Rip off vets

[twiddlingthumbs69]

I'm sick and tired of being held to ransom by vets.
One of my cats has a long term condition which she needs medication for.
This used to require a twice yearly visit to the vets, one for assessment and the other one for blood tests. Both of these totalled £600. A lot of money but I understood the reasons behind it.
They've now informed me that due to changes in guidelines from the RCV they are "advised" to see her every 3 months. This will make the yearly bill nearly £1K.
On the assessments they literally weigh her and that's all.
They won't give me a prescription to take elsewhere without seeing her first (the meds are actually cheap, it's the assessment that's expensive) so, I'm stuck.
The whole process stresses her to such a degree it actually makes her problem worse. I've spoken to them about all this and just get a shrug of the shoulders.
Obvs I love her to bits and would be more than happy to pay to make her comfortable but I feel that they are literally using her as a cash machine with no concern for her.
It's not a chain of vets but an independent.
I'm just fed up with their extortionate fees. I've checked others in the area and they are much the same. Haven't got pet insurance as it's a pre existing condition.
Anyway I have to take her tomorrow for an assessment and I'll just have to bite the bullet but I'm seriously pissed off so just thought I'd offload here

Sad to say but whole of life pet insurance from day 1 is essential these days with the prices vets are charging. Just simple investigations can rocket once you add on sedation etc. All our dogs are insured except our first one 12 year old Yorkie who now needs her teeth done. Been quoted around £1k

This may get you into trouble.
Ask you vet for a multi use script not a single use one , at the practice i work at we are happy to do this for the majority of meds other than controlled drugs which can only be given as a one month supply only.
You get the script to the online supplier who will then release ie 1 months supply at a time if that's how you want to do it ,you pay them the 1 month amount and they then release the other meds as you request until the quantity on the script has been 'used up'.
We charge the same amount as a 1 month written script its no problem just ask your vet.

You can't ensure pets older than 8 years old. If you adopt an older cat or dog, pet insurance is not even an option and none of them will accept you.

Furthermore, a lot of procedures and medication are not covered by insurance at all, so you'll still be out of pocket during a vet's visit, along with your insurance fees.

Ah ok, didn't know you couldn't insure older than 8 years, wow that's ridiculous!

Of course you can. My cat is 14 and insured, her premium isn’t much higher than my 3 year old cat’s.

My cat is on thyroid meds, I accept a 6 monthly blood test is needed, then the script is written out and I buy from Pet Drugs Online. Four years ago when the cat was diagnosed I was paying £18 for a 6 month script, now I'm paying £30 for a 3 month script. This is the part that particularly annoys me and is obviously a money getting game. I will not be able to afford another animal when this one dies.

@tsmainsqueeze would Prednisolone be a controlled drug?

Insurance companies in my country won't. Their websites clearly state they won't take pets beyond 8 years of age. I haven't found one that had not clearly listed this on their site.

Vets are having to abide by new rcvs rules for anthelmintic and antibiotic meds regarding resistance build up affecting humans.
At my practice we are not charging a consult fee for flea/worm (anthelmintic) just the medication , if the vet writes in the pets notes that they authorise repeat flea/worm meds for 12months from the consult then the pet can avoid the vet for 12months.
I understand why pet owners get so annoyed at vets prices but so many people could get much better service and satisfaction by calling around and getting the facts direct from the practice as to how they prescribe /charge ,what their protocols are etc.
You are not obliged to stick with one practice if you are not happy ,it's the same as any other trade you can shop around.
And in regards to fractious animals having repeat bloods as well as the pets stress this is no fun for us to handle either , some conditions such as thyroid need regular tests to tell us if we need to change dose , is it working etc -gold standard ,the best thing at that time for your pet .
Because we have 'free treatment' as humans i think this adds to the client's frustration as their is no way to compare and understand what a fair price is although i do believe that some vets ,corporate mainly are very much for profit sadly.

i think that lifetime pet insurance is essential and that more people should be made aware of it prior to getting a pet

We recently had to say goodbye to our best beloved cat as she was unexpectedly diagnosed with intestinal lymphoma - fortunately we had good insurance but finding out this information cost close to £3,000.

We have since adopted a wee ginger boy from Cats Protection. The lady I dealt with there told me they are absolutely inundated with owner surrenders as people can no longer afford to keep their pets day to day, never mind vets bills. She said they are giving "care packages" to owners to try and keep cats with them when they can't manage the cost of food/litter etc, and that they are operating a "one out, one in" policy with a huge waiting list. It made me so sad, especially looking on their website and seeing some of these cats are older and have been with their current owners since they were kittens. (Obviously not all of the cats will be being rehomed for this reason - our fella was part of a pair of brothers and was bullying the other one!)

I have to question why taking dog to small animal vet for an xray = 3-4 x price of horse vet visiting your horse with mobile xray, clearly pricing cartels going on with all the small vets being part of large groups .

Just got a quote for my Yorkie £600 for 12 months cover with an excess of £95 + 20% of the treatment. Really not worth it for a £800 - £1k estimated bill.

The op can't get insurance for a existing condition.

I'm in the same boat with my rescue.

I always wonder if it would be cheaper getting the bloods drawn somewhere and taking them to a lab myself but I doubt it would be and the vet would have to read the printout anyway.

Mine made me take my cat in as the other vet in the practice saw her the previous week and this other one wouldn't prescribe without seeing her this week.
Mate seriously, it's one week. Your colleague saw her. Don't you trust him?
She's got a uti.
My doctor doesn't see me when I have one of those infections it's an over the phone consult.
Just give me the meds and stop ripping me off for a stressful examination she doesn't need.

You talk about it being for her welfare.
Is it what.
It should be a case of sometimes it's for her welfare and that's fine, but sometimes it's not required after all and here's your script phone us next week if she's no better and we can do tests then...

No it's POM V-prescription only but not controlled ,it's usually one of the cheapest meds available at a vets so may not be worth buying on a written script as you may find the cost of the script is more expensive than the actual drug so in that case you may as well buy it direct from the vet.

The RCVS recently has changed the rules when it comes to prescribing antibiotics. So @Elieza that's why the other vet couldn't/wouldn't prescribe antibiotics for your cat as the RCVS has recently told us we HAVE to see a patient every time we wish to prescribe antibiotics or controlled drugs. We have as much control of this as you, unfortunatly, but if you don't follow the rules nothing happens, if a veterinary professional doesn't they may end up facing a disciplinary commitee and a suspension of their license. Given we, just as everyone else, primarily work to live you might understand why a vet may not wish to risk that to save you a consultation fee.

When it comes to 3 or 6 monthly checks, again this comes under the RCVS guidelines/rules that state that a veterinary surgeon needs to be confident about an animal's health status and accept that animal is "under their care" when prescribing meds for them. While there's no specific time frames given, it's genuinely accepted that for certain conditions this need to be at least 6 monthly, but conditions where medication may have more serious side/long term effects that may be not sufficient. Ultimately it's for every veterinary surgeon/practice to decide what they are comfortable with as the repercussions of something going wrong are faced by the individual veterinary professional.

Again, not saying you would go down that route, but say your cat developed a serious long term effect from her meds which was missed because your vet hadn't see your animal or offered any tests to check for years just kept prescribing. Then your cat develops a life long or life threatening issue. You go to the college and accuse said vet of negligence. The vet would then have to face a disciplinary commitee to explain why they continued prescribing meds despite not having tested/seen the animal for a long time. Even if it ended up in the vet's favour (and again the argument of trying to save the owner money wouldn't fly here as the oath we take states that our first and foremost obligation is towards our animal patients and their wellfare) can you imagine the stress and financial repurcussions (missed work days, possible suspension while RCVS looks into this etc) that would have? Not to mention the possible slating all over SM (which we aren't allowed to respond to to defend ourselves) of "this horrible vet gave my cats meds that killed him/her".

Lastly, most people working in the frontline of the veterinary industry have little to no say when it comes to charges. We dont' own the practices, we will likely never own the practices in future. We went in the industry because we care and we love animals and are just as stressed, frustrated and feel for the owners who have now elderly animals and face a completely different reality when it comes to vet fees than when they first got the animal. We get it, we have animals ourselves (it's not a coincidence most people who work at vets have their animals insured to the highest possible degree, even if they can do lots of the work themselves, because we know what a potential referral might cost us). Then online pharmacy are selling drugs at prices practices simply cannot compete with (I can buy my animals' flea treatment cheaper online with a prescription that buying it cost price at the practice I work at!). We work long hours, in a stressful job, with often difficult patients who try to hurt us (because they are nervous or in pain), minimal sick pay (most practices offer a few weeks up to a month's worth of sick pay, if that, when a serious bite can incapacitate you for months) and relatively low pay for the level of responsibility/stress/hours we work, with little to no prospects of ever owning a practice like in the past (where it kinda was expected you put in the time to then get a partnership). Then we also face an increasingly angry public who thinks we're just there to money grab and pressure from the higher ups to charge what we should for the work we do. It's an impossible situation to be in truly!

I'm sorry you feel annoyed/let down by your vets. I hope I explained a bit of what's happening and while likely too late now, please don't direct your anger to the people you see in the consult room/reception, often they are just as powerless as you.

And this, coupled with ooh (although that's less of an issue now that most vets have contracted that out) and very little support for women returning to the workforce is why I left the profession. Minimal job satisfaction, just a lot of headache.

@Morientes
Thank you for that info. You sound like a decent person. The type of person id want looking after my pet. Why don't you seriously consider starting your own practice?

I know that prob sounds like I don't have a clue what's involved and I must be barking mad, but seriously if it's that bad working for others' practices why not become a new practice called Ethical Vets or something. And run it how you see fit with sensible charges and policies that fit within legal guidelines and allow you to profit and pets to be treated well and help people to understand what the rules actually are because there are no signs to tell us it's the vet professional body making these rules so we just get annoyed as it seems like overkill and profiteering.

With regard to my situation, I thought vets could delegate the prescriptions to other vets to do, or do over the phone for an animal already "in their care"? But perhaps it's not antibiotics and that's for other meds? I don't understand why the professional body for vets seems to say no but the one for people patients says it's fine!

If my doctor that's not seen me in person in months can prescribe meds for my uti over the phone it seems strange that a vet can't do the same thing for an animal that's been at their practice three times in four weeks and been checked and weighed, and samples confirmed by the lab what the problem was.

In my case, the cat had a long standing uti confirmed by urine culture and the course of antibiotics she'd been taking was the best one according to that, just presumably not long enough course.

It just seems fairly obvious to me but then I don't have vet experience of what else it could potentially be or my registration riding on that guesstimate so perhaps I'm wrong. Id literally stake my cats life that I was right though.

For the same appointment fee my vet charges me for ten or fifteen minutes I could get 45 mins myself from my private physio or from my acupuncturist (both train for years the same as vets train for years and have peoples lives in their hands) or indeed get my horse's feet done (and the farrier comes to me). It just seems like a lot of money for a short visit. And I get that's not your fault and it's the business's fault, and should probably try and remember that, so thanks for the reminder.

We don't see the side of it you do. We just see the money draining rapidly from our wallets while worrying about how long it will take to cure our pets who are stressed at repeat visits we see no need for. Perhaps that's why there is some government (I think) investigation ongoing just now.

I would never take out my frustration on the reception staff. I am admin myself. I know how it feels to be shouted at and threatened. And wonder who knows where I live and if they might come after me as they are mental....

Re my cat, I did try and find out from my vet why she gave two rounds of anti inflammatory injections I didn't ask for when the cat had a confirmed uti from the previous charity vet (and the charity missed tablets as she was difficult to doze, so chances are it's recurred and I told them that) before starting antibiotics though. (She got jabbed and I thought it was the antibiotic I'd asked for but it actually wasn't)

But I didn't get a satisfactory explanation so gave up and moved vets. Things like that which I don't understand but don't get a good answer make me dubious about other things. Hence a move was best. And the new vet is good.

@Elieza thank you, I honestly do try (for example I often give consults for free, try and reduce costs of meds etc) to help where I can but we need to balance it with a. following the rules and b. keeping the higher ups happy.

Re why I don't open my own practice, simply because I wouldn't be able to cope with the admin/being boss side of things. I know my strengths and my personality and it wouldn't lend itself to being a manager of people. The stress would likely kill me and if not, drive me out of veterinary. I wanted to be a vet since I was a young kid, but I never wanted to own my own clinic, I want to go in, focus on making the animals well, help the owners as much as I can and that to be my sole focus, not whether I made enough to cover the electricity bill.

With regards to your situation I cannot comment on why they wouldn't prescribe the antibiotics given your history, especially with a culture and sensitivity available. I try and be sensible (if I have seen an animal 2 days ago with a problem and decided against giving antibiotics at the time I will not ask to see them again if 2 days later the owner calls and says there's now discharge/smell present, I might ask for a picture etc) but that is like I explained a personal choice and I'm willing (and hopefully able) to explain it to the regulatory body if it ever came to that. And I wouldn't expect a colleague to prescribe on my behalf (hence why I will usually write in my notes the dose and type of medication they can have if call in next few days, in case I'm not there, that way it's still me prescribing it, just a colleague putting it up). We also always try and explain why for example we have to see your dog for every single ear infection, even if we saw you 4 weeks ago for similar and try and make my clients understand why it's important to recheck an animal before we stop a treatment of antibiotics to make sure it has worked and the problem has cleared (often by offering the quick recheck appointment for free if it's just a quick check and confirmation all's now well). I probably am lucky, as my practice, while keeping an eye on charges won't come harshly down on me for doing this (I know of fellow vets who faced disciplinaries for similar).

You have to understand, the disciplinary body makes decisions not only based on the animals' and owners' best interest but also from a perspective of public health. It's no secret that antbiotics have been overprescribed in both human and animal medicine for years, leading to the issues of antibiotic resistance we often encounter now. Regulating how and when antibiotics are prescribed is so, so, so important to safeguard the future! And in this country we are lucky where we still have relative freedom as to which antibiotics we can prescribe, there's european countries where anything stronger than amoxycillin the vet is not allowed to prescribe without a culture first.

If you had got good insurance in the first place, her existing condition would your cats existing condition be covered? Ours is.

@Elieza also to quickly answer your "I don't understand why the professional body for vets seems to say no but the one for people patients says it's fine!" statement, putting my cynical hat on, I want to say it's because the NHS is struggling and simply doesn't have the resources/staff to see every single patient with a UTI/eye or ear infection etc in a timely fashion so had to delegate those to pharmacies or accept to prescribe without seeing, not because that is best practice but because that's the only way to help the other patients with more serious issues.