To think vet fees are taking advantage?

[Catlady332]

There is making a financial commitment to a pet, and then there is paying extortionate fees.
I pay monthly for a vet healthcare plan for my cat who is older, and this is supposed to cover certain things and include discounts.
They suspect he has a thyroid issue and needs a blood test, and I've been quoted £250 for the blood test.
I think these fees are extortionate and taking advantage. This is in the north West, as I said I know pet ownership is a financial commitment but I'm worried about having to pay these sorts of costs regularly.

Argh I just don't know what to do right now tbh

All you can do is pay for the test, claim on insurance where you can (you’ll have to pay your excess), and go from there.

not true
Pet Sure do

Petsure
www.petsure.com › pre-exist...
Pet Insurance for Pre-Existing Conditions
Buy Flexible Pet Insurance for Pre-Existing Conditions with up to £15k Vet Fee Cover. No upper age limit, no compulsory excess.

It seems every vet has gone the corporate greed route now.

Clearly the fat cats have rumbled that love for your animal is a weakness that they can exploit for money money money...

When you consider vetinary care costs - it’s worth keeping hair dresser costs in mind as a comparison point.

And then consider how many staff are involved, the comparative equipment costs, premises costs, training and qualifications.

Keep your existing insurance, get the blood test and hopefully any medication will be covered by your insurance. If not you can ask the vet for a prescription and buy online from various places (Hyperdrug, Viovet etc). But do check out what your vet will charge you for the prescription as it may end up costing more doing it that way.

I'm going to look at non for profit, or just cheaper vets, and see if i can cancel this pet health club.

But it's likely a new vet will want to do their own diagnostics, so you may find they want to repeat the blood test.

I've been reading that the blood tests can come back inconclusive, and I may need to return him for further tests, presumably at the same cost...

I sympathise. Our dog had a litter of pups, which we kept one. At 7.5 weeks a lump popped up on her head. I’d set up the insurance a week before. We hadn’t seen her bang it, it was a hard lump. Went to the vet, who said she needed a fine needle aspiration if there were no signs of it going a week later. Went back a week later and it was the same. We are part of their health plan too. £275. Not covered by insurance as we were still in the waiting period. Results came back yesterday - basically she had somehow managed to whack her head as it’s a haemotoma (according to the results). Obviously we are thrilled it’s nothing serious, but £275 is extortionate.

If the cat does have hyperthyroidism ask the vet about thyroid pet food. My cat was on it for years and although it’s more expensive than normal cat food it was cheaper than meds and quarterly blood tests.

Daughter is an independant vet. If your, practice is one of the corporates you will be paying more, they are expensive. Look around for an independently owned practice and contact them to see if they are taking new patients. Explain your situation and ask for a rough costing for the blood test. If it is cheaper then register your pet there and give them authority to contact your current practice and ask for all your cat's clinical records to be sent to new vets.

Sorry but it is part of owning a pet and should be factored into the cost of owning own.

Would have to do those bloods before putting her under anaesthetic to sort her teeth anyway, so you've lost nothing.

It should be, and no one is arguing that. But there can be huge discrepancy between areas, and whether a vet is independent or not.
It cost me £210 or so to have my dog neutered. It cost my sister (in the next town (£140). But she was quoted well over £1k for a dental for her dog, and mine was half that.

Whilst I accept there is a financial responsibility to having pets, most people cannot afford to just shell out hundreds or thousands on a regular basis.

They also mentioned my cat having dental disease- I assume this will be another couple of hundred?
It sounds irresponsible on my part which I'm aware of, but I know a lot of people who own pets and who certainly can't just pay out £££.

I'm not sure what the solution is, I just want to do what's best for the cat, but at the same time, I'm not well off.
I got him from a family friend who said no health issues.

This is true to an extent, but the price rises in the last few years have been exceptional, and also the goalposts keep changing. We got our cat from a rescue five years ago, with a pre-existing condition that requires a daily low dose of steroids. At that point, it was a few pounds every couple of months, so no problem. Since then the price of the medication has increased, but the vet has also begun to insist on more frequent check ups at £65 for literally eyeballing the cat, regular blood tests at a couple of hundred quid a time and so on. The cat is totally fine, she just has a skin condition. And because it's pre-existing, none of it is covered by insurance. If we'd been told the current costs for managing it when we were getting her, we might not have been so keen.

I'm not sure the previous owner was actually taking care of his health, she had him for years and I'm sure the hyperthyroidism and dental disease hasn't suddenly happened in the 10 days I've owned him.

You’d be lucky if it was even close to £200 for anything dental related.

The solution is good insurance from day 1 in all honesty, that way you only ever have the excess to pay, and choosing a great insurer who pays direct to vets meaning you don’t even have to find the money upfront, but too late for that now.

I've only had the cat 10 days, could I not cancel this vets, get insurance and then register at a new vets in a couple of weeks?

No, nothing would be covered, it doesn’t work like that. You can’t just change your mind & change your vets to avoid costs, the notes would be sent over from previous vet.

I paid £300 for a cat dental about 10 years ago, goodness knows what it is now.

However my human dentist isn't exactly cheap and he doesn't have to give me a general anaesthetic to do my teeth.

When you compare prices to plumbers suddenly vet care looks quite reasonably priced.

Mine has to have the same test and I've been quoted over £300.
I had similar tests run on a cat 12 years ago and that IIRC was about £125 so I wasn't altogether surprised that the quote was so high considering how much everything else has gone up.

I believe your vet will have started insisting because the law changed. It is now compulsory and therefore they have to insist.

Regarding other people’s discussion about sourcing drugs elsewhere. Buying drugs online can be cheaper because wholesalers can sell them to you cheaper than the price veterinary practice can get the drugs for because of the economy of bulk buying. You need to be really, really careful though. Not only do you have to be sure you’ll get the actual drug, a lot of companies who do supply the correct drug don’t store them properly and don’t transport them correctly. (Eg think medicine that needs to be refrigerated sent through Royal Mail or other carrier with a couple of ice packs thrown in whereas a veterinary practice would have then delivered to them in a refrigerated vehicle.