To think this is a lot of money

[Popfan]

Our lovely cat has came in limping badly about 20 minutes ago. He has a swollen elbow on his front leg and what feels like puncture wounds inside the elbow. Phoned our vets as he obviously needs painkillers / antibiotics at the very least. Cost £215 just to walk through the doors and £45 for the consultation with drugs etc on top!! We are fortunate to be able to pay this and my DH has taken him am I wrong in thinking this is loads to pay even for a Friday night out of hours???

Sorry about ungrammatical last sentence! Should have edited before posting!

Medical treatment is expensive, we just don’t realise because we’re used to the NHS and don’t see the cost of things up front. I don’t think that is particularly expensive considering. I assume you have pet insurance?

Don't you have pet insurance?

Does your pet insurance not cover it?

It is a lot but vets always do this. I took one of my dogs to the vet a couple of years ago because she was off her food and by the end of the weekend it cost us £5000! There wasn’t even anything seriously wrong (thankfully) but once they’d finished doing scans,giving medication and anything else they could think of to throw in there we were totally skint!

Any out of hours service is expensive (plumber, locksmith) etc.
At the end of the day, a vet and nurse need to be paid to come in at unsociable hours.
Hope your cat is feeling better soon!

Poor cat!

Doesn’t sound odd to me. Think how much you’d expect to pay for an out of hours plumber or locksmith! And they don’t train for as long as vet.

Yes it’s an odd comparison but still an out of hours on-call service. They cost £££

I actually think £215 to have your cat seen by a vet within such a short space of time is very very good. Surely your insurance will pay though?

Cross-posted with sprinkles, we clearly had the same idea

Pretty standard really. Veterinary care is expensive.

I agree with a PP that because of the NHS in this country some people are completely unaware of how expensive medical care is (for both humans and animals)!

A lot of out of hours vets want payment up front / immediately and then you have to claim back from your insurance afterwards.

I work in a vet practice, we dont have a vet there out of hours just nurses. They've had to call someone in for you

That does seem pricey to me (UK-based outside London) even taking into account the out of hours dimension. But then I'm looking at this in the context of UK vets fees I've experienced rather than some of the more existential comments you seem to have received, OP. £45 for the consultation perhaps more in line with what I'd expect. That all said, I'd pay a lot more to still have my boy, if I could.

Hope your boy fully recovers, OP.

I’ve recently had to pay for an out of hours vet, it was only 15 minutes after it had closed. Cost me £200 to walk through the door

We've taken our cat in before at short notice before and it's never been this much so I was surprised! Out of hours different I suppose.
It's his birthday too today, poor boy - 9 today.

I've friends who are vets and dentists. The costs for equipping surgeries, long degrees and additional training, professional indemnity etc compared to what DH and I get paid in tech, it's an absolute bargain for most treatment anyway, nevermind OOH and and the stress related to running a medical practice that offers emergency treatment and having to be on call.

So you ab(a bit)u. Presumably you have insurance?

Happy birthday to your boy, OP. How is he feeling?

Herpes.. post looked informative.

He'll be fine, has pain killers, anti inflammatories and antibiotics (grand total of £330). He's been attacked a few times now by the same cat. Nothing for 9 years and 3 times in as many months. What to do about this is a whole new topic! Don't want to keep him in but don't want him getting hurt either. He's just a bit soft I think (has a good friend in next doors cat for example!)

Not at all overpriced. reasonable, I would say.
Hope hes okay.

A few years back, our hamster was suddenly looking very unwell. Showing the kids how to be a responsible pet owner,I called emergency vet (noticed she was sick literally an hour after closing time of regular vet of course).
Would have been £150 just to see them. I opted to see our own vet in the morning! But realistically I knew it was unlikely she’d see the night through (, and she didn’t (signs of wet tail, which is usually fatal and she was getting on a bit).
For a cat/dog I’d have just gone with it. Anyone expects a premium for unsociable hours.

I had to pay £264 for a course of antibiotics for the dog on 27th December

This was out of vets hours at 5pm as they shut at 1pm.

Only £124 was covered by insurance. £60 a month, never claimed before - Petplan.

My dog is 3. I have paid over £1800 of premiums. I have cancelled my insurance because of this and started a savings plan.

I now don't think pet insurance is reasonable.

DCat2 needed the vet on New Year's Eve. The stress of DS being born gave her cystitis (didn't even know this was possible). Total bill was about £200. All she needed was a couple of feliways but obviously I didn't know that, I had a cat peeing blood so off we went at 10pm. Luckily she's insured.

Vet bills can be very costly. One of mine occasionally gets cystitis. All I can say is thank fuck for pet insurance.