Vet Fees

[stonerblue]

Bloody hell Mellow Joe! That level of coldness makes you sound like a serial killer.... my fellas certainly have the capacity in their “stupid brain” to do quite a lot. The big fella is training to be a therapy dog going into hospitals to give comfort to people with life limiting illnesses. My younger fella is a working gun dog and very intelligent. I can testify that both have the capacity to look forward to breakfast and at this very minute are revving up to their tea at 4.00pm. At five to four the little fella will gently nudged me. At 2 minutes to 4 I will have a paw inserted into my ear hole. Any later than four and we have a problem where I have two hungry hounds chewing on my trouser leg. I can safely say that they will not be having a knock on the head in their sleep anytime soon. Now the missus.....

If my little bastard has not had his brekky by 9am he will come and find me and 'point' at the food cupboard.

On a side note, i've just had mine in the woods and let him off lead. Very excited and despite being a pet in our house his fox radar was off the scale. After barging through brambles, bushes and bogs he looked like a proper working mutt. Hosed down when we got home and now spark out upstairs.

 

[stonerblue]

Going to the vet: what happens when private equity invests in a cottage industry

Rapid acquisitions are transforming the animal care sector but also prompting a political backlash

www.ft.com

paywall soz. came up free on my pc

 

[Odd socks]

Back in the 80's I worked with a chap who thought his dog was deaf, he decided to take the dog to the vet who asked what was wrong with it.
Vet put dog on table, walked behind him and put his fingers in his mouth and gave a loud whistle.
"Yes he's deaf" said the vet "that will be £10"
We had a good laugh at his expense but you couldn't make it up.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Going to the vet: what happens when private equity invests in a cottage industry

Rapid acquisitions are transforming the animal care sector but also prompting a political backlash

www.ft.com

paywall soz. came up free on my pc

It’s usually free if you access via mainpage of Google- just have to search headline of the article.

 

[sir baconface]

Which is also a swizz. How can it be right that there are two differing approaches to treatment depending on if you have it or not? And once that issue is treated once on insurance, you arent covered for it again anyway. Racket. I take a very pragmatic approach to it all and am very honest with my vet. Ive told them I think its a total racket and its like they know I have worked it out.

Is this true? That is honestly staggering. I’m trying to find the sense in it other than blatant thievery. That’s actually pissed me off. Imagine your dog gets arthritis, are you supposed to wait until it gets it in all it’s joints before you take it in for treatment?

That‘s not quite correct. It depends on the type of cover you select, e.g, ”accident only”, per condition”, “lifetime cover”. In addition, your cover is affected by the claims limits and excesses you specify when buying.

It’s a bit complicated and I won‘t go into detail here. However, I strongly advise anyone taking out pet insurance to make sure they understand the differences and nuances before buying the cover they want. Go for the cheapest headline price and you’ll probably be covered for very little. Make sure you compare apples with apples.

As with most things, there’s a balance between comprehensiveness and price.

 

[kaz7]

Took merlin to the vets today as he thought eating those little wasp things was a good idea and his face swelled up as he got stung in his cheek

£55 for consultation and two day steroid injection and to give him half a piriton tab as i have them in for me , could have been worse

She was saying nobody has been allowed inside the practise for fifteen months , they have a system of collecting them from the car and bringing them back out after . I was allowed in the emergency vets when silva died last may but she could only touch my arm briefly and was in full ppe , vets have had to adapt like everyone else

 

[sir baconface]

I was in my chemist a few weeks ago and overheard a conversation with a guy talking to the pharmacist. He said he'd taken his dog to the vet's and it had conjunctivitis, he said the vet said it would cost about £60 for eye drops. He asked the pharmacist if human eye drops would work and the pharmacist said they would work for a dog. Sold him some optrex and saved him over £50!

With a previous dog, my vet actually advised me to buy the human equivalent tear drops at a fraction of the cost.

Another thing worth knowing is that you can buy pet medicines online at a big discount, often in the region of 40%. Imagine what you save in, say, flea and worming treatment over the year. If you need prescription meds, you can get a prescription from your vet for a modest fee. Golden rule here is to do your research and buy only from reputable companies. Don’t buy from Foo Kin Del on eBay.

 

[sir baconface]

Not sure that your rambles relevant but so what, I went to uni for 10 years and have several degrees....I don’t rip people off.

I know what your implying but its not the point. GP’s do about 11 years including med school and post degree training and qualifications before they can work in a practice......with a top salary of £90k.

Does it matter what I did, not relevant.

What‘s a GP’s salary got to do with the price of fish? Or your “several degrees”?

You need to compare vet fees with private treatment charges. Both of which include substantial overheads and variable costs.

 

[oldius]

Since beginning this petition, I have been sent a lot of information and cases confirming that this issue runs deep. independent vet practices are being swallowed up by private equity companies and much larger firms. A large number are buying multiple surgeries within a small geographical area, thus taking away the prospect of competitive pricing. There is an article, this week, in the Sunday times, containing allegations about the control of pet drug supplies and, naturally, there are allegations about the involvement of the insurance companies. All simply says to me that there needs to be a regulatory body. Please sign and share the petition if you think this is an issue; I will be approaching my local MP, next week. Some people have already sent my petition to their MP as they have discovered concerns in their areas since the petition went live.

http://chng.it/wk6gfTJxjL

 

[Dirty Harry]

Since beginning this petition, I have been sent a lot of information and cases confirming that this issue runs deep. independent vet practices are being swallowed up by private equity companies and much larger firms. A large number are buying multiple surgeries within a small geographical area, thus taking away the prospect of competitive pricing. There is an article, this week, in the Sunday times, containing allegations about the control of pet drug supplies and, naturally, there are allegations about the involvement of the insurance companies. All simply says to me that there needs to be a regulatory body. Please sign and share the petition if you think this is an issue; I will be approaching my local MP, next week. Some people have already sent my petition to their MP as they have discovered concerns in their areas since the petition went live.

http://chng.it/wk6gfTJxjL

I'm sure the dog/cat/pet population will suffer eventually because of this greed, I have the time and the money to rescue a couple of dogs, give them a great home, great walks, a good diet, in fact, just a great life, what stops me now (it didn't in the past because I thought prices were reasonable) is the spiraling cost of Vets fees, so ultimately, it's the animals themselves who will suffer, very saddening considering it's a body that purports to be in it for the welfare of the animal.