Rip Off Vets

Mutley

Well-Known Member
Out this morning tidying pens etc, Mischa my GSP is exploring close by as usual. She comes back to me and sits down by me licking the inside of her leg, I had a look and was horrified to see a gash on the inside of her back leg, she had sliced the skin about 4" long, which the skin had pulled open leaving a flap and exposed muscle. Washed it off with saline solution, had a look and there was no way that I was going to gather it up and keep it together where it was situated so we decide to contact the vets.
We get there and the vet has a look and says it is clean and tidy, no damage at all to the underlying muscle, but of course it needs to be closed, ok fine, how much is this going to cost? He goes off the get an estimate. Bearing in my it is just a straight forward stitching up, I nearly hit the deck when he quoted £6-700, :eek::eek::eek:, what a ****ing rip off, that includes a £150 Sunday emergency fee, I don't think that its only the woofer that has been stitched up.
We have got her insured and the vet was happy to deal with the company directly rather than me having to fork it all out, but that's not the point, its just like having a licence to print money as far as I can see.
 
Ouch! I had to read that twice to make sure i read it correctly.

Bet you are glad she is insured!

Hope she is well and is going to recover quickly.

atb

​nathan
 
WTF !!! Did the vet ask if the dog was insured before quoting that extortionate price by any chance. Their prices are excessive anyway but if they know your going down the insurance route then they see a golden opportunity to charge as much as they wont. I'd move vets in future if that's what their charges are. :evil:
 
I can't help but wonder whether the insurance companies have had role in persuading healthcare (human as well as animal) professionals that their services are worth far more than any patient/owner would reasonably expect to pay if the market had been left as nature intended.
 
A couple of years back, my vet told me on the phone I would have to pay £175 up front if I wanted to bring the dog in on a bank holiday. That £175 included nothing, just to be allowed to have an appointment because it was a bank holiday.

I promptly changed vets and have never been back to the original one since. I appreciate people have to make a living but some people rip the p*ss knowing as they do, people can be very emotional about animals.
 
we bought a staple gun from our vet encase such things arise, also gave us a small training session whist he stapled up out springers leg. they arnt all bad
 
We have just lost a 4 week old puppy from a litter, she was at the vets 2 days before she died there. Spoke to the vet on the phone and asked what the bill would be and was given a figure of £600+. Is that everything I asked, no she said we will have to add the fee for the cremation! I felt bad but I haggled and pointed out that they could use there normal clinical wast procedure and stuff their cremation fee. Talk about milking a situation and trying to play on people's sentiment and emotions.
 
Firstly and most importantly just picked up Mischa she is fine, as though nothing has happened. Two weeks on a lead though is not going to be fun for either of us. The way our vets work here is that they rotate emergency cover for the weekends, so this was not my vet, they are closed. The final bill was £741 (maybe the insurance did add some then) the initial quote was as is, we did not talk insurance before that.
Was talking to my mate and he was going to change to another vet, purely because they are there 7 days a weeks, will be looking into that one myself and moving asap.


mischabill.jpg

Copy of bill, seems a lot of stuff for a few stitches, see if you can work it out, I cant. Vets Now Emergency Cover. Avoid at all costs.
 
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My old dog had a cancerous tumor removed about 4-5 years ago, prices may have changed since. It was big and the local vet said it could be tricky job to get it all. I was expecting a bill near a grand. £350 and a lovely tidy job too. Vet said he was even pleased with himself!

As already mentioned, try changing your vet.

Wolfie
 
I keep 5 or 6 local vets numbers on my mobile. If I need anything I'm quite happy to ring round for quotes ; they all know that, not all happy but so what, the days of being registered at only one vet are long dead.

A while ago needed some antibiotics from one ; only after arriving home found they were out-of-date ! Went to another vet, sorted, then called my cc company and told them to reverse the original transaction. When the reversal filtered through had an irate telephone call from the first vet's company secretary ; he was more concerned about losing the money than about my dog, "thanks for phoning and get stuffed." They are some good ones, just treat the rest as order takers.
 
Did he or she wear a mask? They hung Dick Turpin for highway robbery, the are more expensive than private doctors for any meds go on the net for Pet Meds a lot cheaper, lots of running dog men I know stitch their own and make damn fine jobs as well I might say.
 
Never sure whether to respond to these threads or not. That is one hell of a lot of money for a 'quick' stitch up under general anaesthetic.

The 'problem' is your vets contract out their OOH provision to Vets Now (other OOH providers exist!). That is up to them and should be made explicitly clear to the owners. They are a separate company often running the out of hours work as a separate business. That business needs to turn a profit to remain operational. The out of hours work needs to charge a LOT more to cover the overheads as they don't have routine vaccines, drug sales etc to support the business and pay the overheads. Some nights you may need to pay a vet, a vet nurse and a receptionist to do nothing all night. That said your pet gets the services of a team of vets who are there, awake and haven't just worked all day. If your animal is sick it should get much better care at a OOH centre with staff there all night.

Vets like these OOH services because they don't have to work nights. The vet practices that use these services usually have to pay a subscription so the centres will cover the night work as (believe it or not) they would not cover costs otherwise. The sheer number of staff required make this very expensive. These centres sit very uncomfortably with me, but you cannot blame the vets for not working nights when given the option not to.

At my practice on a Sunday daytime it would have cost less than 1/3 of what you paid.

I can explain the invoice to you further if you like.

The moral of the story is to make sure you know what the OOH arrangement is with your vet. If they contract the work out find out how far you may need to travel in an emergency and the likely costs. It is almost always going to be cheaper OOH using a vet who does their own on call.

(re the chap who phones round different vets, I won't entertain that behaviour. It can get very messy when multiple vets treat the same animal. You find one you trust and stick with them. We are very good value for most things, if someone thinks they can do better then go elsewhere. I know what it costs to run the business, I know what I need to charge. My price is the price and it is fair. If you want to save a few pounds good luck to you, but take all your business elsewhere [although I can't refuse to see you in a dire emergency]).
 
741 quid? For something that the average aussie pig dog owner does on an almost weekly basis for nothing after their dogs get ripped by boars. There is a simple dog stapling solution to use if you cant use a needle.

A DIY basis? A few bucks! ..741 quid geezuz that makes me stark raving mad to think of the thief that billed you that for a 4 inch rip ffs!

http://www.pigdogsupplies.com/firstaid.html
 
I would strongly advise against stapling such a wound. Impossible to clean properly in a conscious dog. I may put a single staple in a tiny wound conscious, but trying to staple something larger without proper sedation/analgesia would lay you open to charges of causing unnecessary cruelty.

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 puts the onus on the owner to seek appropriate veterinary attention if required. Failure to act is a criminal offence.
 
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