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?

That seems VERY high!!

Granted my last cat died over 10 years ago, but even allowing for inflation, and knowing that vet fees are always astronomical... I'd have anticipated high 300s for what you describe!

This is an advert for the perks of pet insurance I guess!

I don't know why people keep saying to get pet insurance, as if that would make the bill any less. The overall cost over a lifetime of pet insurance is usually far far higher and then there are all the exclusions and price increases as the animal ages.

My vets are clear that I do not insure my animals and I prefer to treat conservatively. Just because you can do something does not mean you should - it is not always in the pets best interests to keep going just because an insurance company is picking up the tab. I have adult conversations with my vet about the cost/benefit of any treatment. It is kinder for my purse and my pets.

When our ddog had an infected snout it cost us over £700 as he had to have a biopsy etc, plus antibiotics.
When he was sick (we thought he'd swallowed something) he had to be xrayed under anaesthetic, he was clear but needed to stay in for 2 nights on a drip due to dehydration, and then 3 courses of tablets.
Cost just under 2k.

Thank goodness for pet insurance!

Ask for a full breakdown / explanation of the charges op.

Vets do vary hugely in their charges. My cat was taken ill one Christmas night. I knew it was going to cost me to get him seen, but when I phoned one of my local vets, they quoted me £480, just for an emergency consultation! And said they'd almost certainly keep him in, which would cost an extra £200! £680 without any drugs or treatment
I called the other one, and they charged £85. Saw him, spent lots of time checking him out, gave him an injection, and we brought him home again.

Interestingly the first one was an independent, the cheaper one operating under a larger umbrella company.

Dcat had to have a cut on her belly stitched last year.

The initial appointment, the return for the operation and then the following check up came to around £350.

Your costs seem very high.

I can’t say whether it’s expensive or not (the picture has been deleted and I’m not a vet) but it does sound more than I would have expected.

I admire your bravery in putting your insurance money aside and using that to pay your bills. I spend £120 a month on insurance and I regularly think of doing the same, but I’m not quite brave enough! It would be just my luck I’d cancel it and then get a huge bill the next month

Depends on practice overheads too ... number of staff, number of vets .... building rental & or rates costs & whether they pay their staff well. Non business owning Vets are poorly paid as professionals & are the biggest at risk group of professionals for financial stress induced suicide. My neighbour had the Vet out to do a c-section on a cow ... cost £260. Companion animals & Equines cost much more ... due to different surgical practice. We as humans have demanded equal delivery of care and procedure for our pets ...farmers are happy with the basics, as are the cows & sheep. There are many reasons for differential costs, and I hope it's because your Vet is paying decent wages to their staff. X

Jesus. I would have expected £250 mark. Spaying doesn’t cost that much!

@Chaaaaaching

The problem in the U.K. is that we have free healthcare so we really don’t know the real costs. You’re paying for the drugs, monitoring, nurse’s time to prepare, vets time to examine and conduct the surgery and then check it all after recovery. They also need to pay their staff, business rates, building running costs, Equipment and maintenance, the years of training that vets and vet nurses undertake. They are a business at the end of the day and healthcare is very expensive.

This.

Imagine an itemised cost of a general person's healthcare in the UK?

Also, the way a practice charges you is unregulated. Even the RCOVS doesn't and has never spoken about it.

My vet doesn’t do anything but the basics until they have given a rough estimate of cost.
One of my cats went missing and several weeks late when found had been run over and had a partly healed broken front leg and a broken tail which had been stripped of fur.
The vet knew the tail would need to be amputated and possibly the front paw. Cost given was around £2k. As it was the leg was saved and the total bill for surgery and after care was £1200.

Wow . It's cheaper to go on holiday! That's such a huge bill. I don't have pets and never been to a vet so am sorry you paid that much. Obviously for your little cat it's totally worth it and thousands more but that does seem really steep.

My cat has been to the vets a lot and have never paid that much for him to be put under. Once paid £100 for X-ray which included being knocked out. £170 is what I would expect to pay for a large dog not a cat.

Wow, Pops, speak for yourself! I have been on far more expensive holidays than that!

Proud my cat cost me £800 for tail amputation which included xrays the week before and all treatment leading up to his op.

My dog cost me £3000 a few years ago after she ate something which caused a blockage. All my animals are now insured.

DDog has just been for another one of her 'mysterious off days', She had an ultrasound, a full examination and a prescription anti inflammatory.

£40. She's a terrier, so cat sized, and I'm always surprised at how reasonable her bills are. DCat was pts in March and cremated and that was £300! (I'd only just moved or she would have been buried in the garden).

Vets bills are extortionate. Our old cat was at an emergency vets for 5 nights on a drip. She had a lot of treatment and the bill came to £3500. Thankfully we have insurance otherwise we would have had no choice but to put her to sleep.

I don't know why people keep saying to get pet insurance, as if that would make the bill any less. The overall cost over a lifetime of pet insurance is usually far far higher and then there are all the exclusions and price increases as the animal ages.

My cat would be dead without cat insurance. She's cost the insurance company £10,000 over her 19 years and is still happy and now healthy. The insurance was perfectly affordable up until the January renewal date when it suddenly went up to £100 a month. I have to pay 20%. So I've paid £600 this year and she's cost the insurance more than £1000 this year. So for me it's been a big saving all in.
For a cat that is never ill the monthly cost does not go up that much if you shop around for a good insurer, I always go for MoreThan which started off at £7 a month and was £7 for many years until she started needing treatment for various conditions.
But she's had an amazing life with very good vet care and is a very happy old girl.

You always get ripped off at the Vets. How they arrive at these big fees I do not know. You could have a pet mouse with a broken leg, and it would cost about £500 to mend it.. People cannot treat their pets at all, so have to use expensive Vets, win win for them.

Our dog stayed overnight with xrays and scans at a very expensive vet for that price.

we save more in the long run by not having it (insurance)

I don't get this. Surely you are insuring against the (for instance) horrific injuries from a RTA - requiring intricate surgery that your pet could survive into a long life from? Admittedly rare, but these procedures can cost 10s of thousands and I don't believe insurance payments will cost that over a lifetime.

Surgery for an animal is the same as surgery for a human. Your cat probably needed to be fully anesthesised for the stitching and there would have been a small team keeping your cat safely under anesthetic during the period she was being stitched up. It is hideously expensive but I think the fault lays with the vet not specifying the treatment plan together with a breakdown of costs. My vet would charge something similar. Ask for an itemised bill and check it's accurate. For future reference ask them to provide an estimate of proposed vet fees before treatment. Word of warning, they often bump up the fees even on an estimate.

Vets bills are always more than I expect - but they’re keeping my pets healthy and alive, have years of training and experience and medical care just costs money, whether that’s savings or insurance.
I paid 3 x £70 for my guinea pig who had an ulcer in his eye. Insurance doesn’t really exist for guinea pigs!
Also about 8 years ago my rescue rottie was diagnosed with lymphoma. Completely unexpected, and we did t have insurance because we thought she was young, and we were young ourselves. It cost £400 for bloods and first lot of steroids and painkillers.
Pets cost money.

Vet nurse here. You haven't said which part of the country you love in OP - this tends to influence how high or low your bill will be. I work for one of the corporate vets, and I know they take local demographics into consideration when setting charges. For example, the clinic I work in, is set in a highly desirable coastal area, with a largely affluent population. And the prices reflect this. However, a clinic owned by the same company in our nearest city, has lower fees to reflect the demographic.

For those here who are saying that vet fees are too high and vets are RIP-off merchants, how much do you think the average vet earns? Bearing in mind that they (and their nurses) are highly qualified professionals.
In my area, the average vet earns approximately £35 - 45,000 per year. The average veterinary nurse earns approximately £20 - 25,000 per year (both depending on experience/years qualified).

Lovemusic £800 is a good price and would be about what my tail amputation would have been had they not had to do additional xrays and work on the front leg.
I don’t have the itemised bill anymore but I do remember each X-ray was around £150. My cat was also prescribed gaberpentin at one stage which is a human drug and quite expensive when prescribed privately for an animal.
I have three cats all rejects with additional problems that means insurance would be very high or they would be refused outright. Therefore I have no option than to self insure.
To me it is simple don’t keep pets that you can’t afford to look after properly either through insurance companies or via self insurance.

*live