Vet bills

The price is also highly variable in my experience, something simple like getting a Cat spayed has a different cost everwhere you go

Looks like you are in London, AKA rip-off City so £5000 is probably vastly more that it would have cost in a rural area
 
That sounds crazy expensive.

My 15 year old cat is currently recovering from being attacked by either a fox or feral dog in the woods next to our house which left him with 3 puncture wounds in his neck and a tear in his lower jaw.

- Surgery including stitches, staples and a bunch of drugs.
- 4 days and nights observation.
- Mini MoT including liver and kidney function tests.
- Another bunch of drugs to take home for his recovery

€394 and the vet was apologetic about the cost and started to run through the itemised bill (possibly because the rural French aren’t known for taking great care of their animals).

Cat wasn’t part of any care/insurance plan here as none of the French pet insurers would offer cover for a cat that was already 9 when we moved here.
 

Pet Insurance and the ever increasing costs

Can anyone here recommend any pet insurance other than PetPlan? Year on year the monthly payments have gone up, in spite of the marketing spiel “we don’t put your premiums up if you make a claim” maybe I should have claimed to activate that clause who knows? Lovely renewal letter was received...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
I could rant for hours about Vet bills, I swear that UK Vets simply prey on us being a nation of animal lovers. They're like modern versions of the stereotype tradesmen from the 1970s and 80s, you know...the *breath through teeth* ooh...I dunno love, looks bad, its gonna costya brigade. They do very little during a consultation or examination and then turn around and say right, thats £300 for the 20min examination, you'll need these 3 tablets and they are £150, so if you go to reception they'll take the £450 off you, thanks bye. *returns to counting gold coins into their pot*
 
Sorry to hear about your cat.

My parents paid ~£4k for their dog to have a hysterectomy in January time. Might have been even more than that as they were a bit embarrassed to tell me the amount.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
They’ve basically made insurance essential to have now. Vet bills have gone crazy.

Sorry to hear about your cat :(
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Like with cars though, this near mandatory insurance need leads to massively inflated costs both for insurance and for anyone paying as they go.

I also find it hard that there is no transparency. You go to the vets, their fees aren't displayed anywhere, you are told you need a drug or injection of unknown cost and come out to find a random charge with no explanation of what you're paying for. Might just be my vets though.
 
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Minstadave said:
Like with cars though, this near mandatory insurance need leads to massively inflated costs both for insurance and for anyone paying as they go.

I also find it hard that there is no transparency. You go to the vets, their fees aren't displayed anywhere, you are told you need a drug or injection of unknown cost and come out to find a random charge with no explanation of what you're paying for. Might just be my vets though.
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Of course. It’s almost intentional. We’re with Medivet that no doubt have a financial relationship with Petplan. It’s pretty seamless integration, but still a bit suspect. Ours have only recently started publishing prices.
 
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Minstadave said:
Like with cars though, this near mandatory insurance need leads to massively inflated costs both for insurance and for anyone paying as they go.

I also find it hard that there is no transparency. You go to the vets, their fees aren't displayed anywhere, you are told you need a drug or injection of unknown cost and come out to find a random charge with no explanation of what you're paying for. Might just be my vets though.
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So, I have a really detailed invoice, but just.. no ability to do comparisons prior, like. £1046.40 for an abdominal ultrasound, what does it cost elsewhere?

I know that the CMA is suppose to be writing a report about private equity takeover, but like.. are they going to do something?
 
drakioned said:
So, I have a really detailed invoice, but just.. no ability to do comparisons prior, like. £1046.40 for an abdominal ultrasound, what does it cost elsewhere?

I know that the CMA is suppose to be writing a report about private equity takeover, but like.. are they going to do something?
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Well that's about 3 times the cost of an abdo US privately in a human so sounds like a total rip off.
 
The most frustrating thing to me is that it's clearly not the vets themselves causing this massive inflation in costs.
There's no shortage of news articles about how being a veterinarian is an extremely taxing job and not at all well paid compared to other professions with comparable training.
I've read heart breaking accounts of (distressing)
vets taking their own lives after having to put down one too many animals
.
Where's the money going?
 
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drakioned said:
This is more of a rant than anything else, but... I feel like they have gone way over inflation each year.

I just had a cat diagnosed with lymphoma, and even just the diagnosis has cost about £5k.

I had a previous cat go through a similar cancer back in 2022 and I think it was half that.
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Sorry to hear about your cat, i hope you have insurance !?
 
drakioned said:
The most frustrating thing to me is that it's clearly not the vets themselves causing this massive inflation in costs.
There's no shortage of news articles about how being a veterinarian is an extremely taxing job and not at all well paid compared to other professions with comparable training.
I've read heart breaking accounts of (distressing)
vets taking their own lives after having to put down one too many animals
.
Where's the money going?
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Both my sisters are Vets and they certainly don't make much. Not only in terms of training but also the hours worked. My younger sister has 15years experience and the last i heard was getting about 35k near Aberdeen. Old was getting 55k outside London but quite because it was 50-60 hours a regular week then every 2nd weekend on call. She does locum work now.


One issue is people just don't understand how expensive health-care id in general because they are not exposed to thanks to the NHS. Unfortunately my wife has had major cancer surgery. Here in CH we see the medical bills and pass them on to insurance because there is a co-pay. Totaling the bills is around 200k for the surgeries.

The costs of equipment, insurance, drugs, and continued training is where most money goes. Successful vet practices will see the partners make reasonable profits but this is far from universal.
 
It's definitely taking the ****.

I'll tell you this: our vet bills for horses are absolutely dwarfed by what we pay for our kitten. They charge far, far less on the farm animal side.
 
drakioned said:
This is more of a rant than anything else, but... I feel like they have gone way over inflation each year.

I just had a cat diagnosed with lymphoma, and even just the diagnosis has cost about £5k.

I had a previous cat go through a similar cancer back in 2022 and I think it was half that.
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my mum spent thousands on vet cat bills over the years, a right bloody rip off, they end up needing stupidly expensive medication etc unless you want to put them down.

When I was a teen in the 90s I think she had about 6 cats, half of them were my sisters who left them behind when her and her bf moved out...
I think 2 or 3 of them got cancer eventually or tumours and she would try to prolong their lives as long as possible as long as they didn't seem to be suffering

get someone on benefits/state pension to take it to the PDSA lol (you can register upto 1 pet)
 
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It does all seem a bit mental. We adopted a french bulldog before Christmas and knowing what they can be like for issues I looked at petplan.
£167 a month for their lowest cover was the quote, which of course will only get worse. I just decided we will save the money and have other money around us to cover anything needed ourselves.
Plus there's the admin fee from the vet to deduct for any claim made to add to the expense!
 
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