It cost us £625 for a vial of adder anti venom when dog got bitten. We needed to buy 2 but only 1 got used as far as I know. It was a £1500 bill all in with an overnight stay…

 one of the medicines she was prescribed turned out to be identical to an off-the-shelf human one for 1/10th the cost. 

I’m sure vets were stopped from using identcal human options. They have to use specific animlal ones that have gone through all the tests. Hence the cost.

Not sure how many of you have private health insurance but I have used it for a few operations and so has my wife. You get to see the itemised bill of what the costs are.
I had 3 operations on a broken finger and the total cost was £10,000, that was with no overnight stay but included the consultations etc,. Just the charge for the anesthetist was around £800 each time.

All the equipment, skills, cover etc,. for my finger operation are very similar to a animal having the same done in a vet. I don’t see vets costs as high at all.

I’m sure vets were stopped from using identcal human options. They have to use specific animlal ones that have gone through all the tests. Hence the cost.

Vets can prescribe human medicines but you need to sign a waiver. I took a prescription to Boots a few weeks ago from the vet.

 I took a prescription to Boots a few weeks ago from the vet.

Interesting, currently in discussions with my vet over pain relief medication for our dog.

My parents cat had a bowel issue, essentially needed a very small amount of liquid laxative mixed in to his food. Vets strongly suggested that what they were prescribing was the same as the human one. which could be purchased much cheaper at a pharmacy. Just couldn’t explicitly say it.

Who knows what she was up to in the lounge but I heard the dog yelp from upstairs, came downstairs to find her looking very sorry for herself.

She couldn’t put weight on her right front leg and was yeling when I gave the wrist joint a little squeeze.

Off to the vets we go (one a Sunday…gulp) by the time we get it’s visibly swollen.  Vet gives her the once over,   a shot of dog anti-inflammatories and I’m told to bring her back n the morning for x-rays.

Walk down to the kitchen in the morning, open the pen and she bounds out like nothing ever happened, little bugger. Still take her in to the vets but she’s given the all clear with the proviso of no off lead charging around for a few days.

£176 bill…Insurance excess is £100 and seeing as we’ve made one claim already, I just paid it.

One of ours is just going under the knife right now, £1800 to remove an intestinal blockage, that’s on top of £450 worth of xrays, ultrasounds, blood tests so far….

Starting to think that self insuring wasn’t such a great plan after all, especially if it turns out to be FIP, which is terminal.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2i9ifoa]Bertie at the vets[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

Re drugs prices.

Digby is on three medications

Furosemide a diuretic costs around 7p a tablet

Vetmedin make the heart beat stronger around 60p a tablet

Cardalis keeps the heart sack fluid free 50p a tablet.

Daily costs are 75p for Cardalis, £2.70 Vetmedin and 28p for the diuretic. Insurance is currently covering all this.

I’m sure vets were stopped from using identcal human options. They have to use specific animlal ones that have gone through all the tests.

Our vet is prescribing human-suitable steroids for our cat, we have to cut them into quarters to get a low enough dose though………….

P-Jay

Member

Funny enough, before the advent of pet insurance nobody was told their pet needed £1000 worth of work……

No, the vets said “sorry, Fluffy has got to go to sleep now…”

I think there’s probably more than a bit of truth in that, then again I’m sure Cats and Dogs didn’t cost four figure sums either.

What’s ballpark for pet insurance now? My lot have been bending my ear about a Cat, I’m sure it’ll become my soul responsibility and I don’t want to spend £1000 in the final weeks of it’s life again,

There’s truth in this. People paying huge sums for over-bred and/or designer dogs – often more prone to needing veterinary treatment – are also ripe for having their pockets turned upside down for other services.

In short, yes – being a vet is a licence to print money.

By degree subject, veterinary graduates have the third-highest median earnings, after medicine & dentistry in first place and economics in second.

Mine isn’t insured and has just been diagnosed with diabetes. He’s been pretty healthy the five years I’ve had him but getting a bit of fear how much it’ll end up costing!