AIBU VET BILL £5700

[bellewilson]

Long story apologies- We own a beautiful Exotic cat she is one year old. Perfectly healthy took for one year vaccinations and she had a bad reaction temp and loss of appetite and started getting wobbly on back legs after 6 days. Obviously back and forth to local vet but when became wobbly local vet suggested she was better off being assessed in local veterinary hospital. Take her there (have insurance with £4k limit was supposed to be their top of range superior plus policy) vet hospital assessed her and said we need to admit her for tests and suspected neurological FIP (cat coronavirus) sedated her and did X-ray and scans and biopsies of fluid found in chest and abdomen and blood tests. Only had her in for 24hours and bill was £3150 took a week to finally get results as positive for FIP carrier with low probability of infection which means with her ongoing symptoms they think she has neurological FIP. So as now 7 days later our cat has got more poorly not eating or drinking having to syringe feed/drink. Re-admitted to hospital and they agree to only do minimal care to keep her comfortable whilst antivirals drugs kick in (drip and appetite stimulation) and would cost max £280 a night admitted for 3 days and everyday checked with vet the bill and costs and how much left on insurance. Collected today to be told owe £5700 so £1700 over insurance. Was expecting £600 max but £1100 more than I was told on the phone several times is a joke. Ask for bill breakdown and it’s CF at its best and laughable they can actually get away with it… from working it out the initial £3150 they have charged approx £1400 just for sedation to do the X-ray £450 and ultrasound £680 plus extra for biopsy and tests plus nursing care and £450 consultation. I made it completely clear to them we couldn’t afford a large bill and they agreed all along to do a direct claim with our insurance company and get pre authorised payments from them through a portal. Turns out didn’t do that either so if insurance doesn’t pay we have to. What can we do. I have Googled and average cost for Anastasia for a cat is £300/400 in Uk so how can they charge 4x the average cost. AIBU? Any advice please so stressed.

This. I agree 100%

We have had a huge amount of vets bills recently and found that it's the smaller bits and pieces that are actually the most expensive part.

Our pug had his eye removed, we paid £350 for our of hours vet visit, no treatment other than something to calm him down a bit as we had waited 2 hrs and he is very reactive to people and dogs. The visit is £285 so the sedative was £65 😱 then out of hours at eye hospital was £550. The surgery itself was really reasonable but all the extras were huge. Even so it was all less than £4k which included scans, removal of bad eye, additional surgery on the good eye to pull his eyelid round to protect it plus an overnight stay and the follow up appointments.

I definitely don't have £6k insurance for my cats, I didn't think it was necessary.

The other thing you might find is that some of it is excluded from your insurance, I found out the hard way that out of hours appts are limited to £100 on my insurance.

I agree. NHS fees are unseen to the general public, so folk have no/little means for comparison. Stop vet bashing

I don't think everyone is vet bashing though, it's more that people aren't aware of the costs and perhaps a lack of understanding of why some of the basics are so high.

My dog cut both his front paw pads at the weekend, the day after he was behaving strangely and wouldn't weight bear properly, they didn't seem particularly bad but I was worried maybe infected as it was glass he cut them on. Had to go to out of hours and on top of consultation fee they charged £90 to cut off a tiny piece of paw pad and then said they'd given his a painkiller injection but said he doesn't need it, he's just being dramatic as he had bandages on and they all walk funny then. We waited 1.5 hrs and were in the consultation room less than 10 mins. Nearly £400 in total it cost me. Should have just waited till Monday really but we've had such a traumatic time with our pets that I didn't want to take that chance.

I think people find it hard to understand why vets charge £70 for a painkiller or antihistamine when they are a few £ to buy. They have huge mark up on medication but also our vet has put up the prescription charge so much it makes it just as expensive to buy online now.

In addition to this all the monthly plans have increased hugely plus there are no other package options available now which used to make annual vacs etc much more affordable.

Cost of living is crazy, running costs for a vets must he huge so I doubt most of the costs are unreasonable but the mark up on some stuff is ludicrous on the face of it, its not going into the vets pockets unless they are the owners also and TBH I can't imagine it's making millions in the current climate.

I have been quite naive re insurance, I thought £2k for small animals was OK, I found out it wasn't the hard way!

It’s not bloody vet bashing. Just like the many cost of living threads about increasing food prices, they aren’t littered with ‘ I hate supermarket bashing comments.’

For some reason these threads trigger some posters. Even if someone actually was vet bashing you realise that (just like every profession, there are good and bad out there?! Surely it’s common sense…plus this is a public forum.

My 12.5 Yr old Lab has a growth, I was previously told it was a wart £68 and to leave it. Then it grew, another £68 still not told what it was, just ‘keep an eye on it. Literally two days later it became infected £84 for antibiotics and the receptionist (not the vet) told me it was a mast cell tumour and £1300 for surgery please. Of course, I’m not stupid enough to think it’ll be £1300, I’m expecting at least another £200 on top. I’ve asked if it could be cancer and been told likely not. They also want to do bloods, the results of which they won’t get for two weeks AFTER the op. They’ll then cheerily inform me if he’s got kidney disease or liver abnormalities. Extreme joy. Surely they should carry out the bloods and get the results BEFORE carrying out the op.

Prior to that he had an ear infection, what was the initial advice? “We’ll put him to sleep, take a swab but may not find anything wrong and we will flush the ears (cost not disclosed) then we’ll do an mri about a £1,000 sorry, might be more, we can’t consider anything else, but we may not find anything wrong”.
WTAF?! was my first thought. Moved to a different practice where I paid £70/80 for a consult and steroids sorted it. So for those of you (vets or otherwise!) explain that little gem of a price difference. Not to mention the ethics of putting an animal through that.

Previous to that again he had 4 ‘health checks’ a year. £60 consultation then £320, for a blood test and blood pressure. This was for the luxury of obtaining a prescription for Galliprant. Compulsory apparently.
Only it’s not, is it. As he found the bloods painful/shaved paws couldn’t find a vein so went to his neck, came out with both front paws shaved, he was bleeding and limping. He got so worked up during the blood pressure monitoring the nurse told me it was a waste of time and to use a human bp monitor at home. When I wrote a letter asking on what basis he needed these bloods etc done, where was the benefit? he suddenly didn’t need to attend anymore. Just like that. No explanation. I’ve had galliprant prescriptions ever since.

I recently took our hamster to the vet with a gunky eye. I was literally in there 2 minutes and came away with the tiniest tube of ointment (which was available online for £9.99). I got charged £87. I nearly passed out!

One of my DSs school friends is now a vet. She was out recently to see my horse and I asked her how hers is as I know she has an oldie same age as mine. She laughed and said that she thought being a vet would save her a fortune as she can diagnose herself, check if her other half (also a vet) agrees and get any drugs and dressings at cost. Turns out it doesn't save her much at all.

I had specialist referral for my pet and it wasn't nearly a house deposit.

Younger vets are being taught to preserve life at pretty much all costs according to an older vet we had to use to euthanize our dog 2 years ago.

Our Labrador had been diagnosed 3 yrs previously with severe arthritis in his spine and after 3 years where meds helped, he'd lost all interest in life, he wouldn't even get off the sofa to eat or drink (& we're taking about a greedy Lab), and showed no interest/joy around us anymore (wouldn't even scoot over for a cuddle like he always used to), was messing himself on the sofa and laying in it until found.

He was 11½ yo, we Rand vets to explain and they said it sounds like it's time to pts, but because he wagged his tail and was more lively at the vets & and took food directly out of their hands (which we'd told them was the only way we were getting him to eat as he wouldn't go to his food anymore) they refused to pts, and made us feel like we were just trying to get rid of him.

The issue was he hated the vets so was always very active there as he would run on adrenalin, and this didn't change when he was ill.
They wouldn't believe he was so different at home, and by refusing to pts, he suffered for many months more than he should've done.

We knew our dog and he had no quality of life left at this point, and would've actually died of dehydration as he wouldn't make any effort to drink, we had to carry his water bowl to him. We had to carry him out to toilet, and bring food to him, he wouldn't even move 1 seat over for steak (by this time he lived on the sofa, as it was more comfortable for him and where he wanted to be).

We eventually found a mobile vet who came out and saw him in his home environment, which the others refused to do, and he did pts (he also told us many vets nowadays don't put quality of life 1st anymore).

He was shocked that they'd allowed him to go on as he was.

Most vets where we are are part of these large groups, and their prices have risen significantly since covid.
We used to get a scale and polish (teeth) done on our 5 dogs every year at a cost of £150 per dog, which included IV fluids afterwards to help them recover from the GA (it was £99 without).

Immediately after covid, I enquired about booking them all in again as they'd missed having this done during covid, and was told the price was now £500 per dog, which is ridiculous.

There's no way to justify this increase other than pure greed.
They won't get more money from me as it just means they don't get done as a preventative measure anymore and it will only be done when needed, which is a real shame, and means they lose out overall, as rather than having a steady yearly income from us of £750 just from this (the procedure itself lasted under 1 hour), they've now had nothing and I've actually moved them elsewhere.

Even if I hadn't changed vets, they still would've lost out as I would now only be treating them once there's an issue, which isn't guaranteed, whereas this yearly scale/polish was.

@Cantthinkof1rightnow that is so sad. It seems really ignorant of the vets not to factor in that the behaviour they see in their clinic will be far removed from what the owner sees in a relaxed environment at home. This thread has been such an eye opener for me. I am going to be looking again closely at our lab's insurance with Pet Plan to make sure I'm on the right tier. Our cats are 13+ so I'm not going to start insuring them now.

YABU. It is literally the vet's job to make a profit. Expertise does not come cheap, which is why everyone should be told the true cost of their NHS treatment so that they stop taking it for granted and abusing the system.

Haven’t got time at the moment to read updates, so sorry if you’ve already done this… you need to write an official complaint about the bill for starters. You also need to ask them to put in a complaint to the manufacturer of the yearly injection as it’s likely this caused these issues. There are lots of groups on Facebook and lots of info on line about how many pets get neurological conditions and even die following injections/flea and worm treatment!
The drug company will probably pay your vet bill in exchange for your silence!
In addition you need to detox your cat… lots of advice on line about that too.
mid suggest never fleaing, worming or getting boosters for your car again.
type the drug names into Facebook and join groups where you will find literally thousands of people who have suffered this and can advice you what you need to do both for the cat and for suing the drug company

I don't think anybody is suggesting it should be free 🙄

I've seen friend's children go through the competitive process of getting on to a vet course - I do wonder if they research enough about the pay and conditions after qualifying. A top salary of around 40k after 10 years and all the years of study is ludicrous. Sounds like working for the big corporates is no fun either and they will no doubt drive down wages further.

Vets have turned into money grabbing machines since pet insurance became a thing and a lot of small practices have been gobbled up by huge companies with shareholders. I don't have pet insurance anymore because it got ridiculous and I heard stories of them not paying out so many times, but have saved the money instead for when ours need it.
What will happen is people won't have their animals seen to and this is how they want the NHS to go.

Expertise does not come cheap

But it does, the average vet does not earn a high salary.

I can’t believe a minority of people are still failing to comprehend this after so many pages of thread.

@Missingmyusername

It’s not vet bashing.

It’s greed. Pure and simple. I know a vet and she’s left the practice due to greedy partners, rising charges, and tearful owners.

@Icepinkeskimo

Exactly this. It's utter pure greed at some practices, I spent thousands on what was suspected to be an ear infection on one animal, 5 weeks later he was worse than ever and on so many drugs his life was miserable. I took him back only to be informed he would need a scan but he had be referred and they would get back to me with a cost. I nearly fell through the floor the cheapest was £4500! ohh and if it was neurological they informed me there was very little they could do!

I saw red, my poor lad had been through enough and drugged up to his eyeballs. What was the point in putting him through a useless scan?
I stopped all the drugs, nursed him myself gently cleaning his poor ears.
Patrick is now living his best life, he’s happy, loved and not of his face on Tramadol.

There are good vets out there, but sorry there are masses of money grabbing upselling vultures who feed off distressed and heartbroken owners who blindly hand over thousands of pounds for unnecessary procedures. There is absolutely no defence for these piss taking charges.

100% all of THIS! ^ Hope Patrick is well today! 😘

@Cantthinkof1rightnow (at 8.17,) @Missingmyusername (at 3.15,)

These are actually really sad stories Unfortunately, I've heard SO many like this - not only on this thread but in real life. (How some vets try to make a huge profit out of people.) And as another poster said after your post, not putting quality of life first, (for the animals,) but trying to drag their life out to make multiple thousands of pounds more.

IT HAPPENS, so why are the 'stop-vet-bashing brigade' refusing to accept this? SO many posters on here have come out with similar stories now for it to not be true. The 'stop-vet-bashing-brigade' are just sounding like white noise now.

I spoke to somebody this morning on the driveway, as I was putting the bins out, and she was making a fuss of my cat. She said her next door neighbour took her cat to the vet last week, (cat is 17 and a half.) Apparently she has been very listless, not been drinking and eating properly, been pooping in the house, and appeared to be pooping a bit of blood.

Like the case of the woman with the pitbull cross I mentioned yesterday, the vet suggested doing scans and X-rays and blood tests and testing her for liver and kidneys blah blah blah blah ... So she got this done. '£410 please...' Then she got the news yesterday, that she had some kind of condition that was affecting her liver and kidneys, and she needs a certain course of treatment. Should be looking at £7000 pounds for this particular course of treatment.

The woman just looked at the receptionist who gave her the 'quote' and laughed, and said, 'do I look like somebody that's got £7000 to spare? I'm 59, I'm on disability benefits, I live alone in a social housing one bed bungalow, and I've not got a brass farthing to my name. The £410 for the tests has wiped out my savings. Where on earth do you think I've got £7000 from?' She was completely gobsmacked

At this point, the vet receptionist said, 'oh, we can work out a payment plan for you!' So she was going to get this 59 year old woman who's on disability benefits, who gets her rent paid by housing benefit, who hasn't got a pot to piss in, £7000 into debt. For procedures and operations and treatment on a 17 and a half year old cat that was very poorly, and very likely would not have lasted more than half a year after that.

I repeat again, I know some vets are OK! But it's an absolute fucking disgrace that some vets do this. And as I said, the 'stop vet bashing brigade 'can do one, because there are way too many posts on this thread now from people with stories like this for it to not be true.

Like somebody said, all the posts about supermarket prices go up on here, and nobody said 'stop supermarket bashing.' Why are we not allowed to criticise vets? Why? They're not all perfect, amazing human beings who just love animals, and don't rip off the owners. Some are absolute rip-off merchants who upsell, and take advantage of vulnerable and distressed pet owners. Don't even TRY to deny that this happens after the amount of posters on here who have clearly stated it does!

At this point, the vet receptionist said, 'oh, we can work out a payment plan for you!' So she was going to get this 59 year old woman who's on disability benefits, who gets her rent paid by housing benefit, who hasn't got a pot to piss in, £7000 into debt.

I imagine the receptionist was trying to help her find a way to keep her cat, not deliberately get her into debt.

As has already been discussed on the thread, maybe the thing that needs to change is people wanting their pets to live forever because it's hard to say goodbye.

This thread shows massively the naivety people have regarding beds and the bills

the antivirals are rarely priced up. I guarantee it. FIP is a difficult illness and the vials are probably a good hundred pounds each

i know tons of vets and not one prices things to be greedy. They don’t become a vet to make money. Most get paid the same as a Tesco manager…..

you’re also showing the naivety about not researching the prices of having a sick animal and it’s incredibly mentally painful when people refuse to treat and an animal is left suffering for years.

As has already been discussed on the thread, maybe the thing that needs to change is people wanting their pets to live forever because it's hard to say goodbye.

This. When my 17 year old cat was diagnosed with heart failure we knew he was on borrowed time but made the decision to try him on medication. We kept an eye on him and, as he was on a low dose, we knew we had a chance. We had 6 months with him having a good quality of life after he was diagnosed so I have no regrets and I know we let him go at the right time.

The important thing is to have all options explained. I was lucky, my vet went through everything and gave me all the options. I chose to have the liquid furosemide at £84 a bottle as he couldn't be pilled - the vet explained the pills were £16 a bottle and it was my choice which to go for. Yes I paid a fortune, but I was presented with all the options but I know not everyone has such a good vet. Ours is the most expensive in the area but worth paying for.

As has been said before, the costs seem high because we don't get charged for our own medical treatments, thanks to the NHS. So please everyone, think twice before voting for those who are trying to get rid of it.
Vet treatment isn't cheap, but that's because you're not just paying for a bottle of chloramphenicol for the eye infection, you're paying for the vet, the vet nurse, the receptionist, the electricity, rent, water, business rates, vet ambulance, all machinery and servicing / repairs of those (microscopes, x-ray machines, ultrasound scanners, MRI scanners, anaesthetic rigs....) lab techs, lab equipment, cleaners. The list is endless. Most would complain if their local vets didn't have the most up-to-date diagnostic and treatment equipment, but it all costs a massive amount to buy and maintain. And that's all without the vet's 6-7 years of training, and repayment of their student loans.
Vets have the 2nd highest level of suicide as a profession, as they're dealing with some awful stuff, often caused by negligence and people trying to treat their animals themselves, day after day, and still they're just seen as greedy rip-off merchants.

Thank you vets, I do appreciate you.

@Biddie191 it’s NOT the vets. Again. NOT the vets it’s the business partners.
They want money.
Vets haven’t always been extortionate. No electricity bill is that high. Come off it!

@EbonyRaven If you bump into the lady again tell her about the PDSA they would treat her cat for free if her postcode falls in their area.

Quite frankly I do not see how you can compare a gerbil, cat or dog to a human being’s NHS costs.

My surgery now charges £60 for a prescription, to get the meds my dog needs. It used to be £20 not so long ago, then £35 then jumped to £60- they only a give a few months at a time, despite him requiring the medication for life and carrying out no tests in the interim. The mind boggles, causes admin work for them and for me.. as I have to go the surgery to get it and then upload it to a website to obtain the drugs. I believe the justification was that I could be taken the drug myself, which is Galliprant, which he has alongside his £160 a month Librela.

Surely the comparison to other countries shows it's massively overpriced. I'm sure it's not because of vet wages - more likely corporate and pharmaceutical greed.
Even insurance is overpriced: my cat costs £30/month, but would cost €15 (£12.90) in the Netherlands with the same insurer (Petplan). Hardly anyone has insurance for their cat there, because the vet is affordable. And most UK insurers now seem to have a 15-20% co-payment for cats aged 7-9 and up - never had that with my recently deceased 18 yo cat.

Personal experience: Netherlands: €60 for a consultation and anti-fungal cream.
@Alleycat1 France: €75 for ultrasound, injection, medicine for a week and pet passport completed.
@Freeballing Ireland: €120 for a day at the vets with sedation, xray, tests, meds to bring home.
@ClareBlue €80 for Saturday morning callout, full internal exam, antibiotics & ruminate administrated, further antibiotics. Gave other 3 kids once over and vit injections. Total time about 40 minutes plus drive to house 6km.