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?

My dog recently had a mass cell tumour removed from the base of her tail. Whilst under anaesthetic they also cleaned her teeth and removed two and stitched up her gums (poor thing). The whole bill (she was in for a day) with all medications included was roughly £1000. This also included the lump being sent off for analysis and 3 vets appointments. I live in the south where everything is expensive but I must say your bill for a small bit of stitching seems really high. My girl had 3 layers of stitches and the wound was pretty big.

Someone else has mentioned this on the thread but it is often worth getting the vets to write you and charge you for a prescription rather than buy the drugs from them. Especially if it is drugs you need monthly. My old horse was on Danilon which the vet charged me £90 a box for. I then got them to write a prescription and paid £10 for each which covered 3 boxes which I managed to buy for £45 each.

I think that’s about standard for treatment - antibiotics and anaesthetic. It will be the sedation that’s pushed the cost up.
I paid similar from a chain (animal companions, pets at home) approx 1 year ago, when my cat needed sedating and treatment.
Moved to a different vet, because I felt the vet was trying to up sell products to me.
My cat who enjoys costing me money, needed another visit for him after he got injured in a cat fight, that was £130 for consult, antibiotics and pain killer, from independent vets.

Sounds about right to me. I'm in an affluent area just outside London.

Hey OP,

I am a vet. No time to read full thread, but my thoughts are this:

You cannot compare the costs to that of a euthanasia. The anaesthetic drug used for euthanasias is an old drug that is not as safe for anaesthetics as the modern drugs we use now, but obviously increased risk of death is not an issue when the drug is being used for euthanasia.

So for an anaesthetic for a surgical operation, a more expensive drug will be used to induce anaesthesia (in cats, this will often be a combination of 3 separate drugs combined in one syringe), oxygen and anaesthetic gas will be used to maintain anaesthesia, other drugs may be used to pre-medicate the animal, and also at the end of the op to reverse the anaesthesia. A nurse will be constantly monitoring the animal during the anaesthetic, and also during recovery. Hopefully that explains why the two uses of an anaesthetic drug are not remotely comparable.

In addition, you are paying for the vet's time to complete the operation, consumables used such as suture material, scrub solution for site of wound and surgeon's hands, bandaging, etc. Your cat may have needed to be put on a drip during the op. You are also paying for costs to maintain and sterilise surgical instruments. I could go on.....

Comparing to neutering is also inaccurate - many vets perform these at a loss, as it is a good way to encourage people to register their pets with the practice.

Having said that, over £600 for a simple wound stitch-up sounds at the higher end of things. It depends on the size of the wound, the time taken to stitch, etc, but from your description, it may well have been cheaper elsewhere. A word of caution though - best not to use the cheapest of the cheap with vets, as corners are more likely to be cut. This advice does not apply to low cost or free treatment from the RSPCA or PDSA as they are obviously subsidised, and in my experience, do excellent work.

Final word: Definitely consider pet insurance!!

If you had that seen to on your privately you'd have paid much more. A vet trains for longer than a Doctor but people complain about vets bills purely because they have no idea how much a private doctor charges as we have the NHS

I've paid £600 overnight for an emergency vet and up to a thousand just for dentals for my cats. I think you bill was correct given the treatment

An overdose of anaesthetic for euthanasia is completely different to a anaesthetic and anaesthetic monitoring - keeping the cat alive - for an operation, it would definitely cost far more, it is different drugs, obviously far longer, requires qualified staff to monitor the anaesthetic, uses expensive equipment to make sure the cat is doing ok under anaesthetic and not feeling pain etc etc - its completely different. Everyone should have insurance as standard as medicine is expensive whether veterinary or human, its just we are used to the NHS .

My vets would be nothing like that.

My cat has just been in, sedated, wound lanced and cleaned, and a weeks worth of antibiotics £68

I agree with Little!
Our big dog had an ear problem. Ended up needing a GA, scope and flush.
Over £800.
She’s well insured!
And we weren’t ripped off. The medication, time of trained professionals, monitoring and equipment all cost.
Thank fuck for the NHS!!

P.S. Please don't tar all vets with the same brush. Some are unscrupulous, some overcharge, some do not put welfare first. But a great many of us went into the profession because we genuinely care about animals, and still stand by our principles.

Vets do deserve to be fairly for their professional work, but should not overcharge. There is a happy medium somewhere.

The problem in the U.K. is that we have free healthcare so we really don’t know the real costs
That's actually untrue. The cost of this procedure for a human in hospital would have been about half that cost if not less. Vets totally take the p*

Wtf yes! We took ours in for antibiotics and painkillers for abscesses and its been around £60 ( same day apt) i would be questioning that.

Strikes me as hugely expensive. Our dog had lots of individual pus filled cysts removed under a general and it was under £400. I think possibly the bigger the practise, the cheaper? Dunno, it’s all very subjective.

My cat had a leg amputated for less than that!

@FiveGoMadInDorset

My cat has just been in, sedated, wound lanced and cleaned, and a weeks worth of antibiotics £68

Out of interest, can you say which part of the country this is? Or was it a charity? That really does sound extremely cheap!

It does seem quite high. Our dog had her spay done in May and it cost about £250 all in, which included the anaesthetic, follow up care, keeping an eye on her that day, etc.

Our wonderful vet is no longer independent sold out to some big company, the bills reflect this now. My dentist did the same the costs went through the roof, dentist grabbed his practice back. The big boys are buying out independents and making a killing for doing absolutely nothing. Staff on the ground have not seen the benefit.

I do think that sounds high.
I was going to explain why the anaesthetic is much more expensive than for euthansia but the vet above has posted an excellent explanation.
Neutering is cheaper to encourage people to get their pets neutered. If it was charged at actual cost you'd have a hell of a lot of unneutered pets running around and breeding unchecked.

Still think the bill is on the high side though and I'd query it with them.
I live in a different country but comparable with the UK in cost of living/wages etc. My cat had anaesthetic, dental clean and 4 teeth out for 200 euros.
I've found vets' bills here to be reasonable but pet insurance is almost unheard of.

Our wonderful vet is no longer independent sold out to some big company, the bills reflect this now. @justasking sounds like ours too. Our vet group (which took over from the independent a few years ago) has an animal hospital in one of the most desirable postcodes you could hope to have.

Costs vary depending on region. Hard to say, As it will depend on ever you are- running costs vary wildly by region, for instance.

However, that bill does not surprise me. I also think our perception of costs are skewed a little by free at point of care healthcare. I’m not a vet, but as an Dr I do know most folk haven’t got a clue as to the actual costs of healthcare are. When you it’s private, it’s even more expensive as the provider also has to make a profit.

I think you cannot equate an anaesthetic to euthanase a dog with one used To anaesthetise an animal during a procedure. For a start, you’ll need to have someone there to monitor oxygen sats etc, possibly to assist breathing depending on how deeply they anaesthetised your cat. So you now have 2 members of staff, plus extra equipment and the drugs. So yes, that will cost more than administering it to euthanase your dog.

If you think it’s too much- speak to your vet about it. Or pay it and vote with your feet.

I went to a vet as a last resort during a difficult time. I had previously spoken to them with the idea of using them and had been put off, something felt wrong. I was right. I was desperate for help and it cost £1500 and at the end I had no pet.

I dug around and discovered that the vet had previously been struck off and exposed on TV, the practice was not in his name. He was permitted to practice but something was not right and he knew I knew something was going on. He could have been a really good vet but I hate dishonesty and the way my pet was treated was not honest.

There is a register online, you can check for any malpractice and qualifications.

One of my cats home with literally half the skin hanging off his back leg and rump.
He had emergency surgery and ended up with staples across his back end.
That cost me less than £400 so yeah I'd say that was very expensive

I always ask how much a treatment is and why before my dog has anything done

I keep seeing posts about neutering being cheaper. DD has just booked her (very) small breed dog in for his next month and it's £196. Mine was done about 6 years ago and I'm certain it was no more than £100.