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.

This is on animal friends website
The cat is chipped but she never got it changed to her address, so the chip is with the owner before her apparently..

I asked her for previous info but she can't tell me because she never took the cat to a vet sadly.

This poor cat really hasn’t had any luck with its owners, by the sounds of it - but that isn’t going to help you if you don’t have money available for vet fees. By the sounds of it, the previous owner will soon fill the space they’ve cleared with something younger and cuter too? 🤯

I feel like I've already let him down :(

I have money to an extent. But I don't have, let's say a spare £1000 to drop here and there.

I specifically wanted an older and black cat too as I know they're overlooked.

I haven’t read the whole thread so don’t know if this has been suggested already sorry, but there are some vets run as community interest with more reasonable pricing - Animal Trust is one.

Thank you, I've found an animal trust near me.
Does anyone know if I can cancel pet health club,I've used it today, but do I now have to pay it for the rest of the year?

What happens with older cats is that either 1: you get trapped with the same insurer forever, paying ever increasing premiums 2: you pay as you go and have a cut off beyond which you aren't prepared to spend and cat gets PTS.

Vet services are a useful proxy for how health care will go if we abandon the NHS and embrace privatisation. Insurance just adds cost to the system, private companies drive up prices for profits, medicine is very expensive and unpredictable.

Page 25 of the policy booklet says You can't claim in the first 14 days, you may find that as you've already taken the cat to vet they use this as an excuse not to pay

My dog has only ever had claims on her insurance due to injury. A raw diet wont prevent that.

What do the t&c say?

If you have had more services on the plan than the amount you’ve paid for in direct debits (eg a vaccination starting course) you will have to pay back the difference - and possibly an early cancellation fee.

Vets fees are now more than private medical treatment for humans

It’s not as simple as that.

It’s become hard for independent vets to operate given the increased amount of specialised equipment that is now needed to deliver modern standards of care. Also things like overnight care if a pet needs to be admitted. In the old days the animals would be left in the practice overnight with no or minimal supervision. That’s no longer an acceptable level of care but a small independent practice can’t afford to provide 24 hour vet coverage.

That's true.. though the blood test would be after 14 days so hopefully that would be OK?

I know there is an issue with pricing for corporate owned veterinary practices. But, has anyone priced up how much a blood test would cost for a human to be done privately?
I think people don't realise how much these things actually do cost as we tend to rely on the nhs.

Where in human medicine could you call up, get a timely appointment, blood tests and results in such a quick time?

Without knowing what dosage is required and if he/she definitely has a thyroid issue ?! This is insane.

We took our rabbit to a vets 30 years ago and got eyedrops for £35 plus a vets fee. When I checked later they were human eyedrops you could get in any chemist (off the shelf not prescription for about £1). We were in the vets for less than 5 minutes.

The 14 days is for the date the symptoms started.

£45 for a human thyroid bloos test orivately
https://www.medichecks.com/collections/thyroid?msclkid=458b2afef1f31926d30d4d8010ea5d7c&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=*BM%20%7C%20Search%20%7C%20Thyroid%20Tests&utm_term=private%20thyroid%20test&utm_content=Private%20Thyroid%20Tests

Vets just try out a low amount and increase it until dosage is right. There will be further blood tests

You can refuse the tests and the treatment, although I would always prioritise pain relief if needed. Thirty years ago animals just didn’t get the sort of treatments vets now offer. If they were ill and suffering, they were put to sleep.