Access to affordable vet care

aniderm

Hello, How many on here are having problems with vet bills? We are  an online vet clinic and we wanted to know what difficulties people are facing right now.  Is it the overall cost of going to the vet - i.e. transport/ taxis etc ?

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poppy123456

Scope do not allow advertising a paid product on the forums. 

https://www.scope.org.uk/community-house-rules/?_ga=2.89542811.1818924194.1692479966-2049403996.1610998196

woodbine

If you take out insurance for your pet it usually includes free access to telephone advice line, I would also say that its surprising how many pet medication you can buy quite cheaply online.

poppy123456

There's also PDSA for those that have them in their area. For those on low income claiming certain means tested benefits, there's no charge but they do ask for a small donation. (if possible) A small price to pay for such a wonderful service they provide!

Jimm_Scope

I seem to remember back when I was younger during the 00s a Labour government proposing a "Pets NHS" where the government would offer a cheap alternative to private pet insurance. Though, I find no historical evidence for any proposal back then in a brief search.

I do think pets are very important and can be very good for people. I know my cat has been great for me and my partner in terms of mental health and stress relief. It's a shame many people are priced out of being able to keep a pet when they are able to look after one.

sassy51

I find vet bill’s horrendously expensive and vets are a license to print money! I don’t know what I’m going to do if one of my animals get sick 

michael57

sassy51 said:

I find vet bill’s horrendously expensive and vets are a license to print money! I don’t know what I’m going to do if one of my animals get sick 

being an ex herdsperson of some 50 years vets main income came from the farms they soon found the declining number of vet visits and call outs were in decline and targeted the pet population say a cow needed a 4 day course of penicillin at 25ml a day thats one 100ml bottle farmer pays for 1 bottle cowman injects farmer is charged 1 call out and the price of a bottle £5 or £6  now rose goes to her local vet with her 25kg pet dog after 5 minutes vet says dog has this or that and needs a 4 day course of the same penicillin but at 1ml per 25kg poor old rose goes back 4 times and gets charged 4 times i am afraid the vets are in it to make money plus they charge a lot more if you have pet insurance i ha a collie that needed an operation vet asked if i had insurance as it would cost about £3000 i said no insurance and the price was dropped to £900 

Caryn1205

I have a 14 year old dog that has pancreatitis and separation anxiety. I called the vet for advice explaining what was going on. (Chance was barking for hours when I was not in the house) and they told me to make an appointment. I went and was told there was nothing they could do. I had to take an Uber (I do not drive here in the UK) to the appointment which was about £20 and the vet visit was £49! They could have told me on the phone. 
When I was leaving to take Chance to the vet, I fell and hurt my leg. I then had to go to the A&E after taking Chance to the vet. 
I think that there should be an easier way to communicate with vets without having to make a payment, or a full payment to find out a solution. I would have been happy to pay a partial payment for a phone consultation. 

2oldcodgers

There are now very few 'old school vets'. The majority of have been swallowed up by hedge funds across the country. You only need to look at the 'Yorkshire Vet' series on television. Not many years ago the two partners of a local vet practice in Thirsk ran it as a business. When big money came knocking on their door, Julian sold out and went his own way and now owns two private practices that he started from scratch whilst the senior partner Peter (who was 'James Herriot's trainee in real life' decided that it was time to cash in also and then became a vet in another private practice.

The Yorkshire Vet: Why did Julian Norton leave Skeldale? | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV | Express.co.uk

It is big business now and the combines simply see it as a money making venture.

CATP

aniderm said:

Hello, How many on here are having problems with vet bills? We are  an online vet clinic and we wanted to know what difficulties people are facing right now.  Is it the overall cost of going to the vet - i.e. transport/ taxis etc ?

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i know paid advertisements arent alowed but itd be interesting if youd stay to see how things coud be improved maybe.

i do have issues with vets fees but my apointee makes sure i save enough to cover vets,medicine etc so i am a lot luckier than some people who may live on the street maybe,or who live at a home of some form but with less funds.

i was in my thirtys somewhere (i cant remember where) i found my best friend in a disabled cat (hes in my avatar on my wheelchair,its brand new and hes claimed it as his when im in the recliner or my bed) from a sanctuary,i sat down on the concrete and didnt move and in less than 5 minutes he had sized me up,got on my knee,had a bit of a ritualistic cat dance and curled up to sleep.

i was looking to take on a cat with behavioral issues or disabilitys like FIV as my family had always rehabbed cats with aditional needs and in a way i wanted to give back to society for all the care ive been given.

he was hairless apart from hhis head and tail,he was kept deflead by the sanctuary a long time ago. they told me/my family and staff he will require medication for the rest of his life,will i be able to aford it? there was no no about it,id find it somewhere from my savings.

it took a long time to come about a diagnosis but i was told his imune system was to high and this made him alergic to many things,so they said to try him on some anti histamine first but that this is a risk also as this lowers the seizure threshold in non epileptic cats,and i know as a severely epileptic person i didnt want to mess with his neurology, he had one bad seizure on my knee after a few days use of the anti histamine and that was enough for me.so next he was put on a medication that costed £90 a month-i remember the other name for this medication being cyclosporin, i did try to see if i coud get it cheaper from the PDSA hospital but they told me they dont offer meds like that and to put him to sleep which thankfuly i laughed at and brought him home and began a treatment plan with my dads cats vet,by my apointee giving me savings she had kept collected up on my behalf.

unfortunatly this medication made him anorexic (its one of its many side efects).

one of my cousins is a vet and she was down for a visit with my auntie/her mum and our shared auntie and my mum and dad. my cousin got talking about the medication he was on (i forget its name) and she recomended asking for the beef flavoured jelly/chewy dog version to be precribed off label (you have to sign something to show you know the risk) a lot of animal lovers dont realise about prescribing off label. 

my boy was on the feline liquid version originly which smelt awful like strong chemicals,youd think theyd have flavured it like the dog version.

the dog version had to be given more one day and less rthe next due to his weight not being acomodated by the drug, unfortunatly it didnt work for him because he still puked it every where and lost weiggt so i found a new vet.

shes a specialist in hard to diagnose cats like my boy.think dr gregory house MD! it costed over £500 for the 1st apointment which involved a hell of a lot of testing and detective work on her part-and its always around £100 now without any meds i think but he usualy only gets 3 months worth of stronghold flea spot on treatment each time we go.

shes an amazing vet, instead of just throwing meds at everything she questioned whether his condition coud be partly an anxiety disorder,caused by my support service using so many new staff (which a learning disability hospital i was sectioned in had once told the company that this woud only set me up to fail if they dont use structure,routine and same staff with me.),shes told me how to disguise his catio so other boy cats who come for a scrap threw the fencing cant afect him.

she was going to think about to prescribing him pregabalin if prednisalone treatments --when hes really bad-- dont help and so far they have,he still looks like a half naked cat though as a UV torch has showed he has damaged the roots of his fur in a lot of places.

she lives right near my relatives and offered to drop off my boys meds at the house or we coud pick them up from hers if we wanted , absolutly lovly person and i am keeping my boy with her as i finaly found 'the one'.

-for me,a vets has got to have multiple blue badge spaces that are inforced unless an emergency came in and they had no where else to hurry and park in., seperate waiting rooms for dogs and seperate waiting rooms for cats (mine has it),a ramp thats easy to use as a wheelchair user and shoud be tested by wheelchair users with all level of strength due to the variety of disabilitys that they will see (unfortunatly the ramp at the vets i go to is to steep).

a bonus point for my vets is its got a tack shop and pet shop adjoined as part of the vets.

another bonus point-they are a base for the national cat blood bank and if youve got a soppy lazy cat like mine though not as old as my boy,they may be able to donate blood to cats in desprate need.

the receptionists are cool as well and very understanding to disabled and neurodiverse clients.