Outrageous Vet Bills

[LindaRusiecki]

Question: How do you know if your vet is ripping you off?

When our puppy was eight weeks old (this was several months ago) he got leptospirosis and was in the doggy hospital for a week, on antibiotics, an IV and special food. They did several tests to find out what was wrong.

After a week, he was better, but the vet bill was $3,000.00.

Of course, I was very alarmed, but it was too late. There was nothing I could do at that point, but pay the bill.

After that, I wondered if I was being overcharged for other things as well. For routine puppy vaccinations, spay/neuter, dewormings, physical exams, and heartworm meds and Advantix, microchip ID, and teeth care, we paid $650 per dog within the first two months of owning them...aside from the leptospirosis incident!

Are these kind of vet bills normal? We haven't taken them back there in nine months, since they've been healthy, but I just found it hard to believe that owning a pet has to be so freaking expensive.

 

[showpug]

Sounds about right to me, and yes, owning a pet is very expensive when they get ill. I guess that is why pet insurance exists today. Sounds like your pet needed a lot of critical care which costs more because it requires more monitoring etc. Glad your pup is better now. You can always call around, but some vets charge more for exams and less for vaccines, while the next will charge less for exams and more for vaccines, so it evens out in the end. I worked in a vet clinic for 5 years and part of my job was to call around and price check. Yes, our mark-up on stuff was outrageous, but there is a lot of expense that goes into running a vet clinic and paying the staff. The average vet only makes about $50,000 per year and that is not a lot of money for 7 years of school.

 

[frznbuns]

Wow! that is a lot of money. But I know how you feel, I would spend my last dollar if needed to help my pets. I don't know about your part of the country but around here,,
spay or neuter is about $35. Microchip at the Animal Control is $10. Each shot is between $5 to 10. So is worming. Teeth cleaning is $75, exam is free if you are having other things done. Since I have 3 dogs and 2 cats(indoors only) I know how much it can run to go to the vet. My Vet is great.. He will let me make payments if something comes up unexpectedly. He also gives me a discount. I keep making jokes with them that I need to make a monthly allotment out to them. Heck, My dogs go into the vet every 2 weeks for toe nail trims. I had to stop getting my nails done so I could do the dogs. Their nails look better then mine.

 

[bubbatd]

I question the teeth care at such an early age, Since your pup had problems at 8 weeks , did you go back to the breeders ??? How old was he when you got him ??? The $3000. sounds excessive to me. Yes, dogs are expensive....but sounds like you got a bad start ! Fill us in.

 

[gaddylovesdogs]

Veterinary care can be very expensive. June 1st we brought our girls to the vet for checkups and all that. It cost us over $600.

 

[Ash47]

3000$ sounds a tad high to me. Well actually WAY high! But that is just according to what we charge at work. Treatment for Heartworms and Parvo that can last about a week runs about 400-500$. Hmmm, 3000$?? Now what all does this entail exactly?? Because even with all shots, an exam, and Parvo or Heartworm treatment combined, it would be no more than around 600$.

 

[bubbatd]

I agree, my yearly check ups, shots etc for 2 dogs would run at least $400.

 

[Debi]

I've experienced a vet that totally overcharged, and finally found one that is amazing and very reasonable. The ripoff vet would not even give a vaccine unless he did a 'work up' every visit....it was totally pathetic. when Addie had 3 porcupine quills in her nose, they barely looked at her before they were wanting me to sign an agreement for $500. I flatly said 'are you kidding me here??????' it took him 5 mins. to remove the quills and give a shot of antibiotic....I still paid $185. which was at least more affordable (got the lower price because I freaked out....PALEEEEEESE) My new vet is awesome....no nonsense...just does what needs to be done, and NEVER pushes stupid products to increase the bill (like Dr. Ripoff) I think you have to be very careful, some shady vets play on your love for your pet.....and practically shame you into doing alot of worthless stuff. I love my pets, but I wouldn't put up with that type of operation from a human doctor either. Don't know if your bill was toooo high, but it sure wouldn't hurt to try someone else.

 

[Fran27]

Wow, I guess I am lucky... Yearly check up is $38, vaccinations $22. When we got Boris neutered and microshiped, it was $120, and he stayed there over 24 hours and got an IV too. It was $85 to get our cat euthanized last year (sad story ).

So yeah, at this rate it's affordable to have a pet.

 

[Irish]

I agree with Debie, you have to shop around and find a vet who is NOT a Dr. Rip off. We went through several before we found our current one, whom we love. He always goes over all the options, prices and lets us choose what is best for us, never pushes. There are good ones out there, you just have to find them.

 

[joce]

For a week of I.vs and antibiotics I'd really think that was right. I'm guessing that you didn't do those yourself or then it should be significantlyy lower. I've taken dogs in for just two days and spent that much.

 

[zoepup]

I just went through the same thing but with my cat. Mine was about $2000.00 and all they did was put an IV in him and put him on anti biotics and it took about a week but he is back on food and good to go. I thought it was high too but with all the tests that were done and it scared me so much that I was just thankful to get him back home and know that he was going to be alright.I am struggling with ring worm right now though. They said since his amune system was so low that he picked it up right away and had no chance to fight it off. I feel relieved to hear of someone else going through this and paying a high bill for the same thing.

 

[Ratboy]

I've experienced a vet that totally overcharged, and finally found one that is amazing and very reasonable. The ripoff vet would not even give a vaccine unless he did a 'work up' every visit....it was totally pathetic. when Addie had 3 porcupine quills in her nose, they barely looked at her before they were wanting me to sign an agreement for $500. I flatly said 'are you kidding me here??????' it took him 5 mins. to remove the quills and give a shot of antibiotic....I still paid $185. which was at least more affordable (got the lower price because I freaked out....PALEEEEEESE) My new vet is awesome....no nonsense...just does what needs to be done, and NEVER pushes stupid products to increase the bill (like Dr. Ripoff) I think you have to be very careful, some shady vets play on your love for your pet.....and practically shame you into doing alot of worthless stuff. I love my pets, but I wouldn't put up with that type of operation from a human doctor either. Don't know if your bill was toooo high, but it sure wouldn't hurt to try someone else.

I took my dog to a guy like that, who wanted to constantly run test after test on my dog and it got insanely expensive. I took him there in the first place due to his hours (the guy works like he's 2+ people) and friends had taken their dogs to him in the past. One time Gus had diarreah and it was pretty bad, and he got us all worried and so we let him run a ton of tests and they were fine, except his white cell count was high, showing he had an infection. Well the slight temp he had showed that! A couple of days on the antibiotic and some Pepto, and he was fine. We finally quit taking him there after he wanted to run the whole blood screen again when we brought him in with an ear infection! That was it, I took him to our present vet, not cheap by any means, but not "test happy" either.