Vet bills
 

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Vet bills

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Two Christmases ago the dawg suddenly came down with hemorrhagic diarrhea on Xmas eve, had to stay at vets for 24 hrs. Needed a drip to rehydrate and medication. Bill was just north of £1900.

Yesterday the Mrs had an accident with the hound and she had to have an op to remove the tip of her tail. As if my Mrs wasn't having a bad enough day this coincided with another bout of hemorrhagic diarrhea. Bill so far £1400.

We have pet insurance but it took months to claim back from the first episode, they make it as difficult as possible. Will have to see if they'll pay out for this latest one.  But insurance or not, that's crazy money right?

At least we've had a certain amount of revenge on for them plunging us into the red again by spraying hemorrhagic diarrhea everywhere, but even so. Who can afford having a dog these days?


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 9:52 am
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Medical care is more expensive than you think, don’t forget even our failing NHS is hugely supplemented.   I discovered the other day my prescription purple Asthma inhaler costs £56 each, I go through one a month.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 9:57 am
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One of our dogs is epileptic. His medication is the same as a human and is produced generically. You could buy it online for less than £15 a month, but because it’s prescription only that’ll be £80 thanks very much.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 10:05 am
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It is a dear do, but out of interest who are you insured with, as they don't sound the best if they're going out of their way to prevent a claim?

We use petplan and they've been really good whenever we've needed to claim. Our vet is happy to deal with petplan direct which they won't do with other insurers.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 10:37 am
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Our vets first question is always "is she jnsured". Once they had our dog in and announced that she had to have a procedure to remove a lump on her foot. Charged us for full general anaesthetic, in for a day, the op time for two vets, so it came to £900. In reqlity, we dropped her at 9 am and she was done and home for 9 :45. Complete racket. They're mostly big health corporation owned now too so our pets basically have a mini version of the US healthcare system.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 10:39 am
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We had our dog spayed when she was a year old as advised by our vet (think it was £400 in total). Six months later and she was still showing signs of being in season and the male dogs wouldn't leave her alone.

We took her back and they recommended blood tests. We had two lots done at a cost of £400 after which they concluded she was still giving off hormones to suggest she was in season. They recommended we have her done again because they might have "left some material behind". This world cost around double the original cost apparently as they would need to get a specialist in but it will be at our expense unless it's something that they should have noticed first time round. The only way that I'd know that would be if they admitted to it and I have no faith whatsoever that they would do that.

Because we've changed insurance company since we had her done they're not interested either.

Despite having to put up with her being mounted by every dog in the park every six months I'm determined I'm not having her done again more because she looked so sorry for herself first time around and took weeks to recover, rather than the expense.

Absolute scheisters.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 11:41 am
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£1,900 for the shits ! That’s smacks of rip off


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 12:00 pm
 Drac
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From when you arrive on the property everything you see needs to be paid for, maintained, wages and every little thing.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 12:18 pm
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So far this year our lab has cost £600 for a bladder infection and now it looks like she’s torn a knee ligament. Vet says it’s common and they have a package that includes x rays and an operation that costs £3200. Brilliant, that’s me not getting the van any time soon.

Insured up to £2500 but I’m sure they’ll try not to pay for either.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 12:26 pm
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There are lots more abandoned and unwanted pets looking for homes.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 12:36 pm
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imnotverygoodFull Member
One of our dogs is epileptic. His medication is the same as a human and is produced generically. You could buy it online for less than £15 a month, but because it’s prescription only that’ll be £80 thanks very much.

You can pay the vet for the paper prescription, then order from online with it. Still costs lots, but cheaper than getting the drugs from the vet. You've got to post the prescription to the online supplier of its controlled drugs though.

We used Weldricks online for our dogs epilepsy drugs, ended up over £100 a month for the drugs, plus £30 for the paper prescriptions. That was for high doses tho. Would easily have been 3 times that direct from the vet.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 1:06 pm
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That was for high doses tho

How high is high? Mine is on 90mg twice a day. which is about 6mg/kg


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 1:31 pm
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My cat had a major operation and almost a week in the vets on a drip with round the clock observation etc.
The bill was huge almost 5k I paid the excess of 1500 M and S pet insurance paid the rest with no problem so I have stuck with them for pet insurance.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 1:38 pm
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Stopped paying for insurance after dog number 3 and paid the equivalent premiums into savings - stopped at £10k. Now at dog number 6 and still still quids in. Our local vet is about half the price that we used to pay in the south.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 1:50 pm
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imnotverygoodFull Member
That was for high doses tho
How high is high? Mine is on 90mg twice a day. which is about 6mg/kg

Cant remember the doses off the top of my head, but he was On Epiphen, libromide and leveteracetum daily, plus we used extra leve as a cluster-buster.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 2:04 pm
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I had a 3K bill for my cat, when she developed a sudden stomach issue, I was more than happy to pay as she was my cat and I loved her. She didn't recover from the op/anesthetic, and died, it didn't matter, we tried was the point. The vet was very good and donated her time, reducing the bill, but even so I would have paid it all.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 3:07 pm
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We pay a fair bit to pet plan for 3 of the four cats (one can't be insured). But I'd rather have that there. A previous cat ran up £1k bill for an overnight stay. Bad chest infection.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 3:13 pm
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Why should vets be any cheaper than private dentist, private healthcare etc,. they are doing very similar things with same costs (surgeries, staff), training etc,.

I have private health insurance and the bills for a fairly basic op run into 1,000s when you have paid hospital, anaesthetist, surgeon etc,. etc,. so why is that any different - just because it is an animal.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 3:18 pm
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If people thought for a sec that for instance the NHS costs every single one of us £2,000 per year it might hit home a bit more that healthcare is expensive.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 4:02 pm
crossed and crossed reacted
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My neighbour is a retired bank manager (from the time when every branch had a manager).
He says his clients with the healthiest balance were farmers, vets and dentists.

We had to claim for our dog over Xmas, LV settled the bill promptly.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 8:23 pm
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We take our dog to Spain every year. The vets there are a fraction of the price here, have nicer offices and seem better equipped. Checkup and tapeworm treatment is 20 euro (local UK vet would be over £80)


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 8:47 pm
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you need a vet for tapeworm treatment?


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 10:21 pm
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Petplan +1

The shits  upset tum

https://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk/promax-paste-syringe

Online diagnosis will be £900 thanks, cash or sexual favours preferred


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 10:46 pm
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It is a dear do, but out of interest who are you insured with, as they don’t sound the best if they’re going out of their way to prevent a claim?

That was Manypets, I wouldn't say they were trying to prevent the claim as they paid out eventually but it took several months of chasing.  And then when the year was up and it was time to renew they bumped the premium up to  £70 реr mоnth fоr а уоunɡ hеаlthу mutt.   Obviously we switched to another insurer


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 11:03 pm
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A particularly stressful day last week we had to have our 15 year old cat put down.

He was involved in a car accident and several bones were broken and nerve damage.

Our local vet was not open as it was evening so we had to travel 25 odd miles to an emergency vet.

The callout fee was £300 and another £150 for injection.

Me and my partner were in bits but all they seemed to be concerned about was money.

We are on Petplan but we didn't really want to go through this and money was the last thing on our minds. 😥

Regards,

Max.


 
Posted : 02/03/2024 11:22 pm
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And then when the year was up and it was time to renew they bumped the premium up to  £70 реr mоnth fоr а уоunɡ hеаlthу mutt.

im not sure you are understanding the insurance company business model…


 
Posted : 03/03/2024 8:21 am

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