Monthly vet appts for kittens - is this a thing now?

[Castleking]

Hi all
We recently got a kitten, and took her for her 2nd vaccination appointment yesterday. The vet suggested we make an appt for a months time, as they like to give kittens a monthly health check. Is this standard now?

We last had cats about 15 years ago, and only ever took them to the vets for vaccinations or if they were sick.

Anyone else with a kitten who is taking the
To the vets for a monthly health check?

Once you're nice local vet goes corporate it's pound signs all the way and I work in this field.

Every cat that comes in, the owners are informed the cat needs a dental and the estimates are woefully inadequate.

I've had cats all my ife. Mine get vaccinated and neutered/spayed and microchipped that's their lot. I've had mixed breeds and pedigrees, in my experience there's not much difference, never heard of a monthly check for kittens but they do push the pet health club.

*your

My vets did this but they didn’t charge each time. It was included in the price of neutering and micro chipping. I found it quite useful tbh. Annual vax and health check is £52 for reference.

@Anotherhill Yep both male

The vet convinced me that the more expensive was safer hence I paid it but let’s face it how many cats are neutered perfectly safely without all the optional extras? If wasn’t safe without them they wouldn’t be optional surely?

I also think it’s really wrong to advertise neutering at x amount and then say but we won’t do it without a pre-op and it’s unsafe without x y and z. Advertise the total price up front!

I'm glad your vet has time for monthly kitten checks!! However we often see puppies and kittens monthly just so they can be weighed to get the appropriate parasite treatment. Many owners opt to weigh at home and update with weight when they collect their flea and worm medication.

I agree with the PP above who says the corporate takeover of the veterinary industry has made it sll about the money.

I have seen prices rocket and standards of care plummet because staff are stretched beyond capacity. But please please please stop blaming the vets and nurses who work for ridiculously low wages, stupid hours with increasing pressure.

I became a veterinary nurse later in life because I obviously care deeply for animal welfare and I live veterinary medicine. I could earn more money behind the supermarket checkout. I'm not even joking. I work late regularly and I don't get paid for this time, neither do my vet colleagues, we do it because we care. The corporates that we work for however are only interested in KPIs snd budgets "it's a business LEM" whenever I question this.

I'm leaving my job for this reason and going to another practice, I'm not niave enough to think that culture will not pervade in my new job so I'm giving it six months before I join the many more who have left the profession which is quite frankly on its knees. It's no coincidence that most vets are now corporate owned. Independent practices cannot compete.

But no, your vets and nurses are not in it for the money. 35k for a vet five years qualified with an average 80k student debt. And they wonder why they can't recruit.

Vet bashing again... Vets are under staffed, under paid and massively struggling, they are so busy they are struggling to fit routine appointments in, monthly appointments will be weight checks for wormers I imagine. All vets are going corporate because they can't afford to stay independent. There is also a massive shortage of cat vaccines, I really feel for vets, vet nurses and receptionists, they get so much abuse

Just to add, it was a vet nurse that did the kitten checks and they’re a local independent family owned group.

My cats are indoors so have never even been vaccinated. They all saw the vet to be neutered and that was it.

One has been in for antibiotics after an eye infection (his kitty sister smacked him in the face ) and the other for cystitis which was cleared up with antibiotics and a twice daily dose of cystease off Amazon.

There is absolutely no need for monthly check ups, or even annual ones unless your cats go out.

I am not being goady, i am genuinely interested, if vets are very busy, and their services are not cheap, why are they not making a really good living? I am in Ireland and the vets around me are independent as far as i know, one is a long standing family practise, the other is newly opened, but possibly its only a matter of time before they go down the corporate route.

Mine goes every 12 weeks but that's for steroid injections and claw clipping
He's also good at the dramatic and strange illnesses so we are there far too much

@Deadringer

I am not being goady, i am genuinely interested, if vets are very busy, and their services are not cheap, why are they not making a really good living? I am in Ireland and the vets around me are independent as far as i know, one is a long standing family practise, the other is newly opened, but possibly its only a matter of time before they go down the corporate route.

What happens to the bill you pay? So 20% disappears as VAT, around 4% is profit 19% building and equipment costs, 19% drug costs, 19% nurse and receptionist costs and 19% vet costs. As I said average salary is £42 there are lots and lots of women working part time with small children and a very few people earning more. I took 4 months maternity leave to not damage my career ( this is a massive issue) and now work a 45 hour week compare me to my neighbour we are exactly the same age and she is an accountant who took two year long maternity leaves ( this shouldn't count but it does). She earns over double what I actually have a slightly higher level of qualification with a post grad. Vets are comfortably off, but we are bright people with high level qualifications if we wanted to make money we would have done something else. We are vets because we love the role. However, the tide is turning vets are fed up with being abused about money and not earning anywhere close to what people believe they do - I believe this coming period of inflation will see prices be pushed up to cover big increases in salary that are needed to retain people in the profession in the current massive recruitment crisis.

I've always got flea treatment from the vets, and they require visits every year, mainly to check whether the cat's weight has changed. It caused real problems in lockdown when they were only dealing with emergencies, I ran out of flea treatment, and they wouldn't prescribe any more, because I wasn't allowed to bring the cat in.

@Snailhaterz2

I've always got flea treatment from the vets, and they require visits every year, mainly to check whether the cat's weight has changed. It caused real problems in lockdown when they were only dealing with emergencies, I ran out of flea treatment, and they wouldn't prescribe any more, because I wasn't allowed to bring the cat in.

In this situation it was allowed to do a telephone consult to continue prescribing I did literally hundreds of these. This has now ended.

@Chunkymenrock

Fgs, when does the vet bashing ever stop? OP, ex vet nurse here. Usually there are 2 more checks, each a month apart after the 2nd vaccine, to weigh the growing kitten and give the next flea and worm treatment, which are important. It's impossible to take everything in at the vaccine appointments and these weight checks are an opportunity to check growth, chat through nutrition, imminent neutering, behavioural worries etc. They will usually have been paid for as part of the initial kitten package and often done by a qualified nurse. After neutering, the next visit is then likely to be the first booster a year after the 2nd kitten vaccine, and then annual visits for boosters as the kitten will be fully grown by then.

This^ I worked at a vets (reception manager) 10 years ago, we offered monthly weight checks with a qualified nurse to prescribe the right dose of flea and worm treatment. The appointments were free at that practice, you just paid for the flea and worm treatment. It was also a great opportunity to discuss things like neutering, behaviour, etc.

Vets and dentists both massively take the piss money-wise.

Daylight robbery.

Hmm, I too have been scalped at the vet a couple of times and have been offered unnecessary and pricey treatments.

To this punter it appears profit is often the motivating factor rather than pet welfare.

Sorry to those on this thread working in veterinary medicine who feel to is is harsh…I think that needs to be taken up with your employer. Someone is pocketing the profits from the eye watering prices customers have to pay….

@FortunesFavour

Hmm, I too have been scalped at the vet a couple of times and have been offered unnecessary and pricey treatments.

To this punter it appears profit is often the motivating factor rather than pet welfare.

Sorry to those on this thread working in veterinary medicine who feel to is is harsh…I think that needs to be taken up with your employer. Someone is pocketing the profits from the eye watering prices customers have to pay….

Honestly the individual surgeries make 4%. So you turn over 1.5M profit 60K. Yes if you then own 3,000 surgeries than is a big profit, but individual surgeries don't make a lot compared to other industries. On you £45 consult if the surgery made no profit the consult would be £1.50 cheaper.

I'm curious as to why there's such a huge difference in price when it comes to different surgeries.

A consultation at our local surgery is only £26, whereas our old practise charged over £40 for exactly the same thing. I think that's what annoys people - they don't like getting charged almost double compared to what other people pay, iyswim.

I had an OOH appointment for my cat a few weeks ago. It was a Sunday evening appointment. They saw me within half an hour of me ringing the practise, gave me antibiotics and painkillers, and did a urine test - all for only £120, but I see people on here getting charged £300+ for OOH appointments...

Of course different practises have different levels of overheads and different costs, but I can see why some people get a bit pissed off. Whether that's rational (or not) is another matter.

@Ameanstreakamilewide

Vets and dentists both massively take the piss money-wise.

Daylight robbery.

This attitude is what happens when you have the NHS and most people not paying for medical care at point of service - they have no idea what it actually costs to give medical care.

Added to that many of the smaller vet practices can't bulk buy medications to get a cheaper cost price like the NHS can, so have to pay full price and therefore have to charge full price for them to the customer.

I work in a vet clinic, and the attitude of some people is horrible - if you love animals so much why don't you do this for free . Eh, would you like to work for free? How about the vet has to pay for overheads, insurance, business rates, staff costs etc.

Honestly it's shitty comments like those on this thread that is causing vets and nurses to leave the profession in their droves. I hope you'll all be proud of yourself when your can longer get medical care for your pets.
You think prices are high now then you're all in for a shock. The profession is in crises, practices closing all over the place. You won't get registered with a vet within 20 miles of me because there is NO staff so practices are relying on locums who are also in short supply and can charge double what an employed vet or nurse gets paid.
Emegency clinics likely closing too, I get begging emails every day asking me to cover shifts, no thank you, I am done, shit pay and abusive pet owners.

CreepingDeath - what is the mark-up on medications charged to the customer against price paid to the manufacturer at your practice?

It’s not the individual vets and nurses fault, they are working hard and anybody taking their frustrations out on staff is out of order.

However there are certainly questions to be asked about the business models of the vets practices and the profits that these companies are squeezing from customers, particularly the large corporates.

I’ve never heard of monthly kitten checks.
There is nothing wrong with a £40 consult. You are contributing to the salaries of professionals, upkeep of the premises and equipment, business taxes, insurances etc.
No-one is compelled to buy flea and worm treatment on prescription from their vet.

Thanks for all the responses, very interesting to hear other people’s experiences.

To clarify re my original question, the monthly appointments I was asked to make were not free - I called & checked & ultimately cancelled next month’s appt. I was told on the phone that the appt was to prescribe the correct dose for next month’s flea & worming treatment & that her current dose was correct up to her being 4kgs - as she is only 1.7kgs now she will not be over 4kgs by the end of Nov so I don’t think she needs to be weighed for that reason. This reason was not mentioned at the appt btw & I think the ambiguity over the reason for the appt does not help the customer to decide whether or not the appt is needed.

Sorry to hear that some posters are upset & feel that this thread is overly critical of vets. I started this thread as I was genuinely curious as to whether monthly kitten health checks are now the norm (which apparently they are not). I am not trying to offend anyone & I am certainly not vet bashing or being abusive - it’s OK to ask for clarification about what you are paying for & to ask for others opinions when in doubt.

(My cat is an indoor cat btw & the vet is aware - she is vaccinated & worm & flea treated as a precaution but I do not want to make unnecessary visits to the vet & will weigh her at home if necessary).

Well it's certainly not necessary but the wellness plans can be good value in the first year covering vax and flea/wormer and presumably the monthly checks are included in that?
Sounds like your vets has been bought over by a large chain company.