Rip Off Vets

[howa243]

(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]).

Am interested to read this. I don't mind paying for a service but the cost of antibiotics (as an example) from my local vets is really much more than I can get off of the net. I understand you need to make a living but selling antibiotics to someone is unlikely to be a main source of income. I know that I can get them through the post but need a local vet to provide the paperwork. Its not an ideal system.

 

[6pointer]

A small wound like a 4 inch gash i would fix my self but have used my vet for stuff i have no control over my bitch a few months ago eat poison and was in for 4 hours and was given to different types of oral medication. She was down for two more days and went back to the vet for a second check. The second check said she was fine and was doing ok. the bill for the two visits was £48. I can live with that and he is the busiest vet i know.

 

[howa243]

Could it not be deemed causing unnecessary cruelty leaving a wound open for an extended period whilst seeking professional help instead of attending to a wound in a more timely but fashion albeit with a short term increase in pain to the animal caused by not having access to anaesthetics?

 

[Lakies]

that is ridiculous, and it cant be polished up, 700+ for a stitch up is ridiculous, iv been through a few vets up here because of one reason or another mostly because theres vets that don't have a clue, luckily now I have found a good vets, to be honest im sitting here amazed at the price you've been charged mate if I was you I would look into vets now that are recommended by other people around you that way should you be unfortunate enough to need a vet youl have one, as a man who keeps lurchers iv had a few scary vet bills 2000+ and even when I have needed a dog stitched out of hours it has never been more than 200 that includes emergency fee, and that was with previous vets I dare say it would be better now with my good vet.

 

[Apache]

Am interested to read this. I don't mind paying for a service but the cost of antibiotics (as an example) from my local vets is really much more than I can get off of the net. I understand you need to make a living but selling antibiotics to someone is unlikely to be a main source of income. I know that I can get them through the post but need a local vet to provide the paperwork. Its not an ideal system.

Every bit of income counts. If I lost all my drug sales then fees would have to go up a lot. It's very simple economics. Vet practices don't make huge money - there is a lot tied up in drugs, equipment, and overheads such as staff. If you want the vet to stay open then they have to make profit or they will close down. If everyone decided to get drugs elsewhere you'll be moaning how fees have gone up. You will end up paying more in the end supporting two businesses with overheads rather than one!

This dog needs antibiotics now. It was given an injection and would need to start tablets on Monday. The very soonest you'd get them via the internet is Tuesday. So you take an injection and 2 days tablets from me and you want a prescription for 3 days worth of tablets? I promise you that by the time I have charged for a written script for 3 days worth of tablets you will be worse off than just buying 5 days worth from me. What if they get caught in the post and don't turn up until Wednesday or Thursday?

Could it not be deemed causing unnecessary cruelty leaving a wound open for an extended period whilst seeking professional help instead of attending to a wound in a more timely but fashion albeit with a short term increase in pain to the animal caused by not having access to anaesthetics?

The AWA 2006 is very specific:

Unnecessary suffering(1)A person commits an offence if—
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(a)an act of his, or a failure of his to act, causes an animal to suffer,
(b)he knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the act, or failure to act, would have that effect or be likely to do so,

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(2)A person commits an offence if—
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(a)he is responsible for an animal,
(b)an act, or failure to act, of another person causes the animal to suffer,
(c)he permitted that to happen or failed to take such steps (whether by way of supervising the other person or otherwise) as were reasonable in all the circumstances to prevent that happening, and
(d)the suffering is unnecessary.

​

(3)The considerations to which it is relevant to have regard when determining for the purposes of this section whether suffering is unnecessary include—
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(e)whether the conduct concerned was in all the circumstances that of a reasonably competent and humane person.

​

Duty of person responsible for animal to ensure welfare(1)A person commits an offence if he does not take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the needs of an animal for which he is responsible are met to the extent required by good practice.

​

(2)For the purposes of this Act, an animal's needs shall be taken to include—
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(e)its need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.

​

By attempting to treat sensitive tissue without anaesthesia would cause the dog unnecessary suffering. By allowing another person to do so is also an offence. Is a pet owner a 'competent' person to be stapling gaping wounds? Is the suffering 'necessary' - clearly not as the animal could have been rendered insensitive to pain with access to the correct drugs and equipment.

It is ultimately for a court to decide, but attempting to treat anything than the smallest wound would be a criminal offence in my opinion.

 

[Lakies]

not being funny mate but charging someone for a prescription because they could get anti biotics cheaper elsewhere should be an offence.

 

[Apache]

not being funny mate but charging someone for a prescription because they could get anti biotics cheaper elsewhere should be an offence.

Writing a prescription takes professional time. It takes me longer to write a physical prescription that it does to dispense medication and that time has to be charged for. Our computer builds a small fee onto the cost of the medicines to allow for the time for it been dispensed. I am perfectly happy splitting that cost out if people want to see it.

We are PRIVATE businesses that receive no government funding. You are paying for PRIVATE health care for your pet. I honestly don't know how much a doctor charges for a private prescription, but I bet it is many times more than I charge.

 

[Mutley]

Apache, do you think that this was a reasonable charge then? How much would you have charged on a Sunday for a few stitches? This is two weeks money for me, they had my woofer for 3 hours.

 

[Apache]

I'll send you a PM

 

[Lakies]

To dispense medicine doesn't take much time, sometimes a consultation can be over in no time a normal consultation say £17 then time to put a couple of tablets in a tub then charge for tablets etc. like iv said I always take my dogs to the vets whenever I'm unfortunate enough to need one but it is unfortunate that some people will try and treat a dog theirselfs because they can't afford a vet, at the end of the day only the dog will suffer, through keepering I was lucky to meet a vet so I know that rediculous prices don't need to be charged. An Internet site can sell say wormer or metacam tablets for a reasonable price if a vet could even compete with them then there would be no need to ask for a prescription, the fact that a vet will charge for a prescription were talking maybe a minute? When someone has already paid more than they should to have their animal seen proves the general point most have been trying to make on this topic and the sad fact is we need to pay it.

 

[countrryboy]

Must admit fair play for apache coming on here.

It is a hellish price that for a stitch up.

I'm very lucky to have 2 very good vet practices in my town both are mainly farm vets and are spot on, the bills are always very reasonable and their treatment/service is first class, i have 4 dogs the now and know i could save a bit buying stuff (wormers, advantix) online but the saving isn't that much, and i'd rather give my vets the custom.
It's the exact same as buying all ur guns clothing/shooting gear online then moaning when ur local shop shuts down. Support ur local business or else u'll lose them

 

[Apache]

To dispense medicine doesn't take much time, sometimes a consultation can be over in no time a normal consultation say £17 then time to put a couple of tablets in a tub then charge for tablets etc. like iv said I always take my dogs to the vets whenever I'm unfortunate enough to need one but it is unfortunate that some people will try and treat a dog theirselfs because they can't afford a vet, at the end of the day only the dog will suffer, through keepering I was lucky to meet a vet so I know that rediculous prices don't need to be charged. An Internet site can sell say wormer or metacam tablets for a reasonable price if a vet could even compete with them then there would be no need to ask for a prescription, the fact that a vet will charge for a prescription were talking maybe a minute? When someone has already paid more than they should to have their animal seen proves the general point most have been trying to make on this topic and the sad fact is we need to pay it.

Sadly because a number of people are dishonest we have to use special paper that cannot be photocopied and this is over a pound per sheet.

It can take anywhere between five and ten minutes to type the prescription out, check the details, get all the legally required information on there, find the details of where the client is going to send the prescription. We also post the prescription direct to the pharmacy of the clients choice.

The reason for being harsh is naughty clients sending colour photocopies of the same prescription to multiple sources. I will not hand over a prescription to a client without the pharmacies name printed on there and without posting the prescription ourselves.

A small number of bad apples spoil it for everyone.

On the whole we are slightly more expensive than the internet, but people realise what they get for their money (ie an instant service). No good if you run out of long term medication just before a long weekend etc. Some drugs we actually sell cheaper than the internet.

You won't like this but owning a dog is a privilege not a right. If you cannot afford to provide for the dog then take out insurance. If you cannot afford insurance you cannot afford a dog.

 

[sikadog]

A couple of years ago one of my labs hooked himself into a roping hook on the side of a trailer at full gallop and opened himself up from the back of his neck to the base of his tail.
I phoned my vet (I have used the same vet for 35 years ) told him what had happened and ask, how much it would cost to stitch him up or did I shoot the dog now.
The vets reply was he would have to have a look first but the cost would be about £250 ( not bad for 140 stiches ) but he did add VAT.

 

[Dawnraider]

Why the antibiotics ? dogs are pretty damn good at fighting infections,i know it was years ago now but one of my lurchers got hung up on a barbed wire fence and tore a large angled flap that no way I could deal with and she was stitched up by the vet while I held her with no anaesthetic never had no antibiotics either,she didn't seem bothered and made a quick recovery, i even had a big gash in my leg stitched when I was in the building game with no local as I needed to get back on the job,didn't hurt much and guess what I didn't need no antibiotics either.

 

[Lakies]

Apache I will agree dogs are a privilege, and I can afford my dogs not once have they ever not got what they needed infanct I had toggle surgery done not too long ago I'm sure you will know this isn't a cheap procedure, but the fact is why should someone who isn't as fortunate not be able to do what they love, because they are overcharged by a massive margin, I can understand you need to have hi tech equipment study hard etc but there is making a good living and then there is "taking the biscuit" I have a vet fund I add to and the fund builds up and when my dog needs treatment that's what they will get, there is dishonest people and for someone to need to go to the extreme level of photocopying prescriptions just to get cheaper medicine causes me a bit of concern surely there must be quite some difference in price for someone to need to go to the extreme lengths of forging a prescription to save money. Insurance is a great idea though they don't seem to like the idea of insuring a working lurcher and again the working dog man would need to lie to the insurance company to get insurance on his dog, for this reason I decided to just have a vet pot. Some vets don't know their arse from their elbow, and some are very good at their job, when you go into the vets you pay for their knowledge and equipment which is fair enough and I would never grudge paying a fair price for this at the same time I don't expect things for nothing just a happy medium, but to prescribe anti biotics that are just bought in in bulk to take from 1 tub to the next and give to a pet owner then to be charged a rediculous amount for drugs that cost a lot less just because the vets can grt them and the prt iwner cant and their pet needs them is a bit out of order surely the vets made the money from the treatment, like the jill jab for ferrets costs about £5 or less, 3 minutes and the jobs a goodun and its about £50. I think wel leave it there as we are going off subject and I am not saying you in particular overcharge but now I have a good vet who is a shooting man iv had a bit of an insight into how much I really have been overcharged for previous treatments from a lot of different vets, and the guy who started this topic obviously had the same problem as that was a rediculous sum of money for a 4 inch gash, a mate had an L shape cut down a dogs leg after barb wire this was out of hours emergency vets etc and was still around the £150 that I would never grudge paying but who ever charged this lad 700+ should be ashamed.

 

[John Gryphon]

Apache there is indeed a huge difference with station/farm dogs in Oz,used for pigs they get ripped to the *****house,roo`s rip dogs even worse at times...home help is whats the go 90% of the time as often injuries are out of a vets help by a 10 hour or more drive....stitch em on the spot and if a dog cant lick his/her wound another dog will do it for them,their built in antibodies work as well as anything usually.

 

[Spix]

).

As expected, the vet's opinion, I disagree in a friendly way, it's a free market, live with it. S

 

[al4x1]

I agree with the vet over that one I have changed vets a few times over the years because mostly cost and have a reasonable one at the moment, they know the dog and though I don't see them often its simple. However they were sold recently and now the staff actively suggest buying drugs online as they allegedly can't buy them at the same cost. Last example was 3 bottles of panacur their pharmacy cost was £25 a bottle, I bought online at £15 each thats not a small difference.
Obviously this charge is ridiculous but its the way things are going venture capital is being used to buy practices round here and they aren't silly its turning into a proper cash cow for them.

 

[Buchan]

I'll Apache in this. I'm not condoning the charge and he is right that the Vets Now business model is based solely on emergency work. When all vets did their own out of hours work there's no doubt this was not done at an economic rate, especially on the farm side. We (the profession) are quite open that we subsidised this with our medicine sales. All this has now changed with the internet and more practices are charging a realistic rate for their work. Our margins and profit haven't changed (except downwards due to the current climate).
Prescriptions - they take time and there is a professional responsibility for the medicine - look at the antibiotic resistance issues not helped by over the counter antibiotics in other parts of the word. A doctor will charge about £20 for this - with no VAT.
Chopping and changing vets might be good for your wallet, but it's not great from getting continuity of care for your animal.
And yes, I do think the charge for what seemed a straightforward suturing was high.

 

[Mutley]

This thread is really about Vetsnow and their ridiculous charges, it is not a dig a Vets in general as my experience with them so far has been good. If this had cost £250 I would have paid it out and not claimed on the Insurance as I would consider that to be fair. I only have insurance to cover for this kind of extortionate charge. It is the first time in 9 years of dog ownership that I have had to claim. My current vet has been good in general, but not being able to see them and being forced to use Vetsnow has opened my eyes, so I will definitely be moving to another one who will be there 7 days a week should I need them, hopefully resulting in more reasonable charges.
As for the doing it myself, with a cut that big I would not even entertain the idea, flushing it out with saline and covering with a dressing was as far as I was going to take it, getting it sorted promptly and properly was my main concern.