MRI for Dog

[AliceAnneB]

Our 9 year old dog is having small seizures. Our local vet recommended he be seen by the neurologist vet and have an MRI. We live in London and he sent us up to Luton to see the specialist. When we got there they told us it would be between £2500-3000 for the scan! Is this typical? He's a rescue that we got at age six and don't have insurance on. Is it worth looking other places or will it all be the same? Any help much appreciated.

I would say thats about what it would cost down here. Really you should have been given an estimate of how much it would cost before you got there!

Yes, scans are really expensive... It's because the technology costs so much.

But your vet should have warned you.

Argh this is really bad - the neurologist will also be annoyed with your vet because it's just courtesy to inform clients of likely costs before referring them.

Be honest with both vets about what you can afford, and ask what benefits the scan is likely to bring, and whether a presumptive diagnosis might be made without it. Often in a case like this, even though a definitive diagnosis isn't reached, the treatment options are very similar.

Do you mean you went for a consultation and then found out about price, or do you mean you actually turned up for the scan which then had to be cancelled? With the benefit of hindsight I can understand what Doris is saying above - our dog had an exploratory operation which then didn't produce conclusive results and we found out that the treatment options were, as Doris says, pretty much the same. If you don't have any insurance at all you need to get a couple of opinions on treatment options and pick something you can afford - I know its awful to have to think about money when your dog is ill.

Our local vet recommended an MRI and referred us to the Neurologist. They sent us instructions of when not to feed him etc. On the day of the scan we saw the neurologist who told us the price. He also said that for a 9 year old ridgeback the most likely outcome was a brain tumor. And if we then chose to operate on it it would be thousands more. In the end we went home with antiseizure meds and paid only the £250 consult fee. To be fair I should have asked about the price up front but our last dog had an MRI in the U.S. and it cost us 750 dollars! I just didn't expect thousands of pounds.