Is my vet charging reasonable fees?

[wishingitwasspring]

Over the bank holiday weekend our dog was very off colour and we were concerned so took her to our vet (open 7 days a week). It was a bank holiday and I didn't mind paying for her to be seen.

Examination and analgesia was around £150. Vet thought maybe she'd pulled her back and that was causing pain.. so long as she was ok I didn't mind about the cost particularly. They asked to see her again today.

She's much better. Quick check and off we go, another £40 lighter.

Now thankfully we can afford this, and she is insured. But is this reasonable? Shouldn't the requested review be part of the original fee?

My vet would class that as 1 episode of care, as does my insurance (from my experience). My dog had hurt his leg, needed scan, pain med etc. can't remember the cost but was told to come back a few days later. Wasn't charged again. When it was put through my insurance it was classed as 1 episode of care. Perhaps my vet added in the follow up consultation cost in the original cost though?

@Wickywoo1984

My vet would class that as 1 episode of care, as does my insurance (from my experience). My dog had hurt his leg, needed scan, pain med etc. can't remember the cost but was told to come back a few days later. Wasn't charged again. When it was put through my insurance it was classed as 1 episode of care. Perhaps my vet added in the follow up consultation cost in the original cost though?

I suspect they do.

But I think it feels...a bit more palatable to just be charged once, even if the overall cost ends up being the same, iswyim?

Bank holiday weekends and out of hours are always high - around the 150 - 200 price
Same as if you book a taxi or Uber on Christmas Day - bank holiday you pay double or more

I had my dog castrated recently with pets at home I have a monthly pay subscription with them for worming and fleeing and other stuff so the cost was £160 inc all after care
Pets are expensive my insurance for my dog cost more than my new X1 😂

Yes those fees seems pretty standard, cheap actually considering it was a bank holiday. Our local emergency clinic charges £150 just for consultation on bank holidays.
Follow up consultation fees are the norm unless it's for a post surgical check which is usually free.

I’m just glad we have a crossbred dog that is now 13 yrs old and hasn’t seen a vet for 12 of them. Others tell of horrendous bills for end of life treatment for dogs, ultrasound, long term drugs etc.

Cheap tbh. Ddog had three nights in a couple of years starting on Boxing Day £2.5k.

They could have just put the follow up charge on the initial consultation fee and you'd be none the wiser. It's still going to cost you the same.

I’m just glad we have a crossbred dog that is now 13 yrs old and hasn’t seen a vet for 12 of them. Others tell of horrendous bills for end of life treatment for dogs, ultrasound, long term drugs etc

Wow smug or what? Op's dog pulled a muscle, what's that got to do with breed?

@TheGoldenWolfFleece

They could have just put the follow up charge on the initial consultation fee and you'd be none the wiser. It's still going to cost you the same.

I think as PP said, it's not so much about the price.

It's just a bit more palatable (to me, anyway) if you're told: "A standard spay will cost £150 - that includes the operation, stitches, medication and a check up", rather than "The bill for your spay is £125 and Fluffy will need a check up in 7 days" and then you get another bill for £25 on top.

I just feel if a dog needs a standard operation like a spay, the cost you pay should include all necessary standard aftercare like a wound check and stitch removal.

Sounds right to me. I've just paid £150 for an out of hours appt (suspected cruciate damage) and another £350 for xrays and medication. The month before she had mast cell tumours removed at a cost of 900 quid...there were 2 free follow ups with that, but the third one (when she pulled a stitch) was chargeable, but at a lower rate then if it was a new condition. They are a business and the vets have had a lot of training and expertise which you pay for. Plus animals are very expensive (or maybe it's just mine 😆). Thank goodness for insurance....

Hope your pet is feeling better now, even if your wallet isn't!

I paid 1000 for a 12 hour stay recently at OOH vets

It really depends at mine what it is.

For an op there is typically no follow up fee for a check up afterwards. And I am always pleasantly surprised at that.

But anything else then yes I would expect and have had a fee.

I am not sure why you would expect no follow up fee because it is one condition. Conditions can require many checkups and follow on treatments.

Very cheap for a BH at our vets OOH is £200 before they even look at the animal .

That doesn't sound excessive to me for a bank holiday/OOH. At my place you would normally be charged for follow up appointments, unless they were routine post operative checks, such as stitches out.

Seem reasonable for out of hours consult and medication.

Our vets do tend to include a follow up consult with operations or dentals within the main fee, sometimes it's a nurse check rather than vet. For an ongoing condition after the 1st consult there's a reduced fee on further related consults. My vets often do various things over and above what they actually charge for.

@TheGoldenWolfFleece

I’m just glad we have a crossbred dog that is now 13 yrs old and hasn’t seen a vet for 12 of them. Others tell of horrendous bills for end of life treatment for dogs, ultrasound, long term drugs etc

Wow smug or what? Op's dog pulled a muscle, what's that got to do with breed?

Yea very smug?. We were given her as a puppy too. She’s healthy because we exercise her properly, worm her twice a year and don’t overfeed. Over feeding is the prime cause of ill health, next is probably genetic faults in pedigree dogs, which is why a mongrel terrier was our choice

OP you are not taking into account that your dog was initially seen on a Bank Holiday weekend. Most vets run emergency/OOH on a BH, therefore you would have had staff (vet, RVN and possibly receptionist) working 'unsociable' hours, and therefore (hopefully), being paid more for giving their holiday up.

And I'd just like to thank all the supportive posters on this thread! As a RVN who frequently hears from people that vets are 'money-grabbing bastards', it's a very pleasant change to see there are supportive and understanding pet owners out there! to all of you.

Op, hope your doggy is feeling better now.

@HellsAngel81

OP you are not taking into account that your dog was initially seen on a Bank Holiday weekend. Most vets run emergency/OOH on a BH, therefore you would have had staff (vet, RVN and possibly receptionist) working 'unsociable' hours, and therefore (hopefully), being paid more for giving their holiday up.

And I'd just like to thank all the supportive posters on this thread! As a RVN who frequently hears from people that vets are 'money-grabbing bastards', it's a very pleasant change to see there are supportive and understanding pet owners out there! to all of you.

Op, hope your doggy is feeling better now.

I've said numerous times on this thread I have no issue at all with the cost.

To explain a little better perhaps... if I wasn't in a position to be able to pay these charges, or not a medical professional myself, next time I may not return for a check. I do appreciate their expertise, understand they may want to rule out a differential diagnosis. Someone else might think 'oh they're fine, I'm not paying them any more'.

My point is they should charge for an episode of care, in this case they felt a professional review was needed. I'm not arguing with that. I'm saying they should have included it in the initial fee. A much clearer plan and everyone's expectations the same.

@Crazykatie I have a mongrel thats cost me a fortune over the past 12 years and has been on long term meds for most of his life since he was about 2 years old.
He’s not overweight or over medicated either.

My pedigrees though are in fantastic health.

Im just unlucky!!

@HellsAngel81

OP you are not taking into account that your dog was initially seen on a Bank Holiday weekend. Most vets run emergency/OOH on a BH, therefore you would have had staff (vet, RVN and possibly receptionist) working 'unsociable' hours, and therefore (hopefully), being paid more for giving their holiday up.

And I'd just like to thank all the supportive posters on this thread! As a RVN who frequently hears from people that vets are 'money-grabbing bastards', it's a very pleasant change to see there are supportive and understanding pet owners out there! to all of you.

Op, hope your doggy is feeling better now.

I moan all the time about the cost, but know I'm being unreasonable about doing so! I think pet owners would all be far more understanding if we didn't have the NHS - which insulates us from the cost of medicines/treatments/diagnostics.

I for one am extremely grateful that the staff at our vets, from the receptionists to the RVNs to the vets themselves, are all fantastic and have been 'happy' to be at the surgery at 3am in an emergency before now. I just wish I didn't have to see them so often 😉🤣

@Panicmode1 heck, I'm a vet and moan about the costs of my dogs 🤣 insurance premiums are crazy right now, but I know that's the cost of having pets (either that or be prepared to pay hundreds/thousands for treatment). Many things I can do myself but I can't fix a broken leg or have access to a CT scan and am able to interpret it.

I know a lot of RVNs and vets who don't own pets because they either can't afford them or don't feel they have the time for them when working the unsociable hours they do.

It's lovely to hear how much you appreciate your veterinary staff 🥰

@wishingitwasspring the only way that would work is if at the end of the initial consult they added the follow up consult on to the overall charge. Most people wouldn't be happy with that, or would cancel or not show to the appointment and need to be refunded. The alternative is to increase the initial consult fee to allow the follow up appointment to be uncharged but that won't be fair on those who don't need a follow up. Plus, what if more meds were needed and another consult booked, that would need to be charged for and then the client would (understandably) wonder why they are getting charged for the third consult when it's still "one episode of care". It would never end.

Anyway you still don't agree with the charges despite them being explained so I don't know what the point of the post was really.

My vet also doesn't charge for follow ups BUT I have no idea how much the initial charge would have been - presumably that money is being charged somewhere so that the books balance.

I almost went into veterinary medicine when I was younger - had the grades for it. Not for the first time I am glad I didn't. It looks like such a hard job for little thanks and lots of criticism over costs (not saying that specifically about you, OP).

High suicide rates, low salaries compared to similarly educated jobs in other industries, long hours, high expectations and emotionally must be very difficult.

I'm just glad some people are able to do it and are willing to. Thank you all vet surgeons and vet nurses.

@Crazykatie,

I’m sure lots of/most people on here exercise, worm and feed their dogs properly and plenty of us have mongrels/crossbreeds. Sadly that doesn’t guarantee a life free of needing veterinary care. I have had a pedigree dog that barely saw a vet in her 14 1/2 years and a rescue mongrel (from a pup) that was unlucky enough to be very poorly as a pup and then go on to develop a life-threatening condition that cost us tens of thousands of pounds in veterinary care and eventually killed him at the age of 7. My current mongrel (Lurcher) was the same as yours at 13 years old, but he is now over 16 and needs a lot of support, veterinary input and medication. Then there are dogs that are unfortunate enough to end up with an injury, there’s no way to predict the veterinary costs associated with that. To a certain extent it’s luck of the draw. You can do absolutely everything right and still end up spending a fortune on vet fees.

OP our vet’s charges are similar to yours. Follow up appointments after surgery are included in the initial cost, but those after illness/injury are charged at a slightly lower rate than a standard consultation. I thought this was the norm. If I saw a private GP and needed to go back to make sure I was actually better after treatment I would expect to pay a second consultation fee and this is no different.

As for the out of hours costs, I am so grateful that our vets remain independent and still do their own out of hours care, rather than signing up to a certain dedicated out of hours veterinary service that so many are these days, which charge extortionate rates just for the dog to be seen, let alone assessed and treated. The vet nurses and on call vets are absolute angels and I will always be grateful to them for being there when we have needed them most. The vet nurse that spoke to be at gone midnight when I thought my dog wasn’t going to make it through the night deserves a medal for her calm, compassionate reassurance. I couldn’t do what they do - nor would I want to considering the ‘relatively’ low salary, long hours, stress and extensive/extortionate training and professional development. Veterinary work is hard enough, but I would imagine the cases they see in the middle of the night or on bank holidays are probably some of the worst, as they are the ones that are very ill or badly injured and can’t wait until the surgery is open.

The costs at the large franchise vets we are seeing taking over areas of the UK now are astronomical compared to most independents, but it’s getting harder and harder for independents to compete and not get squeezed out, as they don’t have the economy of scale when it comes to purchasing expensive equipment and running in-house labs etc.

I think the main reason independents are fizzling out is because the owners, who are looking at their retirement, are being offered a LOT of money to sell up by big corporates. I don't blame them, it's just a shame for 2 reasons:

1. There's now less incentive for veterinary associates to put in the long unsociable hours and unpaid overtime as there's no prospect of partnership at the end, which would traditionally happen pre-corporatisation

2. It's ironic because when the corporates raise their fees and outsource out of hours the clients aren't (understandably) happy and say "Mr Humphrey never charged xyz and did his own OOHs", yet Mr Humphrey was the one who looked at his retirement and took the £££ option over passing it on to his associates for less.

Things have definitely changed in the veterinary profession, over the last decade especially. It's very difficult for the ground level staff as they are the ones being paid the least but being targeted and verbally abused daily for the charging which they have zero control over :(

Though, I do need to say corporates aren't all that bad. In the past 5 years I've seen the introduction of enhanced maternity pay, something that I've never seen given by independents and was a rarity when I first had my DC 5 years ago. Staff often have a larger CPD budget allowance to enhance their knowledge, and country wide training can be arranged. This comes at a cost to the client, but if vets and nurses continue being absolutely run down by the job they are doing with no benefits and job satisfaction there won't be any vets open to see pets for any amount of money...