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!

Well, as they say, you can't argue with stupid. I''m out too. I actually think OP is on a wind up.

Where do you think cats come from? People breed them.

Yes of course they should charge and course you are responsible for your own animals however my argument is a reasonable price, that's all.

Attitudes like yours are a significant contributor?

Please explain, I paid the costs, I didn't tell them anything apart from that it was too expensive, I wasn't rude, disrespectful or abusive so please do tell me how I'm a contributor to suicide in veterians?

Agreed, we don't see the cost of seeing a doctor here in the UK, however, for the £102 appointment they touched the cats abdomen and felt the bladder was full and asked me the symptoms, it took about 2 minutes maximum. Who gets £102 for 2 minutes work, do you? That's an hourly rate of £3060!! I don't think it should be free but £50 seems fair, maybe a bit more if it was out of hours.

OP you have done the right thing you got your cats neutered in the end and paid for the treatment. So let's stop the bashing , I would look at getting your cats insured with manypets they do a pre existing policy they only need 3 months clear of veterinary treatment for 1.5k of cover which resets after 2 years of no treatment to 7k. It's 7k for everything else not pre-existing. I would change your vet to an independent one look at reviews it might be worth travelling further.

You also need to change your pets food if you feed dry change them to urinary care vetuk do a cheaper one I bought 8kg for £42 including delivery it comes in 2kg bags. You will want to order more as delivery is 4.99 .My DCat has had no problems with his waterworks since I changed him over. So I've saved money on vet trips and bills changing the food. I feed mixed wet and urinary care dry.

If I didn't value my cats life, I wouldn't have paid for the treatment but I can see when I am being emotionally manipulated

I genuinely don't understand such indignation from someone who, very obviously, has little understanding of the vet world.

What gives you such confidence that you can criticise their prices when you have zero idea what their overheads are?

The £102 for a "quick feel" ?
Are you for real OP?

Surely you appreciate the money is for the expertise and knowledge. Your cat was presenting with a life threatening emergency that an experienced vet could diagnose quickly and thus start treatment right away.

Would you rather they gave your cat a 90 minute MOT while they slowly died? Is that money's worth?

Of course the consult was quick when it was a life or death matter. This doesn't make the consult any less valuable.

And your "hourly rate" is a moot point. The vet isn't seeing 30 cats an hour, are are?

And the "Mayfair Hotel prices"? You're paying for the regular nurse and vet checks when you pay for hospitalisation (often hourly checks in critically ill patients) as well as use of equipment like fluid drips and medicine pumps. Staff need to be paid and they should be paid fair prices for over night work.

The final cost could be lowered from the original estimate because the vet could no longer provide the gold standard of care when it wasn't affordable to you. If you didn't want things like blood test and scans, that's fair enough, but the vet has to offer them because it's in your cat's best interests. There's no great conspiracy, believe me.

Agreed, we don't see the cost of seeing a doctor here in the UK, however, for the £102 appointment they touched the cats abdomen and felt the bladder was full and asked me the symptoms, it took about 2 minutes maximum. Who gets £102 for 2 minutes work, do you? That's an hourly rate of £3060!! I don't think it should be free but £50 seems fair, maybe a bit more if it was out of hours.

I think you're on the wind up now tbh.

The £102 doesn't just go straight into the vets pocket. It goes on overheads, electricity, heating, staffing, the receptionist who answers the phone, the cleaner, the staff working overtime on weekends or who are on call at 2am. It covers insurance, equipment, plumbing costs, water, computers, phone lines, education, training....

The problem is, there are tens of thousands of kittens born every year already, most of whom are born to either strays or pet cats who's owner hasn't got them neutered. There is already a surplus of moggies, we really don't need any more.

Breeding pedigree cats is a different matter. But in those cases, the majority of breeders will very carefully select which parents to match to get the best kittens - NOT just let an un-neutered queen get picked up by whatever local tom (more often multiple toms) with who knows what problems & temperaments, chase and catch her.

The only way to ensure an un-neutered queen doesn't get pregnant to some random tom is to keep her indoors full time depite her best efforts to get out, the yelling from her, the house being under siege from every tom in a 5 mile radius.

It goes on overheads, electricity, heating, staffing, the receptionist who answers the phone, the cleaner, the staff working overtime on weekends or who are on call at 2am. It covers insurance, equipment, plumbing costs, water, computers, phone lines, education, training....

You missed mortgage/rental of the building, business rates, locum cover for holidays & illness, HR, accountancy & payroll, vast amounts of cleaning products...

So according to you we should all pay whatever we deem 'fair' when paying for a service we have absolutely no knowledge of. My car just cost me £395. As far as I could see the guy just plugged a computer into it which diagnosed the problem and the part was already in store. Do you think I had the nerve to tell them they were too expensive when I paid? No. Because I have absolutely no knowledge of cars. You're being absolutely ridiculous and I hope the vet turns you away next time you turn up at their door needing emergency assistance.

Yep, and taxes, staff pensions, cat food...

Mechanics are definitely a racket

I recently paid £80 for check up blood tests on my cat, to make sure her thyroid and kidney meds are works correctly. We were in and out within 10 minutes, which I thought was great as to not stress my cat out. Sure it sounds expensive on first look but not for the level of expertise, overheads etc. I don't expect people to work for nothing! We also have insurance so I only pay 20% Co pay and they paid me the rest (she's 11 and I think most elderly cats have a Co pay clause). I couldn't imagine forgetting to buy insurance

Its the cost of bedding, heating and looking after by a vet nurse.

Lol @Aretheyhavingalaugh ... now I know you're taking the piss 🤪🤪 Enjoy your Sunday!

The price of drugs is staggering, I went to have my pneumonia and shingles vaccines at my dr, mentioned to the nurse that I had looked up the price of one of them online ( I think it was the shingles) and it was about £90, she laughed and said they had to order in a vaccine for a patient who had a particular allergy and it was over £300. It is only when you have to pay , and for most people that means when they take an animal for treatment, that you become aware of it.

This is so true. We don't realise the price of drugs in the NHS because we don't pay for them. My dh has an injection monthly to control his severe asthma which without this injection would mean he would be heavily reliant on steroids which cause him a lot of other complications. The cost of this injection is £1000 a time. He knows how lucky he is to get it free.

Relieved to see your last comment as now we know you're just trolling.

Seriously though, attitudes like yours are a big reason vets leave the profession and suffer from poor mental health.

I can imagine you were incredulous at the price and debating it with the vet at the time. Perhaps even insinuating the cost was too much and that this was somehow their fault? Imagine how the vet (who has zero say in price) feels being accused of this day in and day out. And for every polite client, we get an angry, rude and threatening one.

I'm glad to have left clinical work years ago and I won't be back.

Number one reason being ungrateful owners who treat staff like crap and expect the world for their pet (because "You're a vet, you're meant to love animals. So treat my pet really cheaply NOW because I didn't bother insuring them").

Using your Mayfair hotel room example, what exactly do you think you're paying for when you pay £323 a night? The room is already there right? No. You're paying for cleaning, heating, electricity, maintenance, laundry, reception staff, etc etc etc.

So on top of all of this - alongside the expertise of a professional who has more than likely spent at least 6 years in training - plus all the drugs and equipment used - and who actually saved your cats life - you still think you were ripped off?

I actually work in a vets and it's clueless clients like you that make my working life an absolute misery on a daily basis 👎

I feel sorry for your cats.

We had insurance for our cat. She had something very similar. The insurance company refused to pay out because she had something similar, but not the same, previously.

It was going to cost around £2000, on top of the £1000 we had already paid

We no longer have insurance.

Ouch what a shock that must have been! We have a pet hospital very close to us that are open 7 days a week with the initial consultation being free. We don't pay a penny if there's no treatment needed and even then it's extremely reasonable.

The usual shopping british entitled attitude expecting everything for nothing because.. reasons....