To not pay the whole vet's bill

[Member869894]

Hello. Honest opinions please. I took my dog to the vet today as he has breathing difficulties. The vet listened to his heart and lungs, pronounced them fine and then said he'd do a couple of blood tests and call me with the results. The whole thing took15-20 minutes.
On leaving I was presented with a bill for £188!!!!! I said that I would pay for the consultation fee (£56) but that I hadn't been told that the blood tests would be extra or that they would be so expensive

I'm kicking myself I didn't ask more about if the cost of the blood tests and if they were included in the consultation as Iif I had known how much they cost I would have said no. Equally, I think I should have been very carefully advised of the cost before they went ahead. What do you think?

I don't think it's at all unreasonable for anyone charging money for their services not to be totally upfront and transparent about the costs before they are incurred. . Can't believe people don't ask beforehand. I have spoken to the vet who apologised for not being clear and arranged a payment plan. Next time I will be asking for the cost of each step

Oops pressed send too soon. Its a lesson learned...

I think Yanbu because I recently had blood tests for my cat and the first thing the vet said was 'I need to give you a quote.', but I do think you would have been unreasonable not to pay.

i think you were unreasnable to consider no getting the tests for your dog

You need to pay.

Do you not have insurance? I have a 150 quid excess on mine but it's invaluable.

Out of interest, at what point would you say, newp, not paying it and your animal not getting treatement?

i weighed her at the vets
and they can write the prescription and charge you for it
so you can buy online medication

i hope my ddog doesnt also need blood tests as I can't afford it.

Of course they can, but they're still the ones providing the prescription so they need to make sure your dog is fit and healthy before prescribing..

Do you not have insurance to cover things like blood tests if necessary?

My dog goes once a year for his vaccinations but has never been otherwise (6 years and counting)

You have obviously not been to the vets in a while!

My kitty went when she was off her food for 3-4 days last year. Spent 25 minutes in there having a blood test, and a bit of a general check over, and was injected with rehydrating fluids and a steroid. Cost £200.

Sorry @Member869894 YABU.

POMV drug are licensed to be dispensed for pets “under the care of a veterinary surgeon”. For flea and worming treatment this is a maximum of 12 months. Vets are bound by the conditions of the license and so a check up is required.
Your other option is to buy cheaper medications over the counter at somewhere like a pet shop but these tend to be products which have been available for a long time and so may not be as effective.
Approximate profit on a vets bill once you have taken into account staffing costs , insurances , buildings and equipment etc is around 10%.

Insurance doesn’t usually cover consultations and blood tests, and often the excess is at least a couple of hundred

Mine does and the excess is £70 (PetPlan). Not the cheapest but can't fault them, paid my vet nearly 4K directly when my cat dislocated her ankle in a way that needed a plate in. Very fixable, and very expensive. She's completely fine now.

Our vet will do a treatment plan and review costs before surgery, dental work, etc. but not for something like blood work. It's a routine investigation. The practice has to pay for the lab work, it's not free to them.

Its actually an rcvs requirement that vets can't prescribe if they haven't seen the dig within the last six months. During covid, this was modified so that phone consultation or video call could be accepted at the vets discretion.

A 13 year old westie with breathing problems is going to cost you a whole lot more than £190. The blood test will be the tip of the iceberg if you want to pursue a diagnosis and treatment/management

Why on earth are you having a pet if you cant afford it>? Your vet bill is very reasonable.

i weighed her at the vets on their machine
but i appreciate all your points of course
and yes of course i could buy from a petshop worm and flea treatment.

<<Scary place here - backs off>>

I'm with you OP! Absolutely NO other professional would ever get away with presenting a product and having the customer agree without pointing out that it costs extra, regardless of how obvious! Even the charge for carrier bags has to legally be pointed out to every customer who wants one! If this was, say, a tree surgeon who you agreed a price with to fell some trees and he said "Would you like me to fell that one over there for you as well?" but didn't mention an additional cost and then presented you with a bill with the added cost on, you'd rightly be annoyed! I also expect you'd have everyone on here saying "YANBU OP! He should've made it quite clear before he carried out the works"

I'm surprised at the number of people not having yearly vet appointments - you know for jabs, health checks etc - that's basic pet care!

Also insurance!

One of my 6 cats tore a ligament recently - £800 for consult, pain killers, x-rays etc - £160 for a 5 min consult at the vet hospital to decided is they needed to opertate (they don't) - I paid £80 of that - insurance covered the rest!

ill thought out comment really, after 13 years what do you expect the op to do?

Oh behave FFS!

You need insurance for this type of occurrence. It isn't fair on your dog for you to have taken them on as a pet without the means to pay if they are unwell. I'm so sorry to sound harsh but I work in animal rescue and I daily deal with animals who've either been neglected or given up because owner couldn't afford the cost of vet treatment. Insurance is vital unless you have savings or the means to pay if something happens.

Of course you need to pay the fee. The blood tests need to be sent off to a lab and that needs to be paid for. But the price does seem steep.

I think people are being a bit too hard on the OP. THat's an awful lot of additional money and it isn't unreasonable to think that the vet might have signaled the cost in some way.
I know it is a bit borderline, given that an assumption is that a vet's reccommendations about tests should be folllowed regardless of the costs, and costs aren't routinely made explicit in advance. But the prices do seem high. Consultation charges at my vet are around £20-odd pounds, and I don't think I would expect to pay more than another £30 or so for bloods -- at least not without the cost being flagged.

Can't believe people don't ask beforehand
Eh? But that’s literally what you did, you didn’t ask beforehand. Consultation means literally that - consult/discuss - not also do blood tests etc. You say you’re a ‘professional’, it’s odd you seem surprised by this tbh.