saints_forever

......why are they so expensive in comparison to your pet?

We've got guinea pigs, only 3 months old, and had to take one to the vets today. £6 consultation fee (about 2 mins as the vet wanted to go home) then £20 for eye drops for a week, then we have to take her back for another consultation so more fees. They were £30 for a the pair, so I've almost spent that again on one already for treatment

Appreciate mine is pretty minimal cost but does anybody have any horror stories?

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Yep few days ago took dog for some oral antibiotics, £25 consultation and £50 for antibiotics =£75. Not bad for 3mins work

CharlySkunkWeed

iTrader: (7)

Used my local vet when my last dog had epilepsy . . . . .pure ripoff and seemed very uncaring to boot. Also very vague and keen to medicate. Had to get the dog put down eventually and when we got our new dog i said we are changing vets too. This new women is a farmer type , in just a kitted out portacabbin. Cheap as very few overheads , no appointments just 1st come 1st served , open quite late , usually in and out in 20mins . Straight to the point , no BS , knows her stuff and is very genuine. The place is always packed and she is very popular .

FFS the other place i had to wait half an hour even with apointment and always came away thinking i'd been ripped off , and none the wiser why !

saints_forever

£25 just for consultation, ouch!

Sounds like our vet, we're stuffed though as we live in a village and the nearest other vet is a little drive away, guessing that's why their prices are expensive because they know people have to go to them!

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

............just wait until you have a horse

Shaun

STi8

We've always given our dogs bones, and inevitably they get stuck from time to time. In the old days, the vet would listen to what's happened, give you liquid paraffin to give to the dog and let nature take its course. £15-20 max.
These days, they admit the dog, give it a general anaesthetic, X-rays etc. £250 thank you very much. We now keep our own bottle of liquid paraffin.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

My mother in law has a miniture dash hound. cost about £500 one day she just stopped walking. took her to the vet and needed an operation £4500 later and then last week they noticed a lump on her. Another £500 to have the xray and removal. they are just awaiting the results to see if it's cancer.

Me I would have thought long and hard about paying out so much for a 'dog' but then if it was one of my dogs I would do it without a shadow of a doubt.

My Rabbit beano was £15 IIRC from pets smart years ago. She broke her leg £300 for repairs and then X amount for medicien for 3weeks. Worth every penny.

I think the costs are so expensive because in this country people don't like to see animals suffer and the vets can exploit this.

If you show your on benifits you'll get a reduced rate at some vets.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

Are they cooked bones? Cooked bones splinter and get stuck. Raw bones don't and should pass easily.

Myles

iTrader: (40)

Can vets now advise on eating ready meals?

b road blaster

our dog fell down a hole he had dug himself (at 14 weeks old) and shatterd his back leg,
final bill for vets and treatment came in at just over 5k !!!!!!! he only cost 750 to buy.
as luck would have it he had been insured for 2 days and they coverd it all bar the 80 excess.

Leslie

They certainly don't sell themselves short I must say!

Les

adamb87

our dogue de bordeaux jumped out of the bedroom window and broke his back 5500 later he is as good as new . luckily upto 4000 was insured

adamb87

whoa how big is that picture haha dunno what happened there !!

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Now that's an ace looking dog, but at 1500-2000 for a puppy is a bit deer.

toneh

iTrader: (1)

I've got a jack Russell ( dave ) and when he was a pup he took ill wouldn't eat, drink or stand up
I took him to the vets and they gave him a jab and some pills , still no change
So they had him in overnight for tests and didn't find what it was
So gave more pills

They said they could run more tests but obviously would cost more
The cost so far was £700

I decided rather than keep prodding and poking him and feeding him tablet after tablet to leave him and let nature take its course

But I carried on feeding him tiny bits of chicken and water from a tea spoon , and very slowly started to recover , no jabs , tablets or anything

They never found out what it was but still it cost me £700

Daves still well and good and causing chaos 5 years on

The great vet rip off

adamb87

well he is actually cross english mastiff but everyne who looks at him think he a pure ddb. so intead of 1500 he was 350 ;-)

PhilWrx100

Flea drops for cats from the vet are a bloody rip off aswell. Nearly 30quid for a pack of 4.(lucky they where doing a offer, 1 extra free! Wo ho!) i explained people must have died to produce these chemicals? The lady behind the counter didn't say much. Funny that
eh.

gpssti4

iTrader: (6)

My friend's dog (which he brought back from Oz) has cost him about £10k to sort out a health issue - Parathyroid (SP?). She's had low Calcium in her bones and he needed a specialist vet to do an operation and post op care. He's happy if his dog is too!

adamb87

yep you will do anything for them and i think the vets know that so charge what they like!! haha

Worlasshasansti

We had to take wor lasses rabbit to the vets as his tear ducts were blocked, the vet flushed both ducts out @ £90 per eye then sold wor lass a bottle of eye drops @12.50 iirc, he had to go back a week later for a check up so they sold her another bottle of eye drops @12.50.

I googled the eye drops when she told me as I was fuming with the vets, they were human eye drops and readily available on the net for about £2 a bottle!

I deal with the vets now as the other half is far to polite and willing to go along with what they tell her.

Mick

Adrian F

My vets arent cheap £30+ for a full consultation £17.50 for a short consultation but the service is brilliant and my vets is much better than my GP's in fact I wouldl not tolarate the rubbish nhs for my dogs.

Ring up in morning get appointment, take sick dog in get operation next day to remove tumour so much better than NHS

If you go private for the dentist's they charge a lot more than vets and all they do is have a posh chair and drill holes in teeth.

pslewis

My girl cost me (I self insure) around £2500 in her final 2 years.

I cut costs by buying medicine online .... she needed Metacam, £85 from the Vets, £20 for the very same online!

Then, they got arsey when I asked for a repeat prescription .... for which they charged me £25!!

They are in the same group of money grabbers as Dentists - I'm not sure why they are such a greedy group - do they learn it at Uni?