Is this Vet bill very expensive or am I just out of touch?

I always keep chloramphenicol eye drops/cream in my dogs medicine box. Really difficult to buy from some pharmacists as it’s like the Spanish Inquisition and you mustn’t say it’s for a dog. Having said that if it doesn’t work straight away it’s off to the vets as you don’t mess with eyes and, of course there might be a foreign body in the eye. When I has spaniels they often got sore eyes when they’d been on the beach and chloramphenicol sorted it out. I always use a different finger when re applying it so there’s no cross contamination and then I keep it in the fridge.

I'm very late to post on here but I do hope some get to read this. It's a plea on behalf of vets - my daughter is one and she actually had a breakdown because the job is so stressful, mainly because people complain so much about the cost and expect 100% success while refusing to pay for even basic tests such as bloods.. Some get really abusive and quite a few just don't pay. It's a stressful job with a high suicide rate: putting pets to sleep is tough, it's not particularly well paid (starting salary 27k), and most of her friends left the profession long ago. She would leave too but after 5 years study you don't have qualifications for anything else. Thank you to those who have said the price is reasonable - to those who think it's expensive, compare it to private human medicine - a consult costs from £175 to £250 - how much does your vet charge? Thanks for reading.

Our dog had a bad digestion issue last year. I got better eventually but nothing the vet did helped. Ended up with bills totalling £600+ . Luckily we are insured.

Also worth shopping around before you need a vet again. There are two in our town and one charges 50% more than the other for the same treatments.

Grannynannywanny

^Vets bills are astronomical. One way my daughter reduces cost is not to buy medication from the vets. She asks for the prescription and gets it on-line. Last example, an eye cream prescribed for her dog would have cost £39 at the vets and she bought the identical cream on-line for £6. Quite a mark up. Anyone without pet insurance these days is taking a huge gamble^

Will the vets willingly hand over the prescriptions Sarnia? I wish I’d thought of that today. Having said that the dog has an uncomfortable itchy ear and it might take a few days to receive an online delivery. Definitely something to consider in the future though.

no they won't. If its a prescription medication they will want to see the dog and make sure they are prescribing the right thing as they are responsible. Vets do have to provide a prescription only service for ongoing medication but can charge for the prescription. Additionally a presecribing vet MUST see the animal (or reasonable alternative, mine will do video consultation) at six monthly intervals in order to be able to continue to prescribe for the animal, its the law. At my vet a consultation costs £40, plus any meds supplied and follow ups for the same condition are a bit less. Its not the time it takes, its the knowledge and experience of the vet plus the responsibility they take (insurance is expensive), plus all the costs of keeping open the surgery.

One of our friends took on an elderly rescue cat who turned out to be diabetic - something which was not mentioned to her at the time and was presumably why the cat was being re-homed. He lived for several years and cost her a fortune, she had to inject the cat with insulin and buy special food. Personally I would have had the cat put to sleep, though I await the outcry from cat lovers everywhere!

kwest

Sounds about right to me. My son paid £1700.00 for their cat to stay in for observation for a stomach infection for two day and one night's care. He nearly fainted at the size of the bill but his wife is devoted to the cat, so no choice. Why on earth it is not insured I cannot imagine but it is grossly over-weight so perhaps that has something to do with it.

Insurance is obscenely expensive too now, my DD agreed to pay 20% of any bill to keep it to a managable level. Her's is an indoor cat - with use of a balcony - so less risk of accidents or infection than most.

That bill sounds pretty reasonable. Many years ago a vet wanted to charge me over £400 for a couple of small stitches in a cat's paw - no antibiotics involved and it was a 5 minute job.

The consultation alone is £50! Antibiotics £15 each for eyes and ears
Normal costs!!

Will the vets willingly hand over the prescriptionsSarnia? I wish I’d thought of that today. Having said that the dog has an uncomfortable itchy ear and it might take a few days to receive an online delivery. Definitely something to consider in the future though.

I imagine that as its your son's pet he would have told you if he had wanted you to do that.

Seems reasonable at today’s prices - dog ownership isn’t cheap!

Vets bills are so expensive! We have a beautiful cat, aged 14 but she will be our last pet as I can't justify the bills for any illnesses that may occur. Even monthly flea/worming soon adds up.

Sounds about right to me. My son paid £1700.00 for their cat to stay in for observation for a stomach infection for two day and one night's care. He nearly fainted at the size of the bill but his wife is devoted to the cat, so no choice. Why on earth it is not insured I cannot imagine but it is grossly over-weight so perhaps that has something to do with it.

One of my dogs has a heart murmur and has regular medication,the vet sent her to a specialist heart consultant,the bill,£1625.00, followe by a repeat visit six weeks later.The maximum amount the insurer paid out was £2000 per condition. Consequently I paid out the difference. I also have to pay an excess fee every year and because she is over 8,25% of the bill.Definitely not cheap.

I'm pretty sure that's about right. Vets bills and pet insurance are so expensive now, no wonder the rescue centres are full to bursting because some people can't afford to pay the bills so the pets end up there. My pet insurance is dearer than my house and car insurance put together!
My dog has epilepsy and had her first seizure 2 weeks after I rescued her. The meds aren't that expensive thank goodness, but my insurance is so high now and I can't move elsewhere because she has an underlying health condition. I love having a dog, but when this wee one goes I don't know if I can really afford to have another.

Also remember drugs costs are also linked to the pharmacists supplying so that’s probably part of the reason vets charges vary

Our vet (an independent at the time) used to tell me very crossly about the chains, which treated all patients as ‘units’ and put a great deal of pressure on vets to increase profits per ‘unit’ by urging owners to buy various products, inc. special food, for their pets.

He did once recommend an expensive diet cat food for our admittedly somewhat portly cat (portly largely because he was in the habit of visiting neighbours for succulent leftovers) but especially since he was incredibly fussy anyway, and I certainly wasn’t going to confine him indoors, I declined - adding that I thought the mere notion of diet cat food verged on the obscene.

He agreed, and said it was pretty nigh impossible to keep a non-indoor cat on a diet anyway.

But he later sold out - to one of the chains he’d so vociferously complained about!

Its the meds that put the price up so much. The vets need paying for their consultation also. My dog and 2 cats unfortunately need all their boosters just before Christmas which can work expensive. Plus my dog has to have special food otherwise she is ill. Even buying it on line works out ultra expensive. I don't have them insured as the one time I did and had to claim it was an insult what they wanted to pay me back. I now save a certain amount each month in a separate 'pet account' and have managed to accumulate enough for all outgoings for my furry friends. They are worth it.

For those saying the costs are “astronomical” vets train for many years, they have to cover the costs of their premises and pay for medicines and sadly no animal NHS so no subsidised drugs like we have ! Wonder how much we’d all be paying for a GP consultation and subsequent drugs.

Like many others we have both pet insurance and a plan with the vets to cover vaccines, flea and worming and twice a year health checks. We pay £16 per month per dog

Vet’s bills are out of all proportion and I think the driving force upwards is the result of pet insurance. (A bit like the cost of health treatment in the US). If there was no insurance people wouldn’t be able to afford these extortionate costs, and vets would have to reduce charges or go out of business.

We have FIVE dogs in our household currently This is about right I’m afraid

Yes that's about right... We were at the vets a couple of weeks ago for the same thing and it was £80 something. Very expensive dogs... But much loved ?

Don't forget there is a consultation fee in there. Vets train for very many years and you are paying for their expertise then the cost of any medication on top.

Actually that wasn't bad, two lots of medication and a consultation.

You have to pay the vets for the prescription then you send it to online company I used pets direct you usually receive them within 24 hrs it worked for me and saved me money as my doggy needed life long medication.

That amount sounds about right to me too - a recent visit with one of my cats to treat an abscess cost £90 on two occasions then another £300 to remove a broken tooth and clean them.

The insurance for both of them has now gone up to £83 a month - they've both over 10 so no other company will insure them after that age. I have had my monies worth from them though as the other cat has had several issues over the last 5 years costing over £6k.

I do agree about online costs though - the above cat is on a special diet which I buy from the same online company which does prescriptions - it's much cheaper than the same stuff from the vets although she still costs me a fortune every month - she's worth it though