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Vet Bills

Discussion in 'Serious' started by Mr_Mistoffelees, 7 Sep 2023.

  1. Mr_Mistoffelees

    Mr_Mistoffelees The Bit-Tech Cat. New Improved Version.

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    I know some here will be interested in this. The Competition and Markets Authority is launching an inquiry into the steep increases seen in vet charges. They want pet owners to get in touch and share their experiences.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66733077
     
  2. Spanky

    Spanky Multimodder

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    Watched this this morning! Poor woman literally echoed the rant i made a couple of weeks ago on the "Meh" thread. Wouldnt give me a 2nd round of painkillers for my cat unless i had a consultation @ £60 even though they see her 1 week beforehand , refused to give me a prescription so i could by the same meds online at 1/7th of the price.
     
  3. CrapBag

    CrapBag Multimodder

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    It's ridiculous, my dog is on heart meds now that cost me £40 every 25 days to keep her alive. I'm happy to pay it because I love her to bits but it's a lot of money.

    What gets me us if you have say £4500 insurance cover and your animal is properly unwell then funnily enough that's what the bill comes to give or take a few quid.
     
  4. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    My dog had to have some teeth removed, bill came to about £500. Insurance wouldn't pay because there wasn't a consultation in the past year stating that his teeth were okay :wallbash::wallbash:

    There's check-ups NOT mentioning that his teeth were bad, but apparently that's not enough.
     
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  5. DeadP1xels

    DeadP1xels Social distancing since 92

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    This is timely, I had to take my sons guinea pig to the vet yesterday. 6 weeks ago I paid £183 for antibiotics for a suspected UTI unfortunately this was 1pm on a Saturday so just outside normal hours. It appeared to return a few days ago so spent another £40+ with the warning it could likely be kidney stones and it may be something we need to investigate again.

    Got the quote, £151 to scan + £75 for sedation and anywhere up to £300 to perform the surgery if he should need it.

    When his other guinea pig passed away. I was most shocked to learn it would cost me £140 for a cremation if I wanted the ashes back... I'd have buried him in the garden if not backing onto a field with foxes.
     
  6. Cookie Monster

    Cookie Monster Multimodder

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    I believe this is due to them cremating a few at the same time. To give you the ashes back would mean cremating it on it's own, maybe with a good clean of the oven before hand. Don't ask me how I know this.
     
  7. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    It's about time there's some focus on these ****ers.
     
  8. Goatee

    Goatee Multimodder

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    In contrast, we have a dog who has had £500-600 worth of overnight treatment per month for the past 30+ months and multiple £2000 - 4000 hospital admissions at specialists and it’s all been covered.

    Total claimed is in the region of £25k I think so far!
     
  9. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    Thanks to your pet insurance though, right?

    Our dog had a pre-existing chronic condition that the insurance wouldn't cover, and the vets rinsed us incessantly.
     
  10. Goatee

    Goatee Multimodder

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    Yep, all covered on insurance. We have been with them for years now and its all been covered. Her first issues was a movement condition, its presents with siezure like episodes but she is fully awake during them. She has a secondary issue of encephalitis which may or may not be the cause oif the movement disorder / issue for which she has chemo monthly.

    She died during general anaesthetic and they charge extra for the resuscitation!
     
  11. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

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    As a husband to a vet, and knowing many vets as a consequence, I'm going to stand up for some of the industry here and address a few points.

    Living in a nation with nationalised healthcare, we have to idea how much a lot of the drugs cost off the shelf, at most we pay a prescription charge to the NHS or a few quid on optional bits to the chemist. The true costs of these drugs can be multiple times more than you'd expect.

    You also have a lot of the human-approved drugs being manufactured more cheaply thanks to economies of scale than the preparations made specifically for your particular animal. Vets are tied by their clinical code of conduct; if there's an animal-specific preparation of the drug they have to use it first, without any regard to cost. If they don't follow the code of conduct then, like doctors, they can be struck off for not following, that's your career and at least 5 years at uni up in flames.

    Most vet practices will either charge drugs at their cost, or charge a very small fee on top of the price to help account for their costs. Online pharmacies often do an amazon-style huge direct buy from the manufacturer and stash them in a warehouse, cutting out the whole supply chain and hugely undercutting anything the vet practice can hope to sell as an equivalent. Note that they're not always allowed to issue prescriptions for you to source it yourself, again either through corporate rulings or clinical requirements.

    Another point to consider is that the charges when you take an animal to a vet are decided already and out of the vet's hands - working at a corporate small-animal practice for example they have absolutely no discretion about how much the charges can be. At a friendly small practice run by the vets themselves they might waive an out-of-hours charge when it's a few minutes after time etc, but in the corporate world that's simply out of their hands.

    Insurance companies, as ever, are only in it for themselves - they will deny as many claims as they possibly can for the slimmest of reasons. The vets themselves are in constant war with the insurers to try and get them to accept claims, and the insurers will do incredible feats of gymnastics to avoid paying a penny where they can. They hire burnt-out vets who leave clinical practice and talented solicitors to defend claims too.


    As for the vets themselves, please remember that the vets really do care, they don't get into a job which is emotionally and physically draining just for a salary they could happily exceed being a store manager at Aldi for less hours, they do it because it's their dream. If they were only in it for the money they wouldn't be a practicing vet. As a profession their suicide rates are amongst the highest profession, unfortunately my Mrs' knew someone who took their own life as a consequence of the job. It's a rough undertaking despite how rosy you might think it is from the outside.

    Now I'm not saying that the industry doesn't need a check and balance, and it's certainly not perfect, but the immediate sentiment when vets costs come up is simply "vets are robbing bastards", when the truth is that's often untrue, or completely out of their hands. The toxic environment has a huge effect on their health, and it's often an almost-secretive society as a result.

    Just as a final point, if you're taking your pet to the vet and you don't understand their decisions, just ask - there will be concrete reasoning behind every decision, even if it's not immediately obvious from the outside.
     
    Scott C, deathtaker27, Risky and 4 others like this.
  12. Mr_Mistoffelees

    Mr_Mistoffelees The Bit-Tech Cat. New Improved Version.

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    Good to have the view from the vet’s side and, you’ve made sure I wil continue not to pay for pet insurance.
     
  13. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Complete topic shift, but if you're interested in this you can pick up older copies of the British National Formulary (BNF) pretty cheap. It's the book doctors use when deciding what to prescribe you, and it includes how much each drug costs the NHS. For some stuff, aye, it's eye-watering (look up chemo drugs, for instance - thousands of pounds) but for others it's the opposite (more common drugs can cost literal pence for a month's supply, a fraction of the prescription charge.)
     
  14. Goatee

    Goatee Multimodder

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    I think there is a distinction here between the veterinary practitioners who administers the care to animals / owners and the corporate system that veterinary practices are part of. Given the very similar naming usage and its use in everyday language "My vet's name is Isabelle", "I am taking my pet to the vets", "Sorry cant talk, I'm in the Vet waiting room", "I'm paying that massive vets bill from my credit card now" and BBC headlines like "Vet prices review over fears pet owners are being overcharged", so I guess that nuance is often missed.

    In terms of the people, I wholeheartedly agree with you that the majority of the vet practitioners (Vets themselves, interns, nurses, receptionists) I have come into contact with are amazing people, doing everything they can. Some are also empathy lacking drones who I imagine did great during academic training but cant communicate to people on a level that's appropriate.

    My reflection on your post is that its important to differentiate between the people doing the job - which you describe @Krikkit, and the institutions they represent - which I think is where the frustration lies.

    Same as blaming junior doctors for the NHS struggle bus.
     
    Last edited: 11 Sep 2023
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  15. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

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    I absolutely agree, and if anything we could use a new terminology to help, because the veterinarians themselves often receive it as a personal attack.
     
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  16. LennyRhys

    LennyRhys Fan Fan

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    We've had no bad experiences with vets, but the system sucks ass, especially insurance (as Krikkit pointed out above). Our cat was hit by a car earlier this year and needed an emergency appointment, which cost in the region of £1,000. She was very lucky to escape with just a dislocated hip, but she still needed surgery. The two options we were given were approx £1,500 and £4,000. The insurance company covered some of the emergency bill but we had to pay for the surgery ourselves. Pet insurance companies are shameless charlatans.
     
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  17. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    So our kitty finally made it to the vets to be greeted by a lovely old vet who didn't think pointless blood tests were needed, was happy to give six months meds for her arthritis and gave her a clean bill of health.

    Nice to have a vet who knows how to handle your pet too, since it got amalgamated into a larger entity there has been a general downshift in vets there. Some of them act like they've never picked up a cat.

    I mean it was still a two hundred quid plus visit (mainly the meds) plus an expensive taxi before we got the horrid courtesy car but still.
     
  18. DeadP1xels

    DeadP1xels Social distancing since 92

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    Guinea pig bill continues to rise. Although, I have been very pleased to find my vet has avoided racking up unnecessary expense where possible such as sedation to scan. I would be happy to come to a conclusion soon though!

    18th July: £183.93 - out of hours + antibiotics & anti inflammatory.

    11th September: £40.56 - Antibiotics

    26th September: £97.08 - Anti-inflammatory + appointment cost on the 11th & 26th

    28th September: £129.40 - X-ray & Scan + New Antibiotic - No bladder stones seen by normal vet.

    30th September: Referral to exotics vet, thinks he can see bladder stones after all. Another X-Ray to see multiple angles - £167.40 determined he would need surgery booked in for the 4th Oct

    4th October: Taken a turn for the worst in last 24-36 hours, eating a lot less but all bodily functions working so vet believes he's just in a lot of discomfort. Rather than go in with surgery immediately they want to do some preliminary checks whether to go ahead. £69 Bloods, A third! X-Ray £70 to check other organs and £30 Sedation... Then they'll call me to determine the next course of action.

    Turns out the third X-ray revealed kidney stones and therefore non operable.

    final bill for X-ray, bloods, sedation & cremation

    £204
     
    Last edited: 5 Oct 2023
  19. Byron C

    Byron C I was told there would be cheesecake…?

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    I realise that I’m about to go off on a slight tangent, but I can personally attest to this.

    A couple of months ago I started taking Elvanse for ADHD, and because I had a private diagnosis I have to pay for private prescriptions (I am working on NHS shared care, but I have to finish titration first to find the right dose of the right medication). I’ve been moved up from 30mg, to 40mg, and now to 50mg - it’s likely that either this dosage will go up again, or I get prescribed a short-acting “booster” stimulant in addition to Elvanse.

    There’s currently a major shortage of Elvanse across Europe, and even supplies of Vyvanse in the US are extremely tight (Elvanse is the European brand for Vyvanse). It’s literally a supply shortage from the manufacturer, nothing to do with Brexit, Ukraine, or any other factors. There are no generic formulations of lisdexamfetamine at the moment - the US patent for Vyvanse expires next year, but the EU patent for Elvanse doesn’t expire until 2025. If you’re prescribed lisdexamfetamine then you’re getting Elvanse (or Vyvanse in the US). Because of the supply shortage, my last prescription had to be for 20mg and 30mg capsules.

    Normally, 28x Elvanse capsules costs just under £100 - that’s what I paid for the 30mg and 40mg. The most recent prescription of 56x Elvanse capsules - which, remember, will only actually last me 28 days - was £170.

    A good friend of mine is on the same 50mg dose of Elvanse and also has a second prescription for a “booster”. Unlike me however, she’s getting treatment on the NHS and because we’re both Welsh and living in Wales, she doesn’t pay a penny. She won’t even pay a modest surcharge if she has to have 20mg and 30mg like I did - all NHS prescriptions in Wales are free.

    I know we’re talking about vet fees here, but “we don’t really have an understanding of the true cost of drugs” is most definitely the case with nationalised health care.
     
  20. Mr_Mistoffelees

    Mr_Mistoffelees The Bit-Tech Cat. New Improved Version.

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    Time to dig up another stiff!

    22/05/24: Quick examination, flea tablets and a steroid injection to stop inflammation £122. There is some tiny insect in these parts, probably a mite, that causes an allergic reaction with the dog and, now after 2 years with us, the cat too.
     

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