# Vet fees



## Madhouse5 (Jun 6, 2011)

morning all 
Been thinking about this for some time i just cant get my head round the charges that vet`s think up for treating animals in most cases the cost is so high and really a option and most animals are put to sleep, but i had cases were a royal python has RBD and RI the survival of this animal was minimal but the vet would not put it down yes they probably could of found a vet that would of but like in many cases we only have one reptile vet in our area to top that is cost £500 for treatment and it died so keeping it alive for a little bit longer just added to it pain. to me its no wonder there so many animals that don't get treatment and suffer as the cost is just far to high
there must be a better way to do this there no insurance policy's for reptiles well none that will pay out and mostly the best way is putting so much aside each month in case you need it.

i myself have spoken to a number of vets asking why the say its the price of drugs and the team of people that is there to do the operation i understand that but what i dont understand is why they need to charge 30-50 pound just to have a look at your animal could the first visit not be free or 5-10 pounds then if treatment is needed after your animal has been look at you get a payment plan or you pay for that treatment i think this would help a lot more animals to be seen and also if its the case that the animal need to be put to sleep it can be done quickly so no suffering.

i like a system were anyone can get to see a vet and not think its going to cost me my pets going to die anyway and end up goggling diy methods that are not good or just leave it to die or dump it on the door of a local reptile shop 

Thanks for reading 


Paul 

i


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## vgorst (Sep 27, 2011)

See it's the opposite for me. The vet charged me £30 consultation fee for my first ever appointment (think every few minutes added on a £1 after that) and after that consultation fees have been around £10 (plus treatment). I find the treatments they provide are quite cheap as they don't really mark-up the price so you're paying similar to what they did. My other vet is similar, where follow-up consultations are free (excluding treatment).

If there is a good chance that the animal will make it, then for me money is no object. If they're still fighting then so will I. If the animal is likely to die or suffer for a long time then I would consider putting them down for their own sake. It's down to the owners being responsible and prepared I think, I have always money to spare (and an overdraft if needed) as I know what my animals are like!

I'm sure it's illegal for a vet to refuse to put an animal down (although I could be wrong).


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## Rawwwrchazli (Mar 16, 2012)

vgorst said:


> See it's the opposite for me. The vet charged me £30 consultation fee for my first ever appointment (think every few minutes added on a £1 after that) and after that consultation fees have been around £10 (plus treatment). I find the treatments they provide are quite cheap as they don't really mark-up the price so you're paying similar to what they did. My other vet is similar, where follow-up consultations are free (excluding treatment).
> 
> If there is a good chance that the animal will make it, then for me money is no object. If they're still fighting then so will I. If the animal is likely to die or suffer for a long time then I would consider putting them down for their own sake. It's down to the owners being responsible and prepared I think, I have always money to spare (and an overdraft if needed) as I know what my animals are like!
> 
> I'm sure it's illegal for a vet to refuse to put an animal down (although I could be wrong).


It is indeed illegal for a vet to refuse to put an animal down, if it is the owner asking for that service.
We were told that by our vet when we had our disabled dog PTS 7 years ago.
My mum questioned why there were no questions asked over the phone when we booked him in, it was like booking injections and we were then told then.

My small animal vet and reptile vet are very reasonable, and provided you have web with that surgery for at least a year they will make payment plans if the treatment is over £100.
In fact the vet we take our dogs to was happy to make a payment plan with us for a treatment that cost £48.

I guess I'm lucky with my vets just as you are Vgorst.


Paul, I do see where you are coming from, perhaps a blanket pricing should be put in place for ALL surgeries which would maybe make it not only clearer, but perhaps more accessible to those on lower incomes.
But we then get to the 'what price do you put on a life?' Especially if an animal is still full of fight.
I, personally have a very difficult home life financially at the moment as we are still catching up after my mum's illness and my redundancy, but my animals have NEVER gone without a vet if they need it. I simply go without so they don't.

Maybe if I were in an area with extortionate vet prices I would find it even harder, so like I say I am lucky.
Especially as I know and have friends who recently found them selves in the horrible situation of having to surrender their cat after he was in a hit and run if they didn't come up with a huge amount of money for the treatment at the RSPCA.
Money that they would have had, had they not had such massive hearts and rescued a Beardie just weeks before.
Lucky they managed to raise the money and get their cat back, but for good people like that I don't see why they should be put in the position they were because of the price of treatment.
There are organisations around to help, and as most know it is illegal for a vet to refuse treatment of an animal in need of emergency care, but the T&Cs of that are a bit all over the place.

So yeah, I do see where you're coming from Paul.
I think prices should be the same wherever you live.


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## c_1993 (Jun 10, 2011)

I use 2 different vets the average 'furry' vet and a herp vet.
Last year my cat needed a full blood tests as it was suspected she had renal failure it cost £220, she didn't have renal failure.
A few weeks ago we were back at the same vets (I saw a different vet at the same practice) as my cat became ill all of a sudden, the same blood tests were done again. I asked the vet how much were they going to cost he looked on his computer where he had a list of prices, the bloods only cost £51.
when I went to the desk to pay they only charged me £40 :lol2:

The vet couldn't even justify how the same bloods the year before came to £220!
My vets just charge whatever they want.

I think all vets should set up payment plans it would make it so much easier for some people and maybe there wouldn't be so many dumped sick animals about.


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

We're having to pay to get my jack russels teeth done in a weeks time. He was under an insurance policy (which we have no cancelled) and they refused dental treatment due to his age. they said it was 'natural' for old dogs to have bad teeth and they would not cover it.....

Anyways.

Phoned around 4 different vets in our area for quotes on knocking him out and cleaning his teeth with possible 1 or two extractions.

Vet one....£650. They would keep him in overnight on a drip and he would need 'special antibiotics' due to his age

Vet 2. Similar story....£600

Vet 3. keep him on a drip all day. Operate on the morning. £450

All of the above was cash up front before they would do it.

Vet 4.

Not only are they only quoting me £250 maximum price. They also threw in a £20 voucher that will cover any blood tests, they also asked me about whether I could really afford the costs. I said well I'd have to as he needs the treatment, explained about insurance. they then phoned the rspca and requested a 'welfair' voucher which covers another £50 of treatment.

They are not charging consult fee as there is no way they could even look in his mouth before they knock him out, he's aggressive. So no point in them seeing him before hand as they could do nothing really.

They are also putting the costs onto a payment plan over 3 month with only a £15 surcharge.


Bit of a difference between the end cost of the first vet at £650 and the last one at £250 less £70 worth of vouchers.




our border collie had a tooth out a few years ago at another vet practice. they deliberatly left the root of the tooth in so it would cause an infection. They treated her with 'antibiotics' for nearly 12 month, injection every 2 weeks + consult. I took her to the pdsa eventually as we simply could not afford that expense anymore. 
They went nuts, said that the root was cleanly cut off and left in and that the antibiotic injections she'd been getting for 12 month were nothing more than vitimins. if we had left it much longer there would have been nothing they could have done and th einfection would have got into the bone of her jaw. meaning another huge operation with bone grafts etc. £££££ for the vets.


There was a documentary done by either panorama or another one of those type that profiled a lot of the things vets do to chalk up huge bills.

Giving vitimin injections to any animal that goes in is one of them. Also antibiotics for no reasons 'just in case'

About time office of fair trade started looking into these practices.


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## vgorst (Sep 27, 2011)

At least there are some decent vet/practices out there! Good job you got quotes. To have one of my fatties sedated, nose cleaned out, mouth checked and an overnight stay was about £30 which was far less than I was expecting. 



nicnet said:


> Giving vitimin injections to any animal that goes in is one of them. Also antibiotics for no reasons 'just in case'


One of my vets is really great about that kind of thing, he doesn't just give out antibiotics willy nilly. In 4 visits he's only given my animals meds once, and that was just panacur. I hate it when vets just prescribe meds for absolutely anything (often before getting to the root cause of the problem), it knocks the animal when they're already down and also increases chances of resistance ~ usually it's just husbandry changes that are needed. Makes it worse when they don't explain what a med is for (because I'm too stupid to understand :crazy: ) and don't suggest probiotics etc.

Now that I think about it I'm going to miss my Notts vet :blush:


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## Mal (Jul 22, 2007)

Price will vary from vet to vet. Different surgeries have different running costs. A flash surgery in town will have higher overheads than a tiny little practice lost amongst the back streets. Some practices still run with equipment that was around when James Herriot was in practice whilst others have gone hight tech. Maintenance costs for anesthetic machines, monitoring equipment, xray machines etc is through the roof. The more up to date the equipment the higher the charges. Maintaining the equipment, quality control etc isnt an optional. Security, etc for a practice with thousands of pounds were of equipment adds another big chunk to the overheads. The vets carry professional insurance and have to attend continuation training, its expensive. To keep up to date, to offer better service they have to do it. They also have to pay their professional body to maintain their right to practice. The more staff they employ to offer a service, the more highly trained and experienced the staff, the greater the wage bill. Drug costs are in many instances ridiculously high but that is dictated by the pharmaceutical companies.

Think about taking a Renault (for example) to a Renault dealership for repair. They charge around £70 (or more ) per hour and in many instances if the job takes 10 minutes over the hour...they charge you for 2 hours. In comparison when you consider the amount of training a vet goes through, the cost incurred in getting them into practice, they generally dont charge too much. Many of the costs are spread across the board so all patients pay around the same percentage per visit to meet general running costs. 

A vet can refuse to euthanise an animal if they do not think it is clinically justified. One of the key parts of their oath is 'to do no harm'. Euthanising a healthy animal or an animal that is likely to survive with reasonable treatment is ' doing harm '. There are many many factors influencing vets fees. With vets though we do have the luxiary of being able to shop around. (Shame we dont truly have that freedom with the NHS.) Most vets if asked will tell you up front what they are going to charge for a consultation and will provide a prediction of total cost.


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

Oddly Mal its the new high tech Vet that gave me the lowest quote. Housed in a new building that was custom built for them. Its a national vet chain though.

The highest of those quotes is the vet that has been around for ever and in the same surgery.


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## Mal (Jul 22, 2007)

nicnet said:


> Oddly Mal its the new high tech Vet that gave me the lowest quote. Housed in a new building that was custom built for them. Its a national vet chain though.
> 
> The highest of those quotes is the vet that has been around for ever and in the same surgery.


The chain probably gets equipment cheaper, services cheaper, drugs cheaper and a larger customer base. The older surgery is probably feeling the pinch with customers being drawn to the flash chains of vets. Fewer customers to meet the overheads means higher charges. Every vet has different circumstances in relation to their practice. They are still cheaper by the hour than an auto technician at a main dealership.


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## Lozza.Bella (Apr 24, 2010)

Mad house, can I ask what 'RBD' in your royal was? Or did you mean IBD? And how long ago was this and was it confirmed with bloods and cultures? I only ask as this is a very serious illness and there has not been a confirmed case in the uk for some time :/


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## Madhouse5 (Jun 6, 2011)

Lozza.Bella said:


> Mad house, can I ask what 'RBD' in your royal was? Or did you mean IBD? And how long ago was this and was it confirmed with bloods and cultures? I only ask as this is a very serious illness and there has not been a confirmed case in the uk for some time :/


it was over 2 years ago i don't think any other tests was done after he died as it had already cost them over 500 sorry my bad yes it was IBD i no they was told to have no new animals in there collection for a year after it had passed and the viv was burnt too


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## Lozza.Bella (Apr 24, 2010)

I'm sorry Madhouse, do you have confirmation of this? As this is a massive statement...... And this disease can lie dormant in some snakes, and also manifest its self at such a slow rate in some species of snakes compared to the rapid degeneration of others..???


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## Madhouse5 (Jun 6, 2011)

Lozza.Bella said:


> I'm sorry Madhouse, do you have confirmation of this? As this is a massive statement...... And this disease can lie dormant in some snakes, and also manifest its self at such a slow rate in some species of snakes compared to the rapid degeneration of others..???


sorry i don't get were this is going as the snake died 2 years ago so there nothing to lay dormant in ? after this they had no other snakes it was never breed from and all its vivarium etc was burnt, it was more the fact that the vet would not put it down that i was pointing out and it cost a lot of money but at the time as it was a bumble bee it was an expensive royal then


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## Rawwwrchazli (Mar 16, 2012)

Mal said:


> Price will vary from vet to vet. Different surgeries have different running costs. A flash surgery in town will have higher overheads than a tiny little practice lost amongst the back streets. Some practices still run with equipment that was around when James Herriot was in practice whilst others have gone hight tech. Maintenance costs for anesthetic machines, monitoring equipment, xray machines etc is through the roof. The more up to date the equipment the higher the charges. Maintaining the equipment, quality control etc isnt an optional. Security, etc for a practice with thousands of pounds were of equipment adds another big chunk to the overheads. The vets carry professional insurance and have to attend continuation training, its expensive. To keep up to date, to offer better service they have to do it. They also have to pay their professional body to maintain their right to practice. The more staff they employ to offer a service, the more highly trained and experienced the staff, the greater the wage bill. Drug costs are in many instances ridiculously high but that is dictated by the pharmaceutical companies.
> 
> Think about taking a Renault (for example) to a Renault dealership for repair. They charge around £70 (or more ) per hour and in many instances if the job takes 10 minutes over the hour...they charge you for 2 hours. In comparison when you consider the amount of training a vet goes through, the cost incurred in getting them into practice, they generally dont charge too much. Many of the costs are spread across the board so all patients pay around the same percentage per visit to meet general running costs.
> 
> A vet can refuse to euthanise an animal if they do not think it is clinically justified. One of the key parts of their oath is 'to do no harm'. Euthanising a healthy animal or an animal that is likely to survive with reasonable treatment is ' doing harm '. There are many many factors influencing vets fees. With vets though we do have the luxiary of being able to shop around. (Shame we dont truly have that freedom with the NHS.) Most vets if asked will tell you up front what they are going to charge for a consultation and will provide a prediction of total cost.


This could come across as argumentative because it's early and I don't think my coffee has kicked in yet, but I promise it's not. 

Mal, you seem pretty knowledgable on this subject so may I ask how the 'do no harm' clause fits in with the dogs they euthanise when they fail behavioural exams.
I'm not talking the out right aggressive dogs, I'm talking the ones that fail on play biting and food dominance and are PTS because they don't have the time bit resources to fix and very simple problem; or so they say.
2/5 of our dogs are rescue and both had terrible food aggression which was sorted in a matter of days.
I do appreciate that kennels are stressful, but surely that's a kick starter in a lot of those behaviours and should be taken into account.
IMO, they are still putting healthy dogs down.

If smaller kennels have the time and patience, large brands like the RSPCA should have the funds and expertise to fix small problems especially if the same rule applies to them as applies to the large chain vets, that in the long run, perhaps running costs are cheaper than those of the smaller kennels.

Surely putting those dogs down is breaching the 'doing no harm' bit.
Like the hypocritical oath doctors take.

I'm just curious.


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## Lozza.Bella (Apr 24, 2010)

Sorry mad house, I will PM you.


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## Madhouse5 (Jun 6, 2011)

no problem


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## Mal (Jul 22, 2007)

Rawwwrchazli said:


> This could come across as argumentative because it's early and I don't think my coffee has kicked in yet, but I promise it's not.
> 
> Mal, you seem pretty knowledgable on this subject so may I ask how the 'do no harm' clause fits in with the dogs they euthanise when they fail behavioural exams.
> I'm not talking the out right aggressive dogs, I'm talking the ones that fail on play biting and food dominance and are PTS because they don't have the time bit resources to fix and very simple problem; or so they say.
> ...


It doesnt come across as argumentative so no worries there. The point I was making is that vets are not obliged by law to euthanise an animal simply because its what the owner wants. It would be too easy to establish or perpetuate the disposable pet situation. Im bored with bonzo so Im having him put to sleep so I can buy fidoo. I think the situation regarding dogs with behavioural problems is different. If facilities arent available to fix the problem and safe accomodation isnt available for the animal long term the options are limited. Can the animal be rehomed without risk of it injuring someone. Sadly in many instances the answer is no and the only available option is euthanasia. Its not nice but neither is a child ripped to pieces.
There should be resources to help these animals but sadly im many instances they arent available. Its often not the animals fault that its received a death sentance. In most cases its bad owners. However human safety will over ride the needs of the animal. If its a danger to the public the choices are sadly very limited.


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## Rawwwrchazli (Mar 16, 2012)

Mal said:


> It doesnt come across as argumentative so no worries there. The point I was making is that vets are not obliged by law to euthanise an animal simply because its what the owner wants. It would be too easy to establish or perpetuate the disposable pet situation. Im bored with bonzo so Im having him put to sleep so I can buy fidoo. I think the situation regarding dogs with behavioural problems is different. If facilities arent available to fix the problem and safe accomodation isnt available for the animal long term the options are limited. Can the animal be rehomed without risk of it injuring someone. Sadly in many instances the answer is no and the only available option is euthanasia. Its not nice but neither is a child ripped to pieces.
> There should be resources to help these animals but sadly im many instances they arent available. Its often not the animals fault that its received a death sentance. In most cases its bad owners. However human safety will over ride the needs of the animal. If its a danger to the public the choices are sadly very limited.


I guess that makes sense.

In an ideal world though a dog with only slight behavioural problems or easily fixable ones would be placed in a home that has the experience and ideal situation to deal with them and sort them.
IE: no children.

I guess it's not an ideal world though.

I know if Logan and Floss were from Kennels they would have been PTS in a heart beat.
Luckily we rescued them from homes.

Floss was 3 months old when we got her 11 years ago and was nervous aggressive and good aggressive and just generally everything aggressive. She'd basically been left in the garden to be wild. She was full of worms and covered in fleas and ticks.
Now she's a little angel that loves anything and anyone.
Though she's still a bit 'I'll snap your hand off if you offer me a pea', but I think that's a Collie thing.
She also eats pebbles...

Logan, he's a bull breed for starters which would have put him on the rocks immediately. He's 7 now, but was 5 when we rescued him so he was past the cute stage too.
He had a bit of a dodgy, painful hip because he was hugely overweight and was put in the firing line after the 2 year old son of the lady that had him sat/bounced on his hip and he reacted by snapping in pain.
The kid ended up with a slight nip on the cheek and was taken to the doctors for a check up and tetanus injection and Logan was subsequently reported and they were given 24 hours to find him a better home.
Luckily we already joked about kidnapping him in the past so we were the first people they called. The woman was distraught and knew it was her fault, not Logan's. 
Mum worked with him for about a month, got about 1 stone of weight off him and he's just the biggest, silliest, dumbest, soppy git. He loves kids, and cats and anything really. Even put neighbours 4 year old grand daughter who's terrified of dogs, loves Logan and gives him ham out of her sandwiches ^_^ if she's in their garden while he's put in ours.
And his hip is better because he's lost weight.

It's common sense not to leave a 2 year old alone with a BullMastiff x Rottweiler....or at least you'd think so.


Makes you wonder how many dogs are wrongly blamed for being aggressive when actually it's hurting or anxious.

It is sad, and it's not the fault of the organisations, I guess their hands are tied, but it shouldn't happen.



Lol, sorry for hijacking your thread Paul!


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## palm (Mar 3, 2013)

you've got to bare in mind all the costs associated with vets. if we dodnt have the nhs in this country it would be just as expensive as us. 


_Posted from Reptileforums.co.uk App for Android_


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