Need a Vet - Shop around for better value!

[anonymous-user]

I had been using the same vets for a number of years. But I always felt I (or my insurers) were being taken for a ride. They had literally thousands out of my insurers over the last 7 or 8 years. A number of issues to me - the practice is staffed 7 days a week. But once the moggy had to go there on a Sunday & there was a £200 charge for out of normal hours cover. Even though somebody is always there. I saw them being more interested in money than petcare.

So over Christmas the moggy had a skin problem. A friend recommended a new vets that had opened locally & is open 7 days a week. A Sunday visit, consultation & 3 lots of tablets, total charge £31 & it fixed him!
He is due annual booster next week. The new practice charges £15. The rip-off practice £45.
The vet we saw was as good as any we had seen in the 'premium' joint. I know where I will be going in the future!

So the moral of the story is, do not accept rip-off prices. Look around. You may be pleasantly surprised.

[sinizter]

This is just like a dentist or a doctor. They set the prices that they need to run their establishment and also based on the area and other factors.

Patients or customers are free to choose whether to pay said charge or not.

The charge does not necessary reflect the quality - either for good or worse - just what the doctor/dentist/vet values their time at.

[anonymous-user]

All good points.
The lower priced vet is in the same area & giving the same treatment.
Just wanted to highlight the fact that some practices do charge excessively. It's a good idea to do your homework & shop around in advance of needing a visit, when time could be of the essence.
In my case I received better service at a fraction of the cost of the other place. Competition is a good thing!

[bexVN]

Hmm, don't get too excited, these to good to be true vets usually end up being just that. £15 cannot properly cover the vacc and the vets and staff time. Ooh charges are to discourage unecessary appts ooh, however £200 does seem high for a 7 day a week practice but think how much extra staff may be being aid to work those days. If your new vet wants to do vacc at bargain prices that's upto him.

I just know from experience clients that move to bargain vets often end up coming back to us because the service isn't the same, the vacc are a bargain but other fees aren't or the general treatment is poor. (I'd love to see the behind the scenes of this practice such as the nurses level of qualification/ experience, the vets abilities, the quality of in house equipment, the quality of the housing and general facitilites etc)

But having said that, if it all works out for you, then great, you're definitely onto a winner.

And I should add £15 is the exception (well in our area it is) not the norm!

[Karyn]

I've just registered our dogs at a new vets, 'cos we've moved.

I base the vet choice on price of basic consultation and whether or not they deal direct with insurers. (And receptionist manner!)


If the basic consultation is less than £25, I'm not interested, as it leads me to assume that they'll be "recouping" a lot of money through (already expensive) medication charges and the like.

[Deva Link]

Jimboka said:

He is due annual booster next week. The new practice charges £15. The rip-off practice £45.

I think there's three levels of cat booster (for different things) - are those prices comparing like with like?

[Simpo Two]

Deva Link said:

I think there's three levels of cat booster (for different things)

Low Earth orbit, high Earth orbit and Moonshot?

[anonymous-user]

Deva Link said:

Jimboka said:

He is due annual booster next week. The new practice charges £15. The rip-off practice £45.

I think there's three levels of cat booster (for different things) - are those prices comparing like with like?

From their pricelist:-

Cats' annual boosters against flu, enteritis and leukaemia £15
Cats' annual boosters against flu & enteritis only £11.25
Dogs' annual booster £15
Dogs' booster and kennel cough vaccination £20

[theshrew]

I changed my Vet after i wasnt happy with the treatment my oldest dog got. Actually this was a lot harder than i thought it would be. It turned out that all the vets in our area are all owned by the same people. Problably about 10 - 12 of them.

Luckily someone told me about a new ish Vets that wasnt part of the group. Turns out its the closest to my house to. Best move i ever made.

I got a puppy just before xmas who quickly turned very poorly. They were fantastic got her in straight away gave her injections etc. Even answered some questions over the phone a few days later when i was unsure what to expect etc Im talking a 20 min + phone call not just a quick 2 min this was the vet not a nurse on the phone. I cant praise them enough what a fantasic service they gave.

What a difference to the old place where half the time you just ended up seeing a nurse not a vet and they knew how to charge for it !

[bexVN]

I do agree that some chain practices use nurses a bit too readily (though legally there are boundaries as to what they can do)

Nurses do 2nd vacc on pups and kits at ours, owners are very happy with this service as we are generally more soppy with the pets

At my practice all nurses are qualified, very experienced and extremely knowledgeable, we run a lot of nurse clinics but we do not and cannot see patients for diagnostic work. Why did you used to see a nurse half the time, for what kind of things?

Edited by bexVN on Monday 9th January 16:05

[Deva Link]

Jimboka said:

Cats' annual boosters against flu, enteritis and leukaemia £15
Cats' annual boosters against flu & enteritis only £11.25

OK, that is cheap! I think we were paying more than that 25 yrs ago!

[gd49]

Jimboka said:

From their pricelist:-

Cats' annual boosters against flu, enteritis and leukaemia £15
Cats' annual boosters against flu & enteritis only £11.25
Dogs' annual booster £15
Dogs' booster and kennel cough vaccination £20

Where abouts in the country are you? Wherever you are those prices are incredibly cheap, there's a couple of ways their business model could be working:

High volume - if they're seeing a lot of animals everyday and the practice is run very efficently the economics can work

Cutting costs elsewhere - their diagnostic equipment eg x-rays, blood machines etc could be very basic, and they might not have any qualified support staff eg no qualifed nurses. You'll only find this out if your cat needs any serious work doing

Higher costs elsewhere - For anything other than vaccinations and routine neutering operations, their prices might be much higher than other vets, to recoup the losses on the vaccinations.

Fair play for shopping around, it's a free market and should be exploited. I know more than a few pet owners who use one practice for cheaper vaccinations and neutering operations but for anything else prefer to go to a different, better equiped practice.

[anonymous-user]

gd49 said:

Where abouts in the country are you? Wherever you are those prices are incredibly cheap, there's a couple of ways their business model could be working:

High volume - if they're seeing a lot of animals everyday and the practice is run very efficently the economics can work

Cutting costs elsewhere - their diagnostic equipment eg x-rays, blood machines etc could be very basic, and they might not have any qualified support staff eg no qualifed nurses. You'll only find this out if your cat needs any serious work doing

Higher costs elsewhere - For anything other than vaccinations and routine neutering operations, their prices might be much higher than other vets, to recoup the losses on the vaccinations.

Fair play for shopping around, it's a free market and should be exploited. I know more than a few pet owners who use one practice for cheaper vaccinations and neutering operations but for anything else prefer to go to a different, better equiped practice.

The vet is at Woodley, near Reading in Berkshire. They have a few branches dotted around...

[gd49]

Jimboka said:

The vet is at Woodley, near Reading in Berkshire. They have a few branches dotted around...

That's incredible value for the south east. There will be a catch somewhere but if you're happy with the service they're providing currently then stick with them!

[Who me ?]

Last year I got a bit fed up with the higher charges at my normal vet. I could take mine to PDSA for vacs - but as it entails a journey -I decided to go for another vet ,charging less for the vacs .I was not impressed - they seemed only to want to sell extra services to me as he was an older dog .
This year i returned to my old vet - to get a welcome , and none of the hard sell . I could of course go to PDSA ( and let them make a profit on the service) ,but this means travel costs of more than any saving . I ws told that my 10 year old had a heart murmour - pity I had not shown vet a video of same dog chasing squirrel - over 50 yards ,and gaining on the grey rat before it found a tree . He might have changed his mind .

[bexVN]

[quote=Who me ?]Last year I got a bit fed up with the higher charges at my normal vet. I could take mine to PDSA for vacs - but as it entails a journey -I decided to go for another vet ,charging less for the vacs .I was not impressed - they seemed only to want to sell extra services to me as he was an older dog .
This year i returned to my old vet - to get a welcome , and none of the hard sell . I could of course go to PDSA ( and let them make a profit on the service) ,but this means travel costs of more than any saving . I ws told that my 10 year old had a heart murmour - pity I had not shown vet a video of same dog chasing squirrel - over 50 yards ,and gaining on the grey rat before it found a tree . He might have changed his mind .
[/quote]

There are plenty of dogs living very active lives that have heart murmurs. But as the vet picked it up on a ck he was right to tell you, it means you will be more aware should your dogs behaviour change and he suddenly struggles to keep up with those squirrels he seems to be forever chasing

[theshrew]

bexVN said:

I do agree that some chain practices use nurses a bit too readily (though legally there are boundaries as to what they can do)

Nurses do 2nd vacc on pups and kits at ours, owners are very happy with this service as we are generally more soppy with the pets

At my practice all nurses are qualified, very experienced and extremely knowledgeable, we run a lot of nurse clinics but we do not and cannot see patients for diagnostic work. Why did you used to see a nurse half the time, for what kind of things?

Edited by bexVN on Monday 9th January 16:05

I had my older dog spade. After the op i took her back to the vets to have the stiches out. (Fair enough this is a job for a nurse i suppose). I asked her just to check that it was healing ok because to me it looked like it wasnt. She said yes it looked fine etc.

The next day it looked worse but when i rang to get her booked in again they couldnt fit us in.

The day after the wound looked like something from Alien had crawled out of her tummy. Took her back again a nurse just cleaned it up gave me some stuff to clean it with at home.

The day after it got worse yet again, took her back and little Miss nurse said she was fine. It wasnt until i refused to leave without seeing a vet that something happend. I had to wait a while but eventually got to see a vet. The vet said she had an infection and possibly may have to be cut open again. A few injections and a couple of weeks of tablets sorted her out thank god.

Tbh i partly blame the nurse, she didnt know what she was doing - all she had to do was ask for a second opinion and it would of been sorted a lot quicker. Obv not all nurses are like this but that was the last time i will ever have anything to do with that group of vets.

[Who me ?]

bexVN said:

There are plenty of dogs living very active lives that have heart murmurs. But as the vet picked it up on a ck he was right to tell you, it means you will be more aware should your dogs behaviour change and he suddenly struggles to keep up with those squirrels he seems to be forever chasing

Time he catches them I'l be worried ( he found a dead rat once , but he'd got to give it a quick shake to make sure it was dead). He's not just active ,but a very active ten year old -he seems to think that greyhounds were put on this earth for him to chase.A t moment he's on diet - as he's ( IMHO) a bit on the porky side . But it seems more & more likely that one day he'll ( by speed or superfudge) catch one . He's now showing all the signs of a hunter, using trees as cover - crouching low in the open -he's going back to his native state - a Cairn hunting ,and using all the intelligence they've got to try and get a kill ,or if not give it a heart attack by worrying them up a tree .
But by chasing squirells ,he gets necessary exercise at a high rate - he might just trot round the park , but if up pops a squirell , then he's off at wark factor 5 and burning off the calories .

Edited by Who me ? on Monday 9th January 23:25

[bexVN]

The shrew - that was indeed poor on the nurses part and you were right to get a vet to see her. To also not be fitted in that day was bad.

Glad to say us nurses do the majority of post op checks at my place but any doubt re the healing we'll get a 2nd opinion, no question.

[S1_RS]

Our vet that the family had used for years was taken over by *edivet (edit for name & shame policy), their policy for any overnight stays was the animals would be transported to Southend, another 20+ miles on top of the 12 mile original journey. That, combined with some very unfavourable publicity on TV at the time forced me to look for another vet. Luckily an independent opened up less than 2 miles away so we registered all 7 cats with them. The quality of care has been brilliant, diagnosing and curing some long-standing minor issues that the previous vet failed to correctly diagnose. Any overnight stays are done in-house. Lindsay, (the vet) puts all of them at ease meaning the whole process of a visit to the vet is so much less stressfull for them. Also, for check-ups following on from initial treatment we very rarely are required to pay anything.