We were quoted £159.00 to take one of our dogs teeth out. Get there this morning and there’s a figure of £294 on the consent form and another £47 for a pre-op blood test + any other treatments that may be necessary post-up.

Secretary is saying the vet would never have quoted that figure, it must have been veternary nurse. Even though my wife spoke to the vet directly, saw him key in the info and print the quote out.

Naturally we’ve complained, but what happened to sticking to quoted prices (in all walks of life). Seems everyone is out to sting people, and vets especially bank on insurance paying so seemingly make up figures as they go along.

Our vets have been perfect. Gave us all potential prices when we didn’t have insurance but still did the same after we got insurance. Open, up front and pretty clear. There was one case where we were charged something which wasn’t mentioned in advance, they waived the charge as we hadn’t been told about it in advance – they weren’t making it up just didn’t communicate it to us.
Couldn’t fault them – multi site practice in West Yorks.

Pricing? Well it made me glad we have the NHS for humans!!

Seems everyone is out to sting people

On a sample size of one? Good job.. (see also : all cyclists run red lights etc. etc.)

Conversely, I had my car in to get the valves walnut blasted yesterday.. the swines took the manifold off, checked and decided it didn’t need doing so didn’t charge me! What is the world coming to!?

To be fair on vets, 6 years at uni is a lot more expensive than a shiny suit from Primark.

Naturally we’ve complained, but what happened to sticking to quoted prices (in all walks of life). Seems everyone is out to sting people, and vets especially bank on insurance paying so seemingly make up figures as they go along.

I’m sure it depends on the Vet, but I know of at least one high-profile veterinary surgery that charges a rate at which they can make a profit to insured pets, and sometimes does uninsured cases at cost.

Pricing? Well it made me glad we have the NHS for humans!!

£250 is about the subsidized rate to have a tooth out on the NHS.

Actually, that’s a lie, they’ll do it for £23 in an emergency. The £250 is the normal rate and includes tidying up afterward.

I asked the private rate and decided I could wait 3 weeks………

Seems everyone is out to sting people, and vets especially bank on insurance paying so seemingly make up figures as they go along.

Sound like you haven’t got a clue how much it actually costs to run a vet, obtain qualification, do the work etc,.
Have you seen how much it costs for anaesthetic, operation time etc,. for humans?

£159 was never going to happen but guess this is the first time you have had anything done at a vet.

Have you asked another vet for a quote?

We use a mobile vet (fortunately not very often) who specialises in whippets. She knows we don’t have insurance, and prices are always reasonable.

£159 was never going to happen but guess this is the first time you have had anything done at a vet.

Yeah right. On the contrary – we’ve owned always had animals but have noticed a gradual decline in lack of regard for what things will cost. Insurance will pay so it doesn’t really matter.

Currently have a horse that’s up yo 7k in vets fees and still going.

What pissed me off at the door is if I’m quoted a written price I’d like them to stick to that price. If they’d quoted £300 we’d still have had it done.

Sound like you haven’t got a clue how much it actually costs to run a vet, obtain qualification, do the work etc,.
Have you seen how much it costs for anaesthetic, operation time etc,. for humans?

£159 was never going to happen but guess this is the first time you have had anything done at a vet.

Give it a few hours, the OP will calm down, speak to the vet, and it’ll all be resolved. Coin toss between the two prices though. £160 sounds low for a general anesthetic (I presume) etc, but doesn’t sound too low.

Yep, extremely expensive

What pissed me off at the door is if I’m quoted a written price I’d like them to stick to that price. If they’d quoted £300 we’d still have had it done.

Yeah, take it up with your vet. Doesn’t however mean that all vets are out to rip everyone off and the prices they charge for operations are still very low in comparison to people. They still have similar overheads, qualifications, anaesthetists etc,.

If you use private hospitals, dentists etc,. you will know that vets are not that expensive in comparison.

I know one vet and their practice is always completely up-front on costs, they actually tend to slightly over-quote so that they can give themselves a bit of wriggle room. They may well be expensive but that’s because we are completely insulated from the true cost of healthcare thanks to the NHS.

I don’t doubt there are the odd veterinary surgery that charges top whack knowing that the pet owner is normally there for a specific reason or an emergency but they are few and far between from my 40 years of having pets. They are definitely nowhere near the ineptitude of Estate Agents though!

£250 is about the subsidized rate to have a tooth out on the NHS.

Actually, that’s a lie, they’ll do it for £23 in an emergency. The £250 is the normal rate and includes tidying up afterward.

I asked the private rate and decided I could wait 3 weeks………

I don’t have a dentist due to there being long waiting lists and every September the students (who get priority here in Wales) take up everything. Had a tooth crack clean in half 3 years ago so phoned the emergency phone number and got an appointment at the Heath hospital which happens to be a University. As long as I agreed for students to observe or even do the extraction it was free. 6 hours later I was in a lecture room sat on the chair with a large group of students (mostly female, never had a female dentist before!) pretty much fighting over who was going to do it! Went really well and there was loads of banter while it was done. The lecturer even asked me if I’d be happy to be a ‘live model’ in the future as I have a few things in my jaw that would help future students. Done it 4 times now and every time I get a free lunch, as much tea as I can drink and to spend the day surrounded by some awesome young people who are the future of the country.

Vets are expensive…what’s new? I was charge £80 yesterday for a 15 minute consultation and an injection for my puppy so £259 for the vet to actually do something seems like a bargain to me.

Yep vets are expensive. The NHS is expensive, we just don’t notice how expensive as it just comes out of our taxes.

If you think its such a rip off then why not go on a 7 year veterinarian degree course and get yourself £100k in debt to fund it, get all the necessary qualifications you need, borrow a few hundred grand from the bank and set up your own surgery and undercut the market and make a fortune….

Sorry guys – just in a shit mood this morning.

We had a bad experience with our last vets when we lost our other dog in January. They were pressuring to try different treatments despite it being clear the dog was old and had had enough. We felt like we were twisting their arm to have him put to sleep.

I don’t have a dentist due to there being long waiting lists and every September the students (who get priority here in Wales) take up everything

Yea, I’m in England, but in a nice village/town on the M4 corridor. Rang around all the local practices and was told nope no NHS treatments, but we can do private this afternoon……

In the end I figured out this was literally a 1st world problem and rang up a practice on the wrong side of the tracks (the other side of the GWR through Reading) and got an NHS appointment (in 3 weeks but better than nothing) 🤣 .

£65.20 to have a human tooth extracted on the NHS. And that includes any other band two treatment you might need in the following two months. My private dentist charge £90 a go.

Our rescue cat cost us £1k in dental treatment – he had cat flu which meant he suffered ulcers and gingivitis. All cleared up by removing all his teeth. The vet cut the cost quite substantially as he was a ‘rescue’ and we were self funding. The others are all fully insured.

Three of our cats are on vaccination for life – £100 all in, free 6 monthly checkups and vaccinations for life. Nothing else to pay. Blooming bargain.

I’m always amazed at the naivety of people when it comes to vets. But I suppose I was there not so very long ago.

To answer the title question, like estate agents, vets need to make money. Some make that money ethically, some do not, most operate on a sliding scale between the two.

But the issue of pet insurance cannot be underestimated. It has without any doubt not only pushed up prices but allowed vets to carry out procedures on animals that they should never have done.

As for vets needing more than a shiny suit, most vets aren’t making money for themselves, they are charged by way of monthly targets with making money for shareholders, much like many estate agents.

As for the OP’s bill, I can quite believe they adjusted it later but obviously it may have been a genuine mistake on their part or the OP’s wife may have been mistaken. My dog had 11 teeth out for a similar amount. She is from Romania so her teeth were weak from a poor diet, she’d worn them down chewing on a metal cage and she had really bad breath which convinced me she needed treatment. Unless I see signs that she is in pain or they are bothering her in the future, she won’t be having any more out. She is raw fed which should help keep them clean. Kibble destroys dogs teeth and kibble is what most vets recommend they eat meaning their dentistry work never drys up.

@ the-muffin-man
Just seen your last post. Sorry for your loss. It was similar for me. My little terrier was pts in June. Same as you, I felt like I had to practically beg them in the end to let her go. I’d been stupid too and gone along with futile treatment prior to that.
If I thought they’d give a damn, I’d tell them how not only did they do a terrible wrong by her but they have left me struggling with the most horrendous feelings of guilt that I just can’t seem to get over.

For balance, I have another dog now. She got really bad sickness and diarrhea which ended up with her throwing up a large amount of blood at 4am. I called my own vet (a different one to that used with my terrier) and they said the vet was on another call (which i later learnt means is in bed, fair enough but at least be honest) and they didn’t know when he would be back and they couldn’t call him but it was up to me whether I brought her in. They booked me in for an 8.30 appointment.
I felt she needed help sooner than that so I called another vet and said I’m not even your client but I’m really worried about her. He had clearly been asleep and was understandably a bit grumpy but told me to bring her in. I did. She was being sick and toileting the car poor thing. The journey takes about 40mins so the vet had to wait for us as he would have got there sooner. Got to the vets, massive amount of blood came out of her back end. He took her in, put her on a hydration drip, took care of her, monitored her and called me in the afternoon to pick her up. He charged me about £140. I thought it was incredibly kind of him and was very grateful. So there are some good ones out there but they are increasingly few and far between.

Sound like you haven’t got a clue how much it actually costs to run a vet, obtain qualification, do the work etc,.

Comparing quotes and quality of care/treatment from two local vets. It’s the one that charge 2-3 times the price of the other that delivers the worst treatment.  They’re genuinely crap and I dont trust them with my dog anymore.

In the words of their receptionist “nobody worries about the price, its paid for by insurance”

So the question I have, is how can a Vets survive charging far less but providing better service with better vets? I can hazard a guess.

£65.20 to have a human tooth extracted on the NHS

Making good afterward (bridge, crown, denture) pushes it into band 3. Although I’m guessing that’s not offered to dogs 🤣

My dog didn’t lose her baby canines so had 4 fangs on the top jaw at 7 month age. We took her to have them extracted. Total bill was £192 inc vat.

@ piemonster
i can hazard a guess too but people can’t bear the thought that their vet is using their pet to make money which is why they get away with it.

I think they should be regulated as there is basically a monopoly, nearly all vets are owned by Independent Vetcare LTD who are owned by Nestle, who are masters of price fixing. A consultation three years ago was £28, now £48….

I had a shit experience recently, old cat not eating and with a history of hyperthyroidism vet immediately says we should run bloods based on the history, next day bring the cat back in for some meds and vet2 tells me the results are invalid as his last Vidalta was given the day before, well wtf didn’t vet1 tell me that. I called to complain expecting at the minimum an apology and ideally a reduced cost or free re-test only to be confronted by lead vet 3 telling me he was backing vet1 100%, he was super slippery and evasive saying vet1 didn’t even know about the thyroid, you wouldn’t have left your cat for 48 hours without treatment etc etc. I said you’re missing the point, I should have been made aware and it should have been my choice to make. His reply? Quite frankly Mr ***** I don’t care about your point!

The NHS is expensive, we just don’t notice how expensive as it just comes out of our taxes.

Anyone that has private healthcare knows though as you see the bill. I had 3 operations on my finger and the total cost was over £10K (and that was 10 years ago)

Anyway, as you are free to use whatever vet you like then shop around. We use 3 different vets depending on what type of animal it is for and what sort of illnesses they have.

@schrickvr6 Most of our local vets are now owned by CVS Group. A lot of vets who have owned practices have cashed in over recent years. A lot of junior vets and certainly vet nurses aren’t particularly well paid, so straight forward consultations don’t have high overheads.

I’ll happily pay for their expertise and experience, what galls us is the gouging on pricing.
Last dog had inpatient stay, they charged £17 for a giving set, cost pence to buy, and £70 for a bag of fluid, cost couple £. And they nearly killed him by giving too much fluid putting him in near cardiac failure.
We always question them both on plans and bills as have had dubious advice on many occasions. Wife is a medic and I’m a nurse and drwad to think how many are taken with their bad advice/ unnecessarily expensive treatments as blindly trust them.
Current dog took us 3 years of asking for thyroid bloods and treatment as they wouldn’t have it as an issue, now treated and significantly better health and quality of life.

I recently had a tooth extraction with a private practice dentist £90, was well chuffed.

I somehow Inherited a cat who didn’t have a home. Took him to the vet for a check up and apparently had inflamed gums and needed a number of his teeth out. 650 quid …..for a cat I’d had for less than a month!!

Luckily our vet for the last 30 years has been brilliant. Reasonable charges. Doesn’t over treat. Will discuss options and costs. Over the years has gone from a converted shop to a purpose built building where he and his partner and staff can do most ops themselves.

Actively tries to keep costs down. Example – our cat need a heart scan. Could be done immediately at local vet school at big £££s. He advised that the condition could wait a few weeks when he had a specialist with a portable scanner coming to the surgery to scan several pets in one session keeping the cost right down.

Lost our last cat last year, but bills seem to have gone up exponentially since the rise of pet insurance. When I was a kid if the vet wanted too much my mums approach was ‘ah, that’s a shame, I’ll pop into the RSPCA on the way home and get a new one.’ 😳

The price of vet treatment appears to be in direct correlation to insurance premiums – who knew! 20 years ago we could insure one of our hounds for £90 for the whole year – these days you’d struggle to get the monthly premium below that, plus the exclusions get more and more.

Having moved to the Highlands, we were delighted to find a recent consultation, an injection, urine test and 10 days of antibiotics came to £60 for our dog after she starting peeing blood.

saw him key in the info and print the quote out.

Was the vet not shown the quote that they’d printed out? Surely that would have avoided any further discussion?
Looking at these sort of costs is one reason I’m not interested in having a pet, quite apart from it not being fair on any animal when I’m not home most of the time.
Plus it’s costing me quite enough paying for the food I put out for the birds, and particularly the hedgehogs, fussy little sods that they are!

My dog came to me a bit accidently if I honest. She was adopted from Romania but it didn’t work out so I took her in as an emergency foster. She’s a lovely girl so I’ve adopted her now. But if it hadn’t have worked out like that, I’m not sure I would have got another dog. I can’t tell you how much I loathe vets. And I know there’s some good ones – I even met one the other day when she had to go to the emergency vet (in post above). I just hate having to stand there nodding as they lie to you, try up selling to you, patronise you and finally rip you off. Which brings us back to estate agents…

I really think my last vet must have been some kind of sadist. He told me to give a dog with stomach problems a high fat snack at night. He seemed to have really helped her with her arthritis so I took his word as gospel. It was only when her stomach got worse and worse that I began to question it and a quick google search told me it was exactly the wrong thing to do. I replayed the conversation in my head over and over because I thought I must have misheard or something but I definitely didn’t. I mean, I would have never have thought to give a dog a knob of butter before bed time.

They will always have work thought whilst there are idiot people around. I bumped into a dog walker the other day. She’s put her name down for a border terrier pup. We got onto cost. I’m going to get a bitch she said so she’ll pay for herself in a few years. Not that that’s really got anything to do with vets, I just struggle with people’s despicable attitude when it comes to other animals.

The only vet I ( sort of) know is a right wing xenophobic tory supporting hunting supporting idiot. So unpleasant I have blocked him on social media and will not speak to him again.

So in that sample of one vets are loathsome 🙂

I use a vets in Spain every year and they are much cheaper,very efficient and in a newly built unit that is immaculate. Obviously the lower costs must mean they are all unqualified.
When we see the vet in Spain the first thing they don’t say is ” the dogs teeth need cleaning,he’s got a small hernia,etc,etc “.
Instead of the pet passport there is now a health certificate required for pets to enter the EU. Some vets quotes are incredible. Up to £150 to fill in a form .These forms only last 4 months.But i can get a Spanish passport for the dog with the rabies booster for 50 euros or less and that will mean he can travel back and forth without being held to ransom by UK vets.

We pick our puppy up on Sunday morning

The above it’s great reading … lol

But I have question please….. Is it easy to over insure ?

Go with me here, for instance travel insurance it is very easy to over insure on a yearly policy…. for example silver cover might cost £100 to give you 500k worth of cover while gold at £200 gives £1m … thing is, no one has ever claimed anywhere near Im quid.

Is it the same pet insurance or am I barking up the wrong tree.

What insurance should I get pls

Just wanted to chip in about insurance and I think someone wrongly stated that ‘at least the pet insurance will cover it’. I’m with petplan so the best of the best and anything dental isn’t covered as it’s seen as preventative. They think that by cleaning the teeth and feeding rock hard kibble it will prevent an abcess under a tooth or that you’ve allowed them to play with and chew sticks which has caused the abcess. I challenge them to get my dog to play with a stick! Aint happenin’!

What insurance should I get pls

We have two dogs and two cats all are insured. The cats to around a 4k in fees mark for annual claims and dogs to 8k – significantly more for recurring treatment.

It costs around 80 a month to insure for all four pets, but we recently had a 1.5k claim for one of the cats who was admitted to the vets over Christmas… Generally, we’ve always been better off insured year to year.

I’ve got sympathy for the rising costs, but as has been pointed out it’s certainly not universal. My local vet was taken over by a larger firm, who immediately put prices up assuming everyone had insurane that would pay out at a drop of a hat. The service (empathy) for owners went through the floor (this was all over FB) and people started to move away.

The above was in stark contrast to when i used to have a Rotty that developed a horrid bowle condition,the same vet (before takeover) was brilliant, tried to keep things well within what the insurance would do and even advised that there was the same medication avialble a lot cheaper in non veterniary circles. My rotty was eventually moved to a specialist facility (a bit like fitzpatricks) where a lot more work was required, to the point the insurance company said they would no longer pay out – the practice ended up waiving about £3k of fees for her (they’d had a fair old bit already) knowing i couldn’t pay (this was all discussed upfront) bt they wanted to see her right. She eventually had to be put down and the local Vet who had started looking after her didn’t charge – pretty much eeveryone was upset that day.

Role on to a couple of weeks ago, new cat (rehome) take to vets for visual check up and a course of flea treatment -£90, most of that is the flea treatment which was a shock.. and yes Insurance premiums are stupid now – gone are the days of £5-10 qui a month, it’s adding zero’s to that.

What insurance should I get pls

For a puppy I would go with PetPlan lifetime up to £4K. With a puppy you really don’t know what is going to happen (puppy could even die of something) and PetPlan are much better than most at actually paying.
After the first year you will have a better idea of the health of your dog and if a very fit an healthy dog then maybe stop insurance and just put the money into savings to cover future costs as insurance increases with age and after a few years gets to the point where you are worse of.

Both of my dogs and the only cat we have insured have vet costs of over £1,000 each in first year.