medication and I did baulk when they wanted to charge £250 for a months medication when I could get it online for £47 per month (plus £18 to the Vet for a 6 month prescription). I was more than happy to pay a bit more to get it through the vets, but £200 a month more was pushing it a bit far.

I don’t think they can really justify charging £9 per tablet when they’re online for 49p. Yes, it will cost more from the vet but that’s ridiculous

We now use our horses’ vet for the dog and they’re ace. Half the price of the chain vet.

I remember years ago paying £15 for a tiny bottle of hibiscrub from the big chain vet. The horse vet sends us to the local agi store where you can get several litres for a tenner

Sounds like she did you a massive favour hun .... Animals don't have the NHS sadly.

I do find it interesting that the equine vet will visit on site and is always cheaper than the dog vet - everything from Xrays (has a mobile machine which cannot be as cheap to buy, surely?) to annual vaccinations without exception the horse is cheaper than the dog.

I really do not understand why.
The horse vet has to have larger premises with stables and recovery paddocks - the dog vet has a couple of rooms of dog/cat cages, and has consulting rooms at their premises same as the dog only 10x bigger.
The horse vets have bigger cars - 4x4 as they have to access muddy areas sometimes, the dog vet did a home visit in a little Golf.
And for volume of medicine our dog weighs 20kg the horse 500kg. Yet annual horse vaccination is £17 cheaper (ok maybe slightly different medications but I'm sure on volume alone there's got to be a hefty cost difference in favour of the dog more than enough to compensate?)
And the cost for the actual visit for the horse is free, you only pay treatment unless it's an emergency in which case there's a £20+VAT call out fee....visit for the dog and you pay a £30 fee.
With the dog vet there is always a queue, you're seen approximately at your time but the vet is busy, one after the other all day. With the horse vet quite often your horse is the only one being seen at your yard, the vet then has a fair bit of time 'lost' driving off to the next appointment.
I cannot work out why this is.

Yeah they do!
My 7 year old cat was poorly at the start of March, weepy eyes, his coat lost its shine, he was losing weight even though he was eating well, his nose discoloured (look black all around) and they couldn’t tell me what was up without spending over £1000 and even after that they said they might not know what’s up.

Eventually they gave him some jabs of antibiotics and steroids but wanted us to bring him back a week later to do the same. We did the first set and agreed that we wouldn’t go ahead with a second, and that we’ll see if he improves and if not we’ll have to say goodbye because he was looking incredibly frail.

Our neighbours reported us to rspca thinking we weren’t feeding him or looking after him and when we were speaking to the rspca man he even agreed with us that the second lot sounded unnecessary and to just keep doing what we were doing.

As it was our cat improved but a week later he really took a turn and we ended up having to get him pts. The vet at the time explained that she thought it was liver cancer, so 🤷‍♀️ Why can’t they just be honest and do the right tests instead of wasting everyone’s time and putting animals through things that don’t necessary need to be done.

Drives me mad.

@ravenblack I dont know how to do that, I've looked.

Thanks @moredogsthansense

I do find it interesting that the equine vet will visit on site and is always cheaper than the dog vet

Our horses’ vet does farm animals and dogs (doesn’t do cats/rabbits/other small animals)

The dog’s vaccinations are more expensive than our horses - I guess the horses only have flu jabs, whereas the dog’s cover a whole load of other stuff

Wormer - the dog’s is the same price as the horses, which given the dog’s is a tiny tablet and the horses is a huge tube, you’d think the horses’ would be more expensive

Our horses’ vet will recommend alternatives that are much cheaper and will work just as well. For example, our old dog cut his foot. The old vet would recommended expensive creams and dressings. The horse vet is very much sudocream, a clean nappy and some tape will do nicely

@LoobyLou1976

Report your own thread (on the original post) and just ask them to change the thread title on your message.

Well if you want to discuss vaccines, shall we start with Lepto 4? Pushed by almost all vets, not properly tested and killing and severely injuring dogs which is then not reported properly by the vets. It’s an absolute scandal

My vet tried to push Lepto 4 and denied there were any problems which is what the manufactures of the vaccine are also doing

There are some utterly amazing vets who deserve proper payment for what they do. But the vast majority I have met seem to work for companies that put money first

And that includes annual vaccines, which are also still pushed, especially as part of an annual overall fee arrangement

Why do you need to get her to the vets to get insurance? it's not neccessary
I have 3 cats,all insured and had a dog until recently when she had to be put to sleep,
I only pay just over £6 for each cat, and they have only been to the vet before they were insured if absolutely neccessary
My insurance have paid out for a cat who had heart failure , and eventually had a heart attack, and my dog who had dementia, both were on medication for at least 2 years,only cost me the excess

Why do you need to get her to the vets to get insurance? it's not neccessary

I'm presuming because anything that could have been prevented by the cat being vaccinated won't be covered.

RavenBlack, this is not my thread, I only commented on it, although I have a similar user name to the OP.

Nope. You're not convincing me.

Nice try though.

In other words, you have no sensible response and don't want to admit it

Loobyloo you don't need tp pay so much for cat insurance, as i have said in an earlier post i pay just over £6 for each cat, and they are pedigrees , that is for lifetime insurance, excess is £99 which is a lot to find ,but most insurances charge that ,and it could save you a fortune for a serious illness or accident to your cat

Pinksparkly it would still cover most other things
My cats have only ever been vaccinated once as kittens, and they are all 10 now, they are house cats mainly but do go out in the garden,
No problem insuring them

I do wonder why some vets charge double/treble what other vets charge, though. If the overheads/running costs argument is true, why do some apparently have much lower costs than others?

For example, our current practise charges £18 per appointment. If you don't actually need treatment, it's free. Follow-up appointments (eg. post-surgery checks and stitch removal) is also free.

My old vet practise charged a flat £35 per appointment and you were charged even if you weren't treated. Follow up appointments were also £35.

The only difference I could see is the old practise looked more modern. But I much prefer the approach and manner of our new vets. Very straight talking and down to earth. They prefer a "wait and see" approach to most problems too. Never been charged for anything that wasn't 100% necessary or asked for by me.

Why do some vets operate in one way, and some in another? I'm not trying to be rude or critical, I'm just curious.

@Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow

Well if you want to discuss vaccines, shall we start with Lepto 4? Pushed by almost all vets, not properly tested and killing and severely injuring dogs which is then not reported properly by the vets. It’s an absolute scandal

Well it would be if anything you said was actually true and not ton-foil-hat scaremongering. WHY do you think vets are giving lepto 4 instead of lepto 2? It doesn’t Cost any more - there’s no financial gain for us however you try and spin it. We do it because the evidence basis for its safety is good. Or are you of the paranoid mindset that actually vets are insidiously trying to cause disease in animals so we can rake in profits from treating their illnesses? In which case don’t you think we’d stop promoting vaccines altogether?

www.gov.uk/government/news/leptospira-vaccination-in-dogs

My vets write me a 3 monthly script for £18 and i buy the tablets from an online pharmacy.
it is not robbery, they are highly trained professionals, a solicitor is £300 and hour
@MrsElizabethShelby, do get a life. Is your hobby blaming Brexit for everything? Perhaps todays rain is the fault of Brexit. We need to rename MN Remoaners arms