[Closed] Unexpected very high vet bill

Joint responsibility though, surely. If your friend didn't ask the vet beforehand, how much did they expect it to be?

Folk I know with dogs wouldn't quibble about almost any price - and have insurance in any case.

In my experience as a dog owner whose dog has been in overnight (twice) is that the estimated bill was discussed and payment method agreed upfront. First time was a relatively small amount, second time was much more expensive (relative to the first). £300 for the first time and in excess of £900 for the second. But this included moving to a second vets and their costs.
But, we are covered by our insurance.
Impossible to say why this wasn’t the same experience your friend encountered. In my opinion as a dog owner, insurance is vital, but also understand some people may not be able to afford the monthly payments, ours is approx £50 a month. (Choc lab with history of rear leg problems)

Guessing over 1k?

I always ask a cost, and to be informed if it's going to be £££s - mercenary as it is even my dog has a spending limit.

Probably a good few hundred quid or more. We’ve spent thousands in various investigations and treatments for one of ours who has arthritis in quite a few joints and heart problems  luckily PetPlan have picked up the bills for those and for the regular drugs he’s on for the last 7 years now.

I’d be amazed if the vet didn’t ask if they were insured and then if they said ‘no’ tell them what it would cost up front. We’ve never had otherwise from either our vet or the various specialists (cardiologist, orthopaedic etc...) ours has been to.

Having been through similar with our pooch, I'd say around £2000.

But as above they normally ask if you are insured, as it is a tick box that is pulled up every time an animal is taken into the vets.

Not complaining as it is our choice to have pets, but our dog costs more to insure than the house and its contents !

Human surgery.

Complicated, needs a lot of skill and is a well rewarded profession. NHS covers most costs but is lusted after by foreign health providers & drug companies

Animal surgery. Not far off. Lots of training needed and an animal is as highly regarded by its family as a human. Without insurance it is massively expensive - hence why every pet owner pays it

Bargain compared to how much we’ll have to pay for healthcare

Did they get a cat scan & a lab report?

Houns makes a good point there. We have private medical through work and I cost them £130 a month (and me some tax, but it's worth it for the times I needed to use it)

My best guess based on experience of a similar thing around the £1k mark.

We've got insurance so dont really ask about costs but for anything out if the ordinary the vet usually gives us an idea or what to expect

This needs a wider audience...

Did they get a cat scan & a lab report?

I'm guessing £1456

Insurance claim Shirley.....

A vets priority is to look after the animal, not whisper pleasantries into the humans ear and give a shoulder message when giving the expected cost.

The owners should have insurance and should have asked for an estimate.

I always wonder how eye wateringly expensive it is to get treated by the Supervet, Noel Fitzpatrick.

Folk I know with dogs wouldn’t quibble about almost any price

I always thought they basically rip you off blatantly but as alluded to above, the nhs gives us a false idea of costs where humans are concerned. 😦

One meeeeeeeellion dollars?

£800.

Assuming his pet insurance will cover the bill?

Our pooch required a double perineal hernia op last year (new arse in layman’s terms). Referred to Fitzpatrick referrals with bill in excess of 4K. Insurance paid most of it but we were still left with a sizeable chunk. They did a good job though - we’ve nicknamed him Kim Kardasian.

Took our dog in, listless, didnt want to move etc.
The Vet said he'd have a look.
2 hours later, we got a call saying they'd operated and cut out a tumour from his stomach. £800 please.
That was rather a shock.
It was reduced eventually to £600, as the S-i-L worked there, so got a staff discount. Even so, it stung a bit.
And the cancer came back, he died a year later.

When Jake wasn't well and required more and more tests I'd kept asking the total of the bill after each visit so there was no shocks, £850 it cost for him but by having a conversion it wasn't a shock.

We've had our cats in overnight etc loads of times. The vets are always super clear about costs, we have to sign a form with the costs outlined before they'll take the cat in. Normally a few £100 for over night plus all the blood tests / xrays etc. I think £900 is the highest single bill so far.

We also get an itemised bill, each item seems pretty reasonable, just a lot of things involved in basic stuff eg a single X-ray involves sedation, the x-ray, time to interpret it and reviving the cat etc, so a lot of ancillary work which takes time and money...

"I always wonder how eye wateringly expensive it is to get treated by the Supervet, Noel Fitzpatrick."

A friend remortgaged his house to pay his Visla's bill...

A cat scan at the supervet's oncology dept on my late Jack Russell was nearly £3k...

Our vet did suggest a £2k MRI for one of our cats who had neurological issues. I asked them to list every possible diagnosis and what they could do e.g. stroke, brain tumour etc. They were all inoperable, so the MRI would only have been to put a name on the condition. Poor thing had to put down shortly after than as he decided he no longer needed to eat or drink.

I always wonder how eye wateringly expensive it is to get treated by the Supervet, Noel Fitzpatrick.

https://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.co.uk/veterinary-professionals/price-guide/

Seems about average.

We had the 'unnecessary scan' offered also for a paralysis disease in our old dog, suggestion being she'd eaten something bad or been bitten by a snake. We'd already done the emergency care vet overnight stay at that point. The only benefit of the scan would have been to say she'll die or not die. We didn't go for it, she recovered over a period of weeks with home care (at times very messy) and went on to live many years longer. The vets were great and very open about costs/benefits.

x rays, and some tablets and injections and a night in a cage at vets

If it was just that (x-ray but no scans) then should be around £4-500.
£50 for tablets and injections
£150 for overnight
£300 for x-rays

Vets that have in house overnight care tend to cost more as they have to cover the costs of providing it.

After we had a puppy hit by a Land Rover I was asked by the vet if we had insurance. We did, he mentioned they had a two tiered pricing structure to help out people without insurance. Not sure how I feel about that.

Having said that the surgery the dog needed was well over £4.5K and this was 15+ years ago, without insurance it was still going to be so costly we would have been left with a very difficult decision to make about the value of a dogs life.

1970s style hessian bag,bricks, pond
Or
Spade over the head

Much cheaper !

*for the record we’re a house hold of dogs and cats and wouldn’t choose this method.

Couple of times it’s been mentioned “that’s why every pet owner has insurance”. Well we do for a horse, but haven’t ever for dogs. I insure things where I have to such as the car or the mortgaged house, or where I can’t, or don’t want, to pay the biggest likely bill.

I understand that insurance does spread the risk across those insured, but there is also decent profits made by insurance companies and, where I can afford not to, I don’t want to be part of paying towards those.

We have a direct debit to put the equivalent of an insurance premium into a separate account each month. So far we are quids in and could cover the biggest feasible bill for a dog twice over. Obviously this wouldn’t have worked how we wanted if our first dog had been sick in the first couple of years of its life, but that was a calculated risk.

As the to OP’s question. No idea I’m afraid, we’ve been pretty lucky so far.

I seem to have missed the answer, or are we all still playing the ‘lets have a wild guess’?

Perhaps the OP’s friend can’t afford the internet anymore after paying the vet bill?

Couple of times it’s been mentioned “that’s why every pet owner has insurance”

Yup I don't either never have paid some big bills but over the lifetime it's been cheaper than insuring.

I seem to have missed the answer, or are we all still playing the ‘lets have a wild guess’?

It's probably the word "unexpected" in the post title that's the issue.

+1 to no insurance, just self insure.

Well it is insurance after all. You have winners and losers. I have two dogs that have a few conditions (one has an auto immune issue) and the average cost of vets bills per year for the last 3 years has been over £2000 for each dog.
Self insure doesn't really work too well if the illnesses are in early life rather than later.

I am glad I insured them...

Just to put some perspective on it, I have a number of surgeons as clients and I was told not long ago that an operation room costs over 60 euros a minute to run. Many vets surgeries have equally high tech machines and equally highly trained personnel.

Our dog was in last month for an X-ray under anaethetic done as day patient followed up with consultation with vet and prescription. Can't remember exact cost but around £270. Cost for the experience and facilities seem reasonable to me. For something involving an initial consultation, prescription, then follow up check a week later the second check is free.

For OP add cost of overnight stay to £270 and £400-£500 would seem reasonable. As cost is thought a rip off I'll guess £1000.

We have had the same vet for 29 years now. Self insured for 3 past dogs, 2 current dogs, 1 past cat and 2 current cats. Miles ahead over being insured.

Am I being really thick here? I still can't see how much the bill was. Are we still guessing?

How much?

A leg and another leg?

Having picked up a puppy a few weeks ago and had a similar experience on it's first trip to the vets, i'd say £900 ish.

We asked the price before they took the dog away, because you know, we're not silly and know they are trained professionals and there time and expertise are costly.

Come on then?

You've played the rip off vets card and been given some honest responses, how much did you pay?

A vets mechanic's priority is to look after the animal car, not whisper pleasantries into the humans ear and give a shoulder message when giving the expected cost.

The owners should have insurance and should have asked for an estimate.

people aren't always thinking straight in these sorts of situations. the professional involved should be.
the vet should have given an approximate estimate of cost unprompted. would you expect anyone doing work for you to assume you'd just write them a blank check?
hope the dog is OK.

No pet insurance here.

Booked an appointment for our cat as he has a chipped tooth. Took him in, vet gave him a thorough examination, said tooth was OK, no need for further treatment. Guess how much that check-up cost - I'll reveal all at mid day 🙂

Was it unexpected though?

When we had our first dogs about 25 years ago, insurance premiums were £100/year - these days, it's £100/month. We stopped paying the premiums when the excesses / exclusions started to rack up - we buy premium bonds instead and the account sits somewhere north of £10k. We did have an overnighter recently - elderly basset hound with suspected bloat, X-ray and intubation came to £1200.

Doesn't matter how much the bill was. The norm today seems to be to get other people to pay your vet bills by exploiting their levels of compassion via crowfunding.