Following on from Vacc's charges... How can they vary so much, legally?

Just wondering how and why vets charge what they want for their vaccs?

Obviously they have slightly different suppliers but how can they vary so much, legally?

My vets charge £10 for myxi and £12.50 for VHD. Another local vets charge £19.09 each and I've seen members on here paying over £30 each :shock:

It's ridiculous and no wonder people refrain from getting their animals vacc'd, the vets should be encouraging preventatives not deterring them :evil:

There should be a maximum they are legally allowed to charge, and not make a big profit on animal medication :?

Hi,

I totally agree with you. I am not surprise why many people do not vaccinate their rabbits if they find out that their vets charges about £30 per vaccination. Even though they should, which is sad as it is a horrendous disease rabbit could catch. It is expensive, even our Labrador vaccination was cheaper than my rabbit's!!

I was gobsmacked when I read how much most of you were paying yesterday - Now that is a reasonable and fair price to pay. You are right, vets should be encouraging and understanding when it comes to cost on particular animals.

Now I am trying to find a different vets which is cheaper but good as well - I seems to be having some difficulties with this

Again you are right, they should not be making some much profits on animals medication when they should be helping and concentrating on animal’s health rather than profits. :evil:

If you do make a campaign about this I will join you!!!:lol:

I had a talk with my vets about this and they are the lowest in my area because they want to encourage people to vaccinate their rabbits. I don't get discount on vaccines as my vets feel they are cheap already at £11.52 each.

i would vacinate but our vets overcharge us on EVRYTHING they cost more than every other vet thats why im looking around!!!! for a new vet

My vets charge £19.50, but i now get them for the reduced price of £12.50

Well vets aren't charities so they basically only have a few choices. Provide vaccinations at a loss and put the rest of their prices up. Provide them 'at cost' or charge them the same as everything else. Considering the vet consultation fee is usually around £20 it's not surprising that vaccinations are similar. Although it would be nice if they gave you a discount the more rabbits you bring in at once as they can be done pretty quickly if they are all healthy.

My vet used to charge about a tenner each, but now its £15.15. each. x

timb0h said:

Well vets aren't charities so they basically only have a few choices. Provide vaccinations at a loss and put the rest of their prices up. Provide them 'at cost' or charge them the same as everything else. Considering the vet consultation fee is usually around £20 it's not surprising that vaccinations are similar. Although it would be nice if they gave you a discount the more rabbits you bring in at once as they can be done pretty quickly if they are all healthy.

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I'm guessing at such low prices my vets do provide the vaccs at cost.

However they are expensive for everything else (neuters extremely), but they are by far the best in my area and I am happy to pay for their knowledge. I think that not ripping us off for a vaccine and actually encouraging owners to vaccinate is better than charging £20 for a neuter that may go horribly wrong or cause the animal pain.

It would be interesting to know if the vets who charge £20+ for vaccs charge for extras such as nail clipping :?

vicki267 said:

Obviously they have slightly different suppliers but how can they vary so much, legally?

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Free market I guess...if you don't like the price at one place, you're not forced to go there.

Vets have substantially greater overheads (greater both in cost and number) than companies simply selling drugs; they have to make their money somehow...it's just for each practice to determine how they balance their 'profit' margins between vaccinations, surgical procedures, drug prices, consultation fees etc. If vaccinations are cheap but consultations are expensive, that too doesn't do the animals any good if people won't take poorly ones to the vets. Likewise if consultations are cheap but vaccinations are expensive, people may not vaccinate.

I think it must be very tricky for vets to balance all the considerations to come up with a sensible compromise in each area of their business. They're probably one of the very few types of business out there who exist both as a service industry yet also as a profit-making business (although I bet most 'profits' actually get reinvested in the practices).

vicki267 said:

I'm guessing at such low prices my vets do provide the vaccs at cost.
It would be interesting to know if the vets who charge £20+ for vaccs charge for extras such as nail clipping :?

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My vet charges £28 for myxi, £23.50 for vhd, £95 for Cookie's plums off and will be £120 - £150 for Sooty to be spayed. They don't charge for nail clipping and if your pet has an on-going condition you don't pay a consultation fee, you only pay for the actual treatment recieved.

I know that my vet is quite expensive but they are very good - one of the partners used to work at the Vet school in Edinburgh. I don't mind paying more when I know my pets are in good hands. I'd rather that than pay less and have someone operate on my babies that don't really know what they're doing. I have tried a cheaper vet when I first got Cookie and I nearly slapped him because he was going to do the innoculation in his back leg! Thank goodness for RU.

I think you also need to bare in mind the number of rabbits a practice sees, as the vaccines are provided in multiple doses and any unused at the end of the day needs to be thrown out.

Those that see more bunnies are more likely to recoup their costs by selling multiple doses from the same vial whilst others may need to recoup the cost of the whole vial on one or two injections.