A tough week

I agree with the OP , vet bills are extortionate . I had insurance for my cats for several years but found that I could never claim despite going fairly frequently to the Vets . The bill usually was just short of the excess or the condition was not covered . I now put money into an account to cover emergencies for them but if something major happened I would have difficulty paying the enormous bill .

I don't feel our vet over charges. As Anya says, they have to maintain premises and employ staff as well as work (often) anti social hours. When our much loved old rescue x breed became ill, we spent in excess of £1000 on various treatments. It prolonged his life slightly but the quality of his life had gone. We made that final loving decision and he was put to sleep by our vet, who was supported by his senior vet nurse. She'd known our old dog since he came to us from the local dog shelter 12 years earlier, she wept with us as he went into his final sleep. They spent almost an hour with us, discussing the various options before supporting us in our decision. We had a very affectionate letter, complete with poem and card (queue much weeping at our home) a few days later and the bill 4 months later. I'd asked about paying as I left but was told no, you go home and have a cuppa or a glass of wine.

We'd never insured that dog so felt the money we paid in his later days was in fact less than insurance would have been. Our two current dogs are insured. For 4 years the big dogs insurance covered large bills after she injured herself racing through brambles. The younger dog developed some behavioural problems and the vet supported a claim for a behaviourist to see him.
Yes, insurance and vets bills are high but have any of you paid private dental/health bills? I've recently been left with no option but to pay for some treatment - good job I saved up whilst I was working or I'd have been in a real pickle.

If you don't need to kennel your pets then inoculations are only needed every three years. The vet will confirm this if you ask but the local councils insist that you have to have them yearly before you can use kennels - why? It is me taking the risk not the other animals.

annrose, one of my cats had tooth problems found at check-up two years running, requiring a 'dental' under anaesthetic. I now have substituted one meal a day with a dental kibble food (Purina Proplan dental plus). His mouth has had a clean bill of health ever since. Perhaps it is something you could try.
Instead of insurance I pay a monthly sum into a savings account and am still in profit so far.

i have 4 cats .2 from cats protection and 2 street cats plus 1 dog insurance does not.cover teeth.and .with all my cats they have a lot of problems in that department . i could not count the cost how much i have paid with these problems, one of my cats will have a op soon and that will cost me £350we never have much spare money but vets are over priced after all these cats would be dead but for us caring people who are to soft.

Our vets refer you to a vet hospital 12 miles away after hours. They have wonderful facilities and 24 hour care. My dog needed an operation at midnight, she died and it cost nearly £5000. Next dog spent 24 hours there with epilepsy, cost £600. These things always happen at weekends or night and the referral vets charge twice as much for everything than our own vets. After each claim the insurance soars. My insurance for 2 little dogs (vet fees only) was my biggest payment every month, more then all my utilities combined.

I'm so sorry to hear about your much-loved little rescue cat.

But I don't think vet's fees are especially extortionate considering they have wages to pay, the upkeep of premises, the cost of medication. I know they may seem high (I recently paid £840 to have my dog's eye removed due to glaucoma) but when the same dog almost died in a fire, and was rushed to the vet by a neighbour, revived on an oxygen tent, washed, treated for smoke inhalation and soot in eyes, and kept in overnight the cost was only £160. So I do think it's proportionate.

I wish our NHS was half as efficient as our vet - I can could ring up, get an appointment the same day, be treated quickly and sympathetically and get free after care.

Sorry to hear your news, nannylovesshopping

I think vet's fees are ridiculous and take advantage of people's love for their pets. Recently,a friend of my daughter's had to pay just over £500 to have her Rottweiler who had cancer,put to sleep.

Nannylovesshopping
So sorry to hear about your loss of your little cat.
I know how awful you're feeling right now, but you did the right thing for her, as you did when you took her on as a rescue cat.
She's not in any pain or suffering now, small consolation I know, but true all the same.
X

So sorry for the loss of your feline friend nannylovesshopping.

Oh Sorry! missed your post.

So sorry to hear that, but no doubt it was the right thing to do.

Its the word pancreacitisis that alarms me. When humans have something wrong with their pancreas then that is very serious indeed asnd painful.
I think you should have her put to sleep and I don't say this lightly. It took me a year to get over the death of my cat who was 18. Mainly becuse I am too old myself to have another cat. You will be able to have another when you have got over it all. Don't let her suffer.......

Thank you for all your kindness, had to put my sweetie cat to sleep yesterday, my wonderful sil buried her in her favourite spot in my garden

Yes that's quite true Envious. I keep Sphynx's (sadly only have one now) and it's the same argument every year with the vet regarding the jab against feline lukemia (think I've spelled that incorrectly). He doesn't come into contact with any other cats so doesn't need it, he doesn't need worming either.

He has to have everything else because he goes into a cattery when we go on holiday. It seems irresponsible putting chemicals into an animals body when they don't them.

Oh how I feel for you and it's one of my subjects along with greedy dentists. I have 2 dogs and we do have them insured. One of them has needed it after a few incidents over the years but as he's got older the monthly premiums have sky rocketed past year. We could probably manage to top up the insurance limit (£3,000 per dog I think) should it go over that, but for those who can't, they may have to say goodbye to a loved member of their family due to the extortionate fees and it makes my blood boil. PDSA will only treat free if you are below a certain income I believe, so worth an ask, but I am guessing they won't take on a sick animal because you've reached the limit of what you can afford. I know some vets will 'negotiate' if you've already paid a lot of money and the alternative is to put her to sleep, so do explain your dilemma. I shall pray she recovers so you don't have to make a difficult decision.

Nanny do you not have a PDSA near to you they will look after your precious cat for you free of charge in many circumstances,the fee's for Vet treatment is way over the top now but they know how dear to us our little friends are and we are willing pay these amounts to keep our pets with us.

I'm sorry about your wee cat. We lost our rescue cat earlier this year and it's heartbreaking.

We couldn't insure her because she had a congenital condition so we took her on knowing it could cost us if she became ill. Our vet, whilst not cheap, did not put undue pressure on us to take any particular course of action. He was able to reduce the cost of her medication when generics became available, too. He's a lovely man, I wish he was my doctor.

Flea and wormer treatments are so much cheaper on line and are the same brand as vets themselves prescribe. One of my dogs is on a prescription drug permanently which I could get for half the price on line but vet won't write prescription for it. These days veterinary care is big business and so many people who would make caring, loving owners for rescue animals are unable to have them because of the cost involved. Even if you do insure you can never claim anything like the cost of treatment.

I believe and I read a article from a holistic vet that inside cats live longer if they aren't given all of those annual injections which aren't needed if the live inside only.

I've been buying our flea and worm treatment online from Viovet for years. When I told our vet this (because she wouldn't stop blackmailing trying to persuade me to buy it from them she got quite stroppy and wrote down a list of active ingredients for me to take home and check if they were included in the products I had bought because they should be prescription only.

I was sorely tempted to tell her that as our dogs were healthy, fit and not showing any signs of worms or fleas I was quite happy with whatever was in the product but I didn't want to push my luck!

Her list went in the bin.

One of our cats just had their annual booster and we picked up two packs of combined flea/wormer/tick treatment while we were there. Bill came to £99 - £43 for the booster snd £28 per pack for the combined wormers. Needed a sit down and restorative cuppa after that!

That sounds like a very expensive bill. Here in Framce about four years ago a friend's chocolate lab ate a pair of women's tights he found on a farmer's field - it needed a huge operation to remove these tights.
Then two years ago same dog ill again and another op needed - complications with the scarring etc and this time so poorly he was in the animal hospital for two weeks and he had all sorts of tests some of which had to go to a laboratory in Paris - they found he had become allergic to his dog food - now on special stuff. The bill for all this second op etc came to just under a thousand Euros.