Operation cost...

Katek he is a really lovely gentle Irishman,when Ellie had her first op he carried her in his arms to our car and settled her in,his compassion showed through and his love for the animals was genuine

I've watched Noel Fitzpatrick's work on TV in utter amazement. What a brilliant man.

we pay into a scheme run by vets to cover injections and flea/worm and we geta 10% discount on a well pet check and other sundries and her special diet food...we also pay a hefty sum for pet insurance which has doubled over last 10 years but is worth it to us as she is on regular medication for liver disease ,and hepatitis ,osteo arthritis, hip dysplasia,she has also had an operation at the supervet noel fitzpatricks surgery costing £4,000, and in the last 2 years at another brilliant referral hospital ,she has had half jaw removed due to cancer,involving 3monthly check ups jaw removal was £3,500,and a few days ago cancerous tumours removed from her on top of her head,2 mammary tumours and a total hysterectomy ,costing £3,000 she has yet to have follow ups and possibly chemo depending on biopsy results another £3,000 as well as her day to day drugs ..in our case totally necessary to have and justifiable

Our vet has a sort of savings plan. You pay in a monthly sum that you decide on and any treatment costs are deducted from your 'account'. That way all conditions are covered. We just tend to PAYG.

I'll look into that Iam. I think that vets combined with pet insurance are actually pricing themselves out of the market [and making it difficult financially for people to have pets now].

Tegan, the new practice in our town is non profit making. A neighbour's dog was run over and spent 3 days in their hospital for treatment that included a broken leg. Total cost £300 and the staff there were excellent.

It did cross my mind the other day that while we were there there were one/two vets, two receptionists, must have been a nurse or two in the back room and there had been lots of work spent on the building. But, whenever we're there, most of the animals seem to be from animal charities who I assume don't pay a lot. I'm not knocking animal charities, by the way . A young girl who brought a dog in at the same time as us was querying why she was having to pay when it was the vet who had asked her to go there, not the other way round. I'm wondering what these so called cut price vets offer? Need to look into it for the future.

have no savings...live hand to mouth...but Ells is our responsibility..and a beloved member of the family...she has given us so much love and support when my beloved kate died and I had abreakdown ...don't really care as long as she comes home and is well as can be expected..

I always say "you will never see a poor vet" !! Our local vet (who by the way really are fantastic and helpful...but do charge a pretty penny) has recently completely modernised the practice....they must have spent hundreds of thousands ..all very swish, but probably completely uncalled for.....still I guess they have to spend all our money on something !

As for insurance...well we have always had it for all our dogs, and really glad we have too, as they have all sadly had major things wrong with them requiring a lot of treatment ... and the ones we have lost through illness , well the bills have gone into the thousands and the insurance has always paid up.
That would have been a huge amount to find if we had to dip into our savings.

There comes a point when 'self-insuring' is often better. We do it for certain things....an amount per month is set aside...it goes into the basic savings account but its 'ear-marked' for whatever purpose we choose. As long as you are organised and keep half decent records its pretty effective...and you can never discover you are not covered in the small print!
Pet insurance is notorious as many companies got onto the band waggon without realising how expensive it can get. A lot of people have had life-time covers just arbitrarily cancelled.

Third party insurance is different and useful living near livestock as we do - ours is covered by Dogs Trust...she's one of their refugees.

The lump on Hatties head has been a nightmare, as the cone of shame would rub against the wound, so we've been having to watch her round the clock so she doesn't scratch it. However, what looked absolutely horrific when we first saw it has healed incredibly well. She's wearing a scarf instead of a collar which is more comfortable for her [she's now going out for walks] and we've been putting Sudocrem on the wound to ease the dryness/itching and giving her Piriton. Being such a small dog the 2.5/3 cm margin that they've had to take away covers such a large area of her body .Petplan are writing to my vet so there is a small ray of hope that they might cover some of the cost of the operation, but I'm not holding my breath. I may look into the vets pet cover although I'm using as little flea/worm treatment as possible as I don't like bombarding her with chemicals. I've also heard that you can have a test done with regards vaccinations as, after a certain age the dog should have enough antibodies anyway [the problem being if they go into kennels]. Best of luck with everything.

no she she will not need chemo or radiotherapy Tegan as far as we know but surgeon has assured us cancer is straight forward pyometra is more of a danger ,we have gold cover with pet plan,and she still has £10,500 of cover until the end of policy year in September but her premiums have risen double over last 5 years and we are paying £61.00 per month premium ,and also have a healthy pet cover with local vets for £11.99 per month to cover flea,worm and vaccinations and well pet blood tests each year ,she is better insured than the humans xx

What sort of cancers are they? Will Petplan definately pay and will she have/need radiotherapy?

have just been quoted for Ellie's op, she has a cancerous mammary tumour and a cancerous lump just discovered on her head this morning ,at the referral centre who has been treating for a long list of conditions...the latest quote given today,including a full body scan and surgery to remove tumours is £2,000.00 to £2,500.00. we have just had the results of the scan..the tumours are cancerous,her liver is clear,as she has liver disease and hepatitis,but she has fluid in her uterus and enlarged ovaries and she needs an emergency hysterectomy..thank God have enough cover as I checked with pet plan....poor Ells also has lung worm because of her penchant for snails when a puppy,and osteo arthritis ,and she had half of her jaw removed 2 years almost to the day because of a squamous cell carcinoma...and her elbows operated on when she as a young girl...poor old girl ....she is 10 on monday

Going back to pet insurance, I think that, if/when a company is no longer going to cover your pet for a certain illness they should actually write a letter to specifically say that rather than sticking it on the back of page three..or at least put it in big letters on page one . I've realised that I should have joined the 'Gold Plan' at my vets rather than paid another years Petplan insurance; it would probably have taken 10% off the cost of the operation.

A young man I know well was training to be a vet. All of the new students were seated awaiting their introduction to the World of Vets.

The tutor entered and the first question was 'Why do you want to become a vet?' The answers were the usual : To make a difference: To work with animals: I've always loved animals etc etc etc......

He looked around the room and said 'No!!! the reason we become vets is to make a lot of money.' My young friend was disillusioned and after a year decided to leave the famous Scottish University and become a Minister.

I find that vets seem to set their own prices. We moved from one vet who used to charge exorbitant rates to a less 'fancy' vet in the next town who refuses to give unnecessary tests and does not try to flog expensive products. In fact the practice would rather suggest the internet to make treatment cheaper.

Thanks Tegan. I found an Ombudsman's adjudication on a complaint re withdrawn "lifetime cover". He felt it was reasonable for pet insurance providers to withdraw lifetime cover because they were not responsible for their underwriters' decisions. That may well be the case, but my argument is that if "lifetime cover" can be withdrawn in this way, a potential customer should be very clearly informed in writing that "lifetime cover" cannot be guaranteed (which, in my opinion, means that it is not really "lifetime cover").

I think the whole issue of pet insurance and vets' costs should be looked at.

Thankfully her love of corned beef has saved the day [and the codeine has knocked her out].

Marmite sandwiches, heavy on the marmite, crushed pills hidden.

Eloethan;the article states that 'the insurance is also leading to record number of complaints being taken to the Financial Ombudsman..the worst hit include those who paid for so called lifetime cover supposedly giving owners certainty that their animal will be covered for it's lifetime, who now see premuims rocketing at renewal. The FOC states that one in three cases it finds in favour of the policyholder. Up to 10,000 Axa pet insurance customers are currently being moved to NCI Insurance with the transition being complete by August'. The article also says that, with so mnay companies pulling out of pet insurance, the decrease in competition will result in an increase in premiums. Not wishing to play the 'pensioner card' but a lot of elderly people depend on their pets for companionship and it is a great blow to them if they can't afford either insurance premiums or treatment. I'm going to look into these vets that offer cut price treatment to see what service they do provide. The article does say that you can ask for a higher excess etc to bring down the yearly cost; but that doesn't solve the problem of life cover not meaning 'for life'.

The more I read about GNs' experiences, the more it seems like a rip-off where insurance is involved and even worse with vets fees!

If this was applied to human life insurance (and I know it rises or is higher when risk level or ill health is involved) and private medicine I dread to think what would happen - there would be uproar I imagine.

Just imagine if you paid privately for say a hip replacement and the surgeon decided to do an additional procedure unrelated to your hip and not needed, then whacked up the bill!

I presume there are regulatory guidelines somewhere?

As I said above, our pet insurance policy has just paid out on a large claim.

Our insurance is due for renewal this month and we've received a renewal notice BUT it states that the insurance underwriter they use has pulled out of the UK pet insurance market and they can now offer insurance from another co. for £47 a month BUT pre-existing conditions or anything deemed related to those conditions will not be covered.

We had a Lifetime Cover plan (which at the time of purchase was subject to no pre-existing conditions) but it seems it means nothing because if the underwriter used by your pet insurance co. decides to withdraw the so-called "Lifetime cover", it can do so. I'm appealing it.

Strangely enough there's an article in todays telegraph about people whose pet insurance premiums go through the roof after one claim [eg an increase from £321 -£2,283 per year after one claim]. I know I was stupid not to read the small print but a lot of the people complaining had taken out Life Insurance, believing that it was, in fact for the lifetime of the animal.

We have decided not to get Poppy insured she will be the first dog we have not insured the reason being when we took her into our Vets when she first arrived after we adopted her for a check up and with her being a pedigree dog the price seemed to have doubled as to what we paid when we took Barney the scruffy JR to ever roam this earth,I'm sure they think you have more £s to your pocket if you have one of these little dogs and that is just not so,we adopted her as a dog not a breed and where so glad to give her a loving home,we now put £15 a week in a tin just for any emergencies and buy flea treatment over the counter at the Vets but without the massive consultation fee of £21.00,we do buy 3 treatments at a time which saves £6 over 3 months.

Our dogs would always take tablets if they were buried in half of a fun size mars bar and, no, the tiny bit of chocolate didn't kill them or involve more vet's bills.