Vets bill, have we been ripped off?

[6demandingchildren]

On Tuesday our cat has got a gash in her leg, we could see that although it wasn't nasty it did need stitching due to the shape of the would, we got a same day appointment (this was not the emergency vet) they gave her an injection of antibiotics and a pain killer and bandaged her leg and told us to return at 9am for it to be stitched.
We took her and at 11:30am we had a phone call to say everything went well and too collect her around 13:30.
The bill was £649 !!
I paid it and asked for a breakdown
The anesthetic alone was £178, but the same practice put our labrador to sleep and they said it was an overdose of anesthetic and that was £113.
Surely she didn't have that amount let alone more.
The dog was PTS in December so not that long ago.
Have I been ripped off?

@Chaaaaaching Bingo. I'm always shocked when we take our dog in, but we just have no concept of what medical care can cost (thank GOD).

I didn't think of the covid situation and things being more expensive.
Im in a situation where I can pay a hefty vet bill, I'm just querying the cost as it did seem high.

These chains are buying up small local vets and then the charges become sky high. I will be moving to a local independent when they are properly open again. We used to have the nicest vet you can imagine, old dog used to love going to see her but now she has left she has been replaced with a new one who made our dog growl because she didn't even say hello and give her a little cuddle before poking and prodding.

My dog needed stitches for a wound about a decade ago and the bill was about £500. I think it was because the stitching was several layers and took time to do, cats skin tears very easily, so I don't know if this would affect the costs?

Best advice I was ever given is use a vet practice that deals mainly with farm animals. Farmers would not pay fancy prices. My friend’s greyhound jumped a barbed wire fence 5 years ago, really nasty gash. Vet charged £60.00 for everything.
In France they don’t do new insurance for dogs aged over 6 years so our dog is no longer insured. A full teeth clean under anaesthetic last year was €80.00, (about £68.00).

That seems about what I would expect actually - all those items will be expensive individually - the anaesthetic would require monitoring so a separate nurse to do that whilst the vet stitches and then the bandaging and antibiotics in my experience are usually expensive. It might be a little on the high side but I wouldn't be surprised at it.

Neuterings are generally considered loss leaders. Little or no money is made on them.
As a rough guide around 10% of your vets bill is profit - the rest is running costs , drug costs, staffing costs, equipment costs etc.

I would caution against not getting pet insurance. Last year one of my cats needed major surgery which took us completely by surprise and it cost over £5000!

My DSis lives rurally and uses a farm vet practice for her cats - they are always much cheaper than my town/city based small animal vets. Having said that, I did have a vet acquaintance that bought out a small practice and the business overheads are eye watering.

I don't know where you are OP, but in SE of UK that doesn't seem a massive bill for the treatment.

I paid about the same for a similar issue so it doesn’t seem high to me (it did seem high when I was first presented with the bill at the time though!)

Generally no money is made on neuterings, they are priced as loss leaders.

A single injection of a euthanasia drug cannot be compared to a monitored anaesthetic procedure - multiple different drugs, staff, consumables, time, equipment and protocols are used.

That said - I would have expected an estimate to be given and agreed to before the surgery.

That’s a ridiculous amount of money op. Last month my dog had a prolapse and I had to take him to an emergency vets. Xrays and (major) surgery including anaesthetic and pain killers came to just under £400. If a vet tried to charge me £600 to sew a cut up I’d tell them to go swivel

That sounds excessive.
Our older dog had some lumps and bumps removed under anaesthetic a year or two ago and it all came to about £350. It would have been a longish op - two lipomas and a couple of tags/growths on his eyelids which would have been fiddly. He's a big old boy too.

Are you in the SE OP?

OP I would guess that you are in London.

When our dearly departed cat had to have her teeth taken out a few years ago the surgery cost £600 and then she went into heart failure (well over £1K of vet fees thankfully those ones covered by pet insurance) shortly afterwards. She didn't even last a month after the oral surgery (which wasn't covered by insurance).

More recently one of our kittens developed D&V about a week after I'd insured her (but too soon for her to be covered by it). That was £400 for eight hours at the vets.

It is not cheap having pets particularly if you don't live in the countryside with access to 'farm' vets.

Well I paid £400 on Monday for sedation and blood taking for a thyroid test. This is around average now if you live in the south east and even somerset where I live. This is why I always have pet insurance. I can't afford that kind of bill all the time.
My cat is 19 and has racked up £10k on the pet insurance with various things. Its not uncommon now sadly.
Get her insured if you can.

Ridiculous. They charged me £200 to make my dog sick after he ate a small packet of silica gel. I changed vets and found one that was a lot cheaper.

Im in the south east.
I am looking at a new vet.

No.

I'm surprised you didn't ask about the cost of treatment while the vet was explaining what was needed.

My dog's vet fee for dental work under full anaesthesia was about double the bill for his euthenasia ( three months later for unrelated reasons).

We have always been present during vet euthenasia of our pets. Its done by injection and takes just a few minutes of vet time. Surgical procedures take far longer. Vet time is charged by the hour.

Surgical anaesthesia is a different procedure, using different drugs and gas. When the operation ends it then requires reversal of anaesthesia, more drugs, then nurse supervision until the patient comes round. Thats why its more expensive than PTS,

What is coming to mind is the fact that prices have shot up due to Covid and all the extra cleaning and restrictions they have.

You might find that prices have gone up everywhere and those who haven’t done it yet will in the close future...

Not a popular opinion but I do think a lot of vets overcharge and I don’t think most are in it for the animals welfare either.

I know of quite a few animals who any vet genuinely acting in the best interests of the animal would have put to sleep immediately.

As it is, all of the animals were kept going, at great cost to their owners, suffering, only for them to be PTS later.

Even factoring in wages, profit, premises etc, when you check the price of the drugs given, the amount you are charged for them is absolutely astronomical!
Way way way over their ‘true’ cost.

We had to have our cat x-rayed (injury to leg) and that came to £380

Something in eye and that came to £120

Recently he has been in hopsital and from Wednesday to Monday he racked up a £2000 bill. He was sent for an MRI and we were told hi treatment could cost between £4000-£6000

Since all these insurance plans have come out , vet bills have rocketed

I do agree with this. With my old cats I did the same as you and payed as and when. My last cat had a few OP's and they were around £200, I could cope with

So glad I got this cat insured as his illness came out the blue and the cost would of been prohibitive

Gosh that is very expensive....i lost my last cat a couple of years ago and ive not got another as i am terrified of huge vet bills or rising insurance premiums...sadly i think pet ownership will decline as the costs are getting ridiculous.

That’s very high. I only paid £500 for my old cat to have her whole ear removed during GA and a stay over night plus antibiotics.