Cost of vaccinations

TheThreeB's said:

For me though, this isn't about not being able to afford the vaccinations (as I said I am able to) it's about getting a good deal. I don't think I should feel bad for having 12 when I am able to provide for them adequately. I'm just questioning if there is a better deal to be had.

Obviously there are many factors at play (as pointed out by Santa) when vets set their pricing structures, but it's only natural to make comparisons if you know other practices are offering the vaccinations cheaper. It would be daft to not consider changing. As I said, I don't feel any loyalty to my vets, I think your situation JJ is more unique in that they are also a close friend x

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I feel loyalty to my vets, none of them are friends, although at times the receptionist has been able to recognise my voice on the phone, due to repeated visits :lol: to me they provide a brilliant service and have on several occasions saved many of my animals lives. This is why I never shop around for vaccines, despite having multiple pets. I feel I want to support them with everything I can.

TheThreeB's said:

For me though, this isn't about not being able to afford the vaccinations (as I said I am able to) it's about getting a good deal. I don't think I should feel bad for having 12 when I am able to provide for them adequately. I'm just questioning if there is a better deal to be had.

Obviously there are many factors at play (as pointed out by Santa) when vets set their pricing structures, but it's only natural to make comparisons if you know other practices are offering the vaccinations cheaper. It would be daft to not consider changing. As I said, I don't feel any loyalty to my vets, I think your situation JJ is more unique in that they are also a close friend x

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You shouldn't feel bad at all you do you - only you can make the best decisions for your animals, and whatever you do will be fine. I normally now go to my favourite vet, but when they didn't have the vaccine in before they said I could call around if I wanted, got them done somewhere else which was cheaper too, my vet really doesn't seem to mind he's had xrays transfered over aswell when they've been done elsewhere and another time when I may have needed to access out of hours care, but was in the appointment talking to my vet - it was suggested I didn't use the vets now service as they had no exotic specialists there, so it was suggested I go to my closest vets4pets and they'd get any tests sent over.

Maybe if you're very close friends with your vet it's different, most vets probably don't know lots of their patients x

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TheThreeB's said:

For me though, this isn't about not being able to afford the vaccinations (as I said I am able to) it's about getting a good deal. I don't think I should feel bad for having 12 when I am able to provide for them adequately. I'm just questioning if there is a better deal to be had.

Obviously there are many factors at play (as pointed out by Santa) when vets set their pricing structures, but it's only natural to make comparisons if you know other practices are offering the vaccinations cheaper. It would be daft to not consider changing. As I said, I don't feel any loyalty to my vets, I think your situation JJ is more unique in that they are also a close friend x

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I dont think you should either. I was not referring to any specific person. At one time I had over 35 Rabbits. My Vet agreed a Vaccination payment plan. Although rumours were going around that I got all my Rabbit's Vet care for free as my Vet is a friend. That rumour is still doing the rounds, it's 100% not true. My outstanding balance at my Vets will attest to that :lol:

As Gracie has pointed out, we are all entitled to make our own choices for our own Rabbits. But we have to accept that we are never always going to agree. As long as differences of opinion are expressed in a polite way then I cant see a problem

Jack's-Jane said:

I dont think you should either. I was not referring to any specific person. At one time I had over 35 Rabbits. My Vet agreed a Vaccination payment plan. Although rumours were going around that I got all my Rabbit's Vet care for free as my Vet is a friend. That rumour is still doing the rounds, it's 100% not true. My outstanding balance at my Vets will attest to that [emoji38]

As Gracie has pointed out, we are all entitled to make our own choices for our own Rabbits. But we have to accept that we are never always going to agree. As long as differences of opinion are expressed in a polite way then I cant see a problem

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Exactly


And wow over 35 bunnies, you'd need a payment plan for that [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

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Graciee said:

Exactly


And wow over 35 bunnies, you'd need a payment plan for that [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

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I remortgaged my house, that is one RU rumour that is true !! :lol:

Jack's-Jane said:

I remortgaged my house, that is one RU rumour that is true !! [emoji38]

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I've not heard any of them [emoji38][emoji38]


Lucky and loved bunnies tho

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TheThreeB's said:

For me though, this isn't about not being able to afford the vaccinations (as I said I am able to) it's about getting a good deal. I don't think I should feel bad for having 12 when I am able to provide for them adequately. I'm just questioning if there is a better deal to be had.

Obviously there are many factors at play (as pointed out by Santa) when vets set their pricing structures, but it's only natural to make comparisons if you know other practices are offering the vaccinations cheaper. It would be daft to not consider changing. As I said, I don't feel any loyalty to my vets, I think your situation JJ is more unique in that they are also a close friend x

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I agree with everything you've said

Jack's-Jane said:

Very wise words from Santa. Of course few of us have a bottomless pit of money and keeping any Pet is usually a significant financial commitment. But personally I would rather have fewer Pets to enable me to be able to afford to meet all Veterinary costs than to have to 'Vet Hop' to find the cheapest deal. Continuity of care for my Pet and building a mutually trusting and respectful relationship with my Vet takes priority for me.

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But OP has said she can afford it, but is just considering her options and has had mixed experiences at her vets anyways It's just a second opinion basically, in my eyes. So she can see where the best place to take them is.

Personally, I just see no problem with going to different vets for whatever reasons. Although I generally keep an individual pet going to the same usual vet, just since the vet records are already there so it makes it slightly easier if, say, you take a very ill pet in they can look back at the records right away and compare.

I have a bird/exotics vet I'd probably always take my birds to. My parents started going to that vet before I was even born. There's another vet I use for cats/rabbits/small animals. My parents started going to them before I was born as well. We've mostly really liked our experiences at these two vets and they have good prices. Also for cats my parents have started to prefer this one other vet that we've used for a few of our cats in just the last few years (I haven't personally been there myself). The first time they went in it was an emergency and then they liked the experience, though it was very expensive, so they went there the next times we had really sick cats.

We have another vet that is good for neutering cats/dogs (loads of experience for that - pretty much their specialty) and also are good for vaccinations, good with feral cats, saved our dog in an emergency spay (pyometra), successfully spotted and treated our cat's serious ear infection (he was in for a neuter at the time), etc. Basically they've been very good with routine things, healthchecks on feral/stray cats etc and have good prices. Although we do most cat/dog vaccs at home by ourselves these days. They also neutered my rabbits, taking a large testicle tumor out of one.

There's a specialist vet we go to for specialist cat/dog things - you can't go there for routine things and you have to get referred (you'd be nuts to go there for routine stuff anyway - they cost a fortune). We have one or two out of hours vets we try to avoid going to due to a bad experience. And over the years we went to one other vet for cat vaccs/spaying, and also one of those 'vaccination clinic days' that they set up at pet stores. We only went to these last two places one or two times though.

There's a couple of exotic vets around that I might try next time I take a new small animal to the vet - I've never gone to them before and would like to see how they are since I've heard good things about them. Or I may go to my usual exotics vets, just depends on the pet/its species/who has the most experience with what is needed.

So I think that's all the vets we go to (currently 4? if you don't count the specialist vet or the out of hours vets) and overall I've had good experiences going to different vets and I don't see why supporting different vets is a bad thing. They're not even necessarily competing with each other - depending on their specialty, location, etc. I don't really do it to shop around though. Me and my family have spent thousands and thousands at vets, it's not like we aren't willing to spend money at one single vet (although I'd draw the line at really expensive vaccs). It's to get the best care for the pet. If I thought the vet was unable to figure out what was wrong with the pet or something, I'd go to another vet and would probably have a good idea which to get the second opinion from since I've "shopped around" already.

I even came close to doing that a couple years back when my bird vet wasn't giving my duck the antibiotics he needed (they were unaware of what was legal to give) and I knew another vet I'd gotten different antibiotics from for another of my ducks in the past. We got a second opinion for our elderly cat last year too (vet referred us to the specialist vet), and it turned out she didn't have what the first vet thought after all - they were sure she was dying of heart disease/failure and could see on the xray that she had all this fluid around the heart, specialist vet said her heart was perfectly fine and no fluid around the heart, she had a completely different non-heart issue that was probably treatable, but for unknown reasons she started seizing a day or so after treatment/starting antibiotics and the seizures caused brain damage.

I guess my situation is maybe unique since I have several species of pets (plus this is all the vets I've gone to over my life, but I still go to all but one of them), and also my parents get a say with where to take the cats/dogs (they're shared pets). I guess most people just have rabbits, or their rabbit vets are good with their other pets as well. But I just don't really have a preference I suppose (except with birds). If I got a new pet I'd have to do a pro/con list with which vet to go to, or maybe flip a coin lol.

I also completely agree - if you've got no particular loyalty to your vet and don't feel that you could 100% trust them with your rabbits, then absolutely change if you find somewhere you're happier with.

The only bit I don't quite agree on is the concept of a 'deal'. I don't think this is quite what you meant, but my rabbits are not a commodity for whom I need to get the best deal, they are precious animals for whom I need to get the best care. If there is somewhere that does the best care and gives a good deal, and that's not the one I'm currently at, then great, change vets! Otherwise it's a trade off between cost, care and convenience...and that's going to be a continuum along which we all find ourselves somewhere and have all, consciously or otherwise, made decisions about where we get our animals treated.

What an interesting debate this has turned out to be