Why do vets charge so much?

[Southbanken]

There is a massive shortage of qualified vets in the UK at the moment which doesn't help. Probably due to the years of training they have to do and the incumbent debt they are left with as a result. The drugs are developed by the large pharma's so aren't gonna be cheap. The fee's you pay for a 20 minute appointment and check up have to cover their rent, electricity, the wages of the nurses and receptionists and everything else involved. £70 quid Jeff has a lot of costs to cover.

On top of that, as someone mentioned earlier, it is a fucking stressful job, with one of the highest suicide rates of any profession. Probably once a day they have to put an animal to sleep and then try and help the distraught owners and then 10 minutes later they are seeing another patient. Imagine having to do that for a minute, no wonder there is such a high suicide rate. That is not even to mention rural vets who find a herd of Cows with Bovine TB or some other disease so they have to slaughter multiple animals in a production line.

People these days don't understand the cost of things, the prices of consumer goods has been gradually getting cheaper and cheaper (often due to cheap imported goods being produced on the back of virtual slave labour wages and conditions) and as a result services like vets have appeared to be getting more and more expensive. I had an electrician over the other day to replace a smoke alarm - his call out charge was £80.00.

So yeah, after all of that, if they can charge a fee that allows them a decent house or a car, and the market is prepared to pay it, i don't hold it against them.

 

[bluethrunthru]

Because we are a nation of p£t lovers?

Absolutely disgusting what they charge

Because they have Uni debts to settle and none of the serious stuff they do is a DIY proposition for the pet owner !

Also fee's started spiralling when pet insurance kicked in. When the owner is paying a small annual or monthly fee or premium they aren't the ones getting billed so they don't care at that stage - its taken insurers a while to gain the expertise to start challenging costs by which time the bottom line had already been lifted significantly. It hits home if your pet is uninsured or has been ill and can no longer be insured. Then you become the bill payer and shriek " how much? "

 

[bluethrunthru]

They don’t, but to be fair, I think they should at least get four wheels...maybe a Kitten?!

saw what you did there you Rebel.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Those fuckers! All that education and training, years of going without a decent paycheck and paying out of the nose for their training and they have the fucking nerve to get a decent paycheck and buy a nice car. Twats, all of ‘em!

Would a Ford GT be OK? Shelby Mustang? Or does it have to be a Ka?

It has to be a ten-year-old Ka, CB!

I think that people don't realise that 'medicine' is a bloody expensive business, and there are plenty within it, like law, who strive to maintain the status quo. I've no problem with it. They've studied, sacrificed, made do for years, and now they get their desserts, just or otherwise. The fact that the NHS has this 'free at the point of whatever', gives people an idea that stuff to get you and yer dog better should be just a few quid, a couple of pints or a packet of fags.

 

[Machiavelli]

You are paying for private health care for the little fuckers. 2 weeks for a GP appointment for me at times but the dogs get in the same day. Insurance pays over a Dog's lifetime. If you can't afford the fees don't buy a dog. It's pretty simple really.

 

[SteWadda]

I'd never chance not having insurance for a dog. Our dog before this one had lymphoma the treatment cost thousands. He would have just been put to sleep when we found out if we didn't have the insurance. Got another year and half and he was only 4 when it final took him.
I think we pay about £15 a month well worth it.

 

[nw42]

What an absolute lad hehe. Eye for the ladies eh, just like his dad xD

I should not laugh at him getting a bump but the way you describe it; especially knowing how tough they are makes me laugh "fuck just happened, wheres dad, fuck sake dad let us back in you ****" hahahahah. I am sure he had his share of tail from the sounds of it, the dirty sod hehe. If ever there was a traders dog it is a jack russell hehe. The poor sod, i can imagine him a bit fucked after smashing the other dogs face in then finding a logistics issue in his way haha. Was it that or did she just hit the deck when he tried it?

Sorry for the off topic.

She was in the barn mate, he couldn't breach the door. You're right though, he sowed his seed around the Sandbach area, he also had a 3 day bender in Hazel Grove when staying with my mum for a few weeks, plenty of sightings but no fucker could catch him. He was the Andy Capp of dogs, complete with Woodbine.

Is Teggs Nose where to go to dump your dog?



Lucky he wasn't shot. Dogs running free in a area where presumably there were sheep (if the farmer had a collie)?

.

You're right but there were no sheep, just cattle, it was always the same farm he went to and the fella was ok about him, I suspect he did a bit of ratting for him in exchange for a sniff of the collie woman, no touching though. They hung out together round the yard when she wasn't in season.

Back on topic, I've no complaint with vets in general, the prices hurt whenever you have to visit but that's all part of the deal owning pets I suppose. Our cat cost me over a grand within weeks of arriving but spread over the 5 years we've had him it doesn't seem so bad now. My own fault anyway for buying a duffer, logic dictated that I should have returned him to the breeder but that wasn't an option once my mrs had bonded with him (took about 10 minutes iirc), so I bit the bullet and got him sorted, I now accept that there's no such thing as a cheap Bengal.

 

[dronefromsector7G]

There is a massive shortage of qualified vets in the UK at the moment which doesn't help. Probably due to the years of training they have to do and the incumbent debt they are left with as a result. The drugs are developed by the large pharma's so aren't gonna be cheap. The fee's you pay for a 20 minute appointment and check up have to cover their rent, electricity, the wages of the nurses and receptionists and everything else involved. £70 quid Jeff has a lot of costs to cover.

On top of that, as someone mentioned earlier, it is a fucking stressful job, with one of the highest suicide rates of any profession. Probably once a day they have to put an animal to sleep and then try and help the distraught owners and then 10 minutes later they are seeing another patient. Imagine having to do that for a minute, no wonder there is such a high suicide rate. That is not even to mention rural vets who find a herd of Cows with Bovine TB or some other disease so they have to slaughter multiple animals in a production line.

People these days don't understand the cost of things, the prices of consumer goods has been gradually getting cheaper and cheaper (often due to cheap imported goods being produced on the back of virtual slave labour wages and conditions) and as a result services like vets have appeared to be getting more and more expensive. I had an electrician over the other day to replace a smoke alarm - his call out charge was £80.00.

So yeah, after all of that, if they can charge a fee that allows them a decent house or a car, and the market is prepared to pay it, i don't hold it against them.

I work in health insurance (for humans) and consultations can cost £230 and scans multiple hundreds of pounds. The fact that vets deal with smaller beings isn't going to make the treatment loads cheaper.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

It's way harder to get on a vets course than study medicine. If I remember rightly, there are only 7 universities in the country licenced to train vets, so there aren't that many people who know how to do it. And they're effectively every specialism you get amongst doctors (including surgeon), for every possibly species of pet and farm animal. So that's why they don't charge the same as your plumber.

 

[Henkeman]

People's attitude to the cost of things is a bit strange. Take a decorated cake (probably for Yaya). It might cost £80, and people complain, saying the ingredients only cost pennies. The fact that someone with serious levels of skill has spent ages on it at an hourly rate that the person complaining wouldn't get out of bed for, and it's pretty clear.

Vets charge a lot because medicine is expensive, and they're experts who have spent years learning to do it.