Vets Emergency cost - AIBU

[Aretheyhavingalaugh]

I had to take my cat to the Vet yesterday as he wasn't going to the toilet or eating and then started vomiting. I called them for an emergency appointment which they said would cost £102 just to be seen, obviously its extortion, but I took him. When they saw him, they said he had a blocked bladder and without immediate treatment would die, they said this is a life threatening condition. The £102 consultation consisted of a few questions and the vet feeling his abdomen, they prepared an estimate which was £1824 to do the procedure, blood tests and scans. I told them I simply could not afford it. Upon looking at the estimate, they were charging £57 to admit him to the hospital ( take him upstairs) £40 for a bandage! £323 accommodation costs to keep him until 8am this morning ( more expensive than a hotel room in Mayfair) 1 specific kidney blood test was £170, bearing in mind, a human can get a full blood test for £95 privately. I told them I could not afford it and would have to take the cat elsewhere that was cheaper. They then managed to decrease the cost from £1824 to £863, taking off the blood tests, scans, making the accommodation slightly cheaper. It was still way too expensive, but if I didn't pay it, the cat would have died. I felt like they emotionally blackmailed me. When I got the very same cat neutered, it cost £65 which included the procedure, all the accommodation costs which was staying there the whole day, medication etc so how can they get away with charging this extortionate amount and basically holding me to ransom? By the way, the £102 consultation fee is on top of the £1800 they first quoted!

We paid £140 recently for an emergency appointment and some medicine for our cat.

We made a decision not to renew his insurance a few years ago, it was going up and up and up due to his age. But we know that we have the money needed if he needs to visit the vet. When he was younger he was insured.

Vers don't get paid much at all, the costs of running a surgery are huge.

It's not more expensive for a cat than a human, you just don't see the costs that go into our medical care because it's free at the point of access. Some of the drugs we use in theatre every day cost hundreds of pounds a dose. You just don't know about it.

Vets are not ripping you off. Hope your cat is feeling better.

Vets will generally quote for the best practice way of treating something, but because they care about animal welfare will tend to be more willing to cut corners (pre anaesthetic bloods, scans) to get the animal treated.

For what it's worth even with staff discounts and DH's ability to treat stuff himself, our dog was insured from his arrival as a puppy until he got to an age and physical state where he'd not be getting any major operations on quality of life grounds rather than cost.

Insurance should be the first thing any pet owner gets. The law of sod will say that if you don’t then you will be unlucky enough to have a poorly animal which will run up a large bill.

All the pets we have had have been insured at pick up. One was uninsurable. A broken rescue. The vet bills over the years ran to tens of thousands. I knew it was a possibility at adoption so no gripe from me. It is part and parcel of ownership and that dog was worth every penny.

Out of hours/emergency appointments are more expensive for a myriad of reasons. Highly qualified staff willing to see (and quite likely save) a much loved animal at any hour doesn’t come cheap. And for me, it is so worth it.

Of course it is more expensive for a cat to have a blood test than a human.

Firstly, it's a lot harder to take blood from a cat. Secondly the vet is having to do all the processing of the tests themselves - with humans they are done by giant labs so there are economies of scale. And finally you are also paying for the vet interpreting the blood test result which involves years of training.

Had a vet out to my horse recently for routine jabs. Vet is an old friend of DS and he was visiting so they were chatting. She was saying even being a vet doesn't save her a huge amount on her own horses treatment as it's the drugs, dressings and lab tests that cost the big money, not the gets time.

That's £1800 for a life saving treatment?

I agree that vet practice costs are high. However I was told the reason that vet fees had risen so much in recent years was because vet practices had become a favourite of Venture capitalists who had realised they were a pot of gold ready to be mined.

So a lot of vet owned practices have been sold to venture capitalists who then employ the vets and make sure the practice runs at maximum efficiency and profitability. This is also the reason pet insurance has risen so much.

I suppose one could argue that a vet running their own business was never going to be all about the money, and maybe we as pet owners benefitted from that? Also I guess why shouldnt a vet practice be managed as an efficient corporation like Mac Donald’s?

Can anyone tell me if what I was told is true.?

@Aretheyhavingalaugh your experience goes to show you should always question whenever a service seems too expensive, whether it’s insurance, tradespeople or indeed vets.

My vets charged me nearly £1,000 when my cat was poorly. Problem they never mentioned the cost until afterwards and did treatment I hadn’t authorised. I first took my cat in on a Tuesday and asked if antibiotics would help. No but lots of tests and £1000 later he was no better. I took him as a last resort to the vet at the practice I usually saw. He gave a dose of antibiotics and rehydration, mentioned that what he was doing was deemed very old fashioned. Can’t remember what it cost but it was a fraction. The cat recovered and I just wished they had given him antibiotics at the beginning.

Taking your pet to the vet is no longer I trust you to please make her/him better.

Sorry you are worried about your cat and hope everything will be ok.

Medical treatment is always expensive, be for pets or people. Anyone who owns pets should pay insurance or be prepared to potentially pay thousands. Unfortunately just the way it works. My cat needed a £3000+ surgery recently and had no issues with insurance covering it, our excess is only £100.

That sounds fairly reasonable. Especially as it's out of hours. As a PP said. Because of the NHS, we don't appreciate how much things actually cost. Get him insured ASAP!

@sleepymum50 It's true that ven caps have increased profitability at the cost of vet salaries and increased prices, however veterinary medicine is a lot more kit heavy than it used to be. There's an expectation (from clients) that a small animal hospital will have a CT Scanner and MRI rather than just a basic x-ray, plus there are more different drugs to buy than even 20 years ago.

I've had £22k worth of claims. All covered by insurance. It's worth it for the peace of mind

Its a private business with all the associated costs. A bit like the American health system where you pay for each glove and swab and apron.

Those extra tests that they didn't do will be for your cats benefit. Some cats have minor heart mummers that don't affect them day to day but they can die on the operating table from it. They will be able to see if there are infection markers from the blood tests which could explain the blockage so they know what medication to give after the operation. It all adds to the diagnostic picture. They pared it right down to basics, not what was needed. Get insurance.

I think you make a good point, annoys me when my vet quotes and I say oh no we are paying privately, quote is instantly reduced.

I'd take your cat elsewhere and state you don't have insurance up front.

Just don't have a cat then, he deserves to be owned by someone who will at the very least insure him. Vets are not free, they have to pay staff, bills, wholesalers and they carry a huge amount of debt from people that don't pay. They don't charge enough because they are scared to, they get so much abuse from customers and they end up leaving the profession (or killing themselves) sick to death of the vet bashing, it's not acceptable

Our cat was poorly on New Year's Day 2021 - not eating and vomiting/lethargic. We took him to the emergency vet and the initial appointment was £300! They had a look at him and sent him home with medicine. But he made no improvement so he had to be admitted overnight for further tests and investigations. Eventually they found he had swallowed a whole almond and it had blocked his intestines. The vet called me at 3am in the morning saying she would need to operate or he would probably die and the cost was likely to be around £2k. It was quite a shock but they sent a whole invoice of all the treatments he had. The final bill was £3.3k.
After that we insured him for £20 a month with petplan. Sadly less than a year later he had another episode and had to be pts. I was so relieved that I had the insurance as that was another £2k which would be even harder to pay after losing your pet.

Up until last week I worked as a receptionist at a small animal veterinary referral hospital. This sounds like a conservative figure to treat a blocked cat. Some first opinion practices are not experienced enough to offer treatment so emergency referrals are made to hospitals and the cost would be more than your quote.

Saying that unblocking a cat is a ‘tiny procedure’ minimises the skilled work done by veterinary staff. £300 would just about get you a first consultation at a referral hospital.

It's exactly what it cost for my cat to have the same procedure last week.

If you've not got insurance just fyi they won't cover cystitis /blocked bladder now as it'll be classed a pre existing condition.

You have my sympathies, we are struggling for money and it was such bad timing

Just to add though - although bad timing it was a life saving procedure. Blocked cat can be fatal. They saved my boy's life and I'm so grateful to them

I think you are missing the point. It isn't more expensive for the cat. It would cost even more for the test on a human - if you paid for it. Hip replacement on the NHS - free (although you do pay through taxes); private hip replacement averaging £14,000 in this area. Cataract treatment on the NHS - free; Private, from £2,000 - over £4,000 per eye. You knew - or really should have known, because it's hardly a state secret - that pet care is expensive, and you chose not to have insurance. That is on you and not on the vet. You didn't actually activate the vote, so you are being very, very, very unreasonable.

I had also not thought about it until this thread but a vet probably has to do more tests on an animal than a doctor would for a human purely because the doctor can ask a question to the patient where their answer may confirm or rule out a problem.

Sounds like a piss take my cat had a leg amputation which cost £700 then bladder issues which cost £200 , his tail got trapped in the door he had an x-ray and op cost £400 .most recent troubles he had a mouth ulcer biopsy antibiotics and steroids he had to go under twice that cost £600.Think they might be taking the piss. My vet bills for all of that is under 2k.

A quick look at the price list of a local private hospital (not London or any city centre) shows just how much we don't pay for treatment for humans in the UK

CT scan - from £500
Echocardiogram - from £315
Epidural injection - from £1850
Gastroscopy/endoscopy - from £1700
Laparoscopy (diagnostic only, no treatment) - from £2880
Ultrasound - from £235
X-ray - from £130

All the above are "just" diagnostic tests, not any actual treatments for the conditions they may find. I reckon in tests alone just over the last couple of years for 2 common conditions I have at these prices would have cost in the region of £4k, and treatment for one alone about £8k

I have paid for him to have the procedure, he's now home and doing well. If an owner didnt care, they wouldnt pay it BUT I just was completely taken aback by the cost & yes I have also insured him now. They called me at 7:50 this morning staying that they'd like to keep him to observe him for another day at the cost of a further £200! I declined and said it was too expensive to which they said I'd need to get him before 8:30 to avoid the charge, very caring indeed. As it happens he's been absolutely fine at home and appears to be making a speedy recovery.