Frustration at vet £££!!!

Sorry - a rant but I'm feeling really fed up -

I am feeling really frustrated with vet prices! My usual vet wanted to charge £97 emergency call out at 19:15 - quater of an hour after they shut, so it wasn't even like they had to come out! In my job we have 24hour cover on site (just in case) so why is there no shift work vets? And I have two baby bunnies that need rehoming and someone has asked if one of them is a girl to reserve her for them. How much to take them to the vet and get the sex confirmed? £18.50 - a consultation charge.
Is it any wonder there are so many "surprise" litters if the simple act of getting a baby rabbit sexed at the vet costs £20? I have 25 rabbits and plently of experience of vet waiting rooms but the costs still continue to amaze me sometimes. It's so easy to be critical of people who find themselves in a position of unwanted babies and unable to cover costs and unable to see their rabbit through illness but I don't think vets help. Surely it wouldn't be that much of a pocket wrench for them to provide a sexing service and only charge a fiver?
Plus - the consultation charge for rabbits at my vets used to be under "childs pet" but now there are so many people with rabbits they have changed their class to "exotic" nearly doubling the price just to cash in on them. :x :x

Again - sorry

Emergency wise, we have the same charge but the local vets use an emergency service so we have to drive an hour to get to a vet and then pay £90 for the privilage. And it's a 24hr clinic so the vets are there anyway!

I do think they should offer 'health check' at lower prices than consultations. So you can have a health check, sexing, weighing etc. you could have a nurse do that sort of thing - like with human patients.

Tam

Firstly nurses should be able to sex for free/minimal charge - when my BILs pregnant GP gave birth while staying with me the vet nurse didn't charge for sexing and even got the vet to double check when they were passing so I knew for sure.

I have to say even my most expensive vet didn't charge me an emergency charge when Zeus got stasis just after they shut as he was still there so just waited while I got to them.

However nearly all vets class rabbits as exotic that I have been to. Their treatment is a more specialised area of medicine than your basic cat or dog and most vets just don't know enough - it is usually only the exotic vets that have doen the extra courses that covered rabbits.

I did get stung by one vet at an old practice who charged for what I considered to be unneccesary treatment when my rabbit was critically ill (grinding molars when she had no trouble eating but was fitting) it is difficult to find a good vet, that you trust with your animals and your wallet!

Caz

you have my sympathy - my local vets is part of a chain in Barnsley and i find their prices too high sometimes - when Gus needed stitching after his fight with Lola it came to about £80 for the full treatment (admittedly this included antibiotics)

when Gus had his retrobulbar abscess he was diagnosed at my local vets - had an x-ray there (not done my usual fantastic vet and very poor quality), spent a day there (cost me £30 just for that) and had a few injections - the total cost came to around £450 - this included some repeat consulations but i thought the cost was appalling

i then took him to Frances Harcourt-Brown in Harrogate and he was there 4 days, operated on, had more x-rays, returned again on boxing day for more treatment - this only came to £450 too! how can the prices differ so much between surgeries?

i think the problem with our vets is that its a chain and they do put profit first as a group - my actual vet at the local branch is brilliant and obviously its not her who fixes the prices - she will also try to do her best to get the treatment as cheap as possible - but the chain itself i do think sets the prices too high

still i would be reluctant to change as my vet is great with rabbits and i know that its hard to find one that specialises in them

I recently took my bun to another town to get neutered as it was half the price of my vet. They told my sister that neutering is expensive for rabbits but they figured a lot of people wouldn't pay so they make it cheaper to encourage them. While she was at my sister's she didn't eat or poo so they told her to take her to vet's where she stayed over the weekend. I obviously wanted the best for her and was thinking oh no the cost but also well any cost is worth it to have her home and well. They kept her in all weekend and even told my sister to take my other bun in to keep her company. When my sister picked her up on the Monday it came to the princely some of £52!!!! I was gobsmacked as to see an emergency vet where i live is £100 before any treatment. This set up seems to be like a doctors where a few surgeries will offer out of hours service.

I agree with what has been said - we live in a society where things are open 24/7. Surely a skeleton service wouldn't be too much to expect without having to pay inflated prices. Vet's do amazing jobs but they seem to get paid amazingly well for it. I understand they need to make a profit but sometimes wonder how long it takes for them to forgot why they got into the field in the first place.

I have two vets....i know greedy me!! :lol:

One vet i have used since forever. They are a BIG group of vets, and in quite a BIG practice. I love it cos i can see a particular vet for whatever animal i am taking in.
Our dog had an allergic reaction. They are on call 24 hours, charge £65 call out. They gave excellent advice over the phone as my mum don't have too much money. She then went into the vets in the morning, had blood tests galore, and loadsa jabs and that came to £250. The vets were excellent and gave my mum 3 months to pay the bill.
Mayas blocked tear ducts were £55, but i didn't have to pay consultation fees which would have made it a much bigger amount.

Unfortunately, they don't know enough about ferrets so i have to travel a little way with my boys.
One of my ferrets had to have a major op on his intestine, just a few weeks back. That cost me £206 but i did expect it to be a lot cos they sent bloods, and 3 lumps for tests.

At the end of the day although i don't have bucket loadsa money i would pay any amount to make my babies right, and i have to agree i trust my vets with my babies.

Gracie and animals x

I dont blame you for being annoyed, it is really frustrating the difference in prices and what is thought of as acceptable.

My old vets were terrible, incredibly inflated prices.

I feel very fortunate now that I have a good vet who are reasonably priced- they even sexed your beatles for me for free.

I wonder if the pet vaccination clinic would be any better? You go there sometimes dont you Chloe?

Yes I do Mandy and I was surprised because it was they who said it would be £18.50. Rebecca is great there and if I took other buns in and snuck the babies in she would just do it for a small fee but (thank God.x) all my buns are fine at the mo so it is literally just the babies I wanted to get sexed. The vets down the road quoted me £23 so it seems to be an across board thing.
I'm just frustrated cos I appreciate the vets want to make a profit but the prices they are charging are extortionate! People on here are quoted over £100 for speys and over £30 for myxi jabs when other vets prove it is affordable to do the same care for a lot less. And I think what Caz said and is a great idea with regards to the nurses. When I took Lenny in and he was gasping for breath a nurse assessed him and decided whether he needed oxygen or not so surely if they can cope with potential life or death situations they could sex for a minimal charge?
I just think if there was basic rabbit care for a reasonable cost then a lot of the unwanted mistakes and abused ill rabbits we talk about on here may never have lived to suffer the way they have. Hear me on this I am not saying the vets are to blame for these situations but even rescues get it wrong sometimes - we've had a few on here where girls have gone in to be speyed and ended up being deplumed instead! - so if a shop tells someone who is not experienced in rabbit care that they have two girls and the vets charge £20 to be sure whos going to double check? The next thing you know is 2 become 12.........

The problem is that all veterinary practices are privately run and there are no pricing guidelines so the charges can vary wildly even between vets in the same area.

I'm lucky in that my own vet is very reasonable - as an example when I took Weedie in with his poorly foot they only charged £11.97 for the consultation and dispensed Baytril, and the total cost of his amputation operation was just £42.50. My previous vets charged over £100 when I had Bundle spayed there and their consultation fees were higher too.

From my own experience, smaller practices tend to be more reasonable than larger groups, although I'm sure it will be different depending on which area you live in.

My biggest gripe with vets is there consultation fee. Its around £18.00 for rabbits at our vets and countless times I’ve been in and out in under 10 mins. How do they justify that?

I certainly don’t mind paying for treatment/meds but it is disheartening when you feel like you’ve been taken for a ride.

Louise

My vets have nurses who will do a healthcheck, ie teeth, weight etc. Never had it done so i couldnt tell you how much it costs though

i count my blessing with my vets, when i took the rexes in from the farm, and they all needed treating fir syph, the charged me 1 consult, and then just charged me for the drugs. they even let me administer the injections at home so less stress for the bunsters.
when linden was poorly and after several courses of gut stimulant didnt work long term i asked how much for a dental (between £80 and £120 :shock: ) and how much for a neuter (£65), went to pick him up and my bill including an overnight stay because i start work at 6.30am and couldnt drop him off in the morning, grand total? £92 :? i checked with them and my bill was correct

My vets are good when it comes to most things, but I do agree consultation charge is loads...its £19 just to see a rat!
Other thing that peed me off was I was charged £10 just for the vet nurse to cut the claws on 2 of my cats paws, they werent even that desperately in need! I wouldnt of bothered if I knew it wiuld be that much!

I don't know how much is a consultation is at my vets as I haven't been with them that long. However when I had Gerorgie in for her spay and Smurf in for his de-plumming they both had post-op complications and I was charged nothing for the weekly nurse check-ups they both needed and nothing to drain Georgie's wound either. Luckily for me they are a 24hr animal hospital as Georgie had to go in on the Saturday and Sunday of a bank holiday weekend - many thanks to Kayj for taking her as she was boarding them that weekend

However I was shocked to learn from my O/H's sister last week that the price of vacs at our old vets where we used to live has gone up an extortionate amount recently due to the presence of myxi in the area. In April it was £37 for both myxi & VHD, now it's £40 just for myxi :shock: :shock:

My vet's quite good she usually just charges me for the treatment and doesn't charge for the consultation, however if i have to see a different vet it costs a fortune :shock:

Chloe, bring the babies over and I will sex them for you, or even just send a pic, that might do it.

I really appreciate my vets. They are so supportive of what I am doing and are as reasonable as possible with what they charge me 8)

Thanks Louise, I'll do that, will give you a ring - it would be good to see you too!!

As Fairy Angel said our Vets are superb, they are open 24/7 365 days a year. They never charge for post op checks and if you take more than one rabbit then you don't get charged an extra consultation fee either. I have been with my vets for 10yrs and would definately not go anywhere else.

ellepotter said:

My biggest gripe with vets is there consultation fee. Its around £18.00 for rabbits at our vets and countless times I’ve been in and out in under 10 mins. How do they justify that?

I certainly don’t mind paying for treatment/meds but it is disheartening when you feel like you’ve been taken for a ride.

Louise

Click to expand...

Take a few in at a time :thumb: I took 5 in once & was only charged £18

Angie65 said:

ellepotter said:

My biggest gripe with vets is there consultation fee. Its around £18.00 for rabbits at our vets and countless times I’ve been in and out in under 10 mins. How do they justify that?

I certainly don’t mind paying for treatment/meds but it is disheartening when you feel like you’ve been taken for a ride.

Louise

Click to expand...

Take a few in at a time :thumb: I took 5 in once & was only charged £18

Click to expand...

I took four in in one go once and the vet tried to charge me four consultations but the lady on the front desk kicked up a stink for me and so I only got charged one!