Vets!! I forgot how expensive they are!!

[BrightSparkles]

We had to take our cat to the vet last night as she has an infected eye. They flushed it with saline and gave us some antibiotic cream - the same over the counter cream that humans use. All for $177! I could have bloody well done that!! Flushed it and put cream in it! And it wouldn't have cost me an arm and a leg while i was there!
Poor thing now has to wear a funnel around her neck so she doesn't keep scratching her eye. The funnel alone was $15! For a piece of plastic...it's more expensive than tupperware!
Ah well...what has to be done.. LOL

[Peach*]

Yup, the things we do for our pets! My cat was free to good home when he was a kitten.... and he has cost me over $1200 in vet bills in the last 7 years not to mention his prescription diet he has to be on or he will die...$80 a bag! Bloody vet bills!

[human bean]

Everytime I visit my vet it reminds me I'm in the wrong business!! Our dog is prone to conjunctive itis and I always do a few days of tea bag wipes on her eyes first to stave off another $80ish visit! Works sometimes too!

Hope the cat comes good quickly because I can just imagine how much it loves the funnel....

[entreat]

I paid $600 in vet bills for someone elses dog (hit by a car over christmas, couldn't contact owners) and was never repaid a cent. So I took their dog when I moved. add costs for TWO desexings (first one left an ovary behind?!?!), etc... One expensive rescue!!

And then there's my horse... $600 in one hit for sedation & stitching. dang hay-burners...

[*LittleMissSummer*]

My mum paid $1200 when our dogs head was bashed in with a baseball hat...when i was 9 we lived in a country town and our dog and next doors dog got into a fight mind you this other dog was one of those big wolf hounds and our dog was a bull terrior x so the other dog wasnt even remotely hurt maybe a scratch or 2. So while all out he came over and laid into our boy, i found him on the front step i thought he was dead, i will never ever get that picture out of my head (making me tear up now telling you) he looked right at me and had that look in his eyes "please help me" my step dad invited a mate over to shoot him to put him out of his misery, but my mum fought against them and took him to the vet, they fixed his head as much as they could, he had a few broken ribs i guess from where he also kicked him.. he had so many appointments and needed so many creams and antibiotices for his head so total cost was $1200 which im sure mum was given a discount. She has never regretted her decision but my step dad wanted to take a baseball bat to the guy who did it but we ended up moving away..

But about the funnel on your cats head, i think theyre so cute!

[christy]

I know it seems expensive, but unfortunately that is because the drugs, cost of everything is expensive! Did you know those plastic collars cost the vets $12 each? for the smallest ones, so there isn't much mark up is there? If I buy something at cost price, I only save a couple of $$.

An average income for a 1-3 year vet graduate is around $35,000 a year.... salary for 10-12 hour days and sometimes nightshifts included in that income!! It sucks.

I'm a vet nurse, and been in the industry for over 10 years, and I earn above the award wage, but would earn more if I were a check out chick at Coles.

What happens is the government subsidises human medications, but not animal. So the cost price for antibiotics or eye cream is HEAPS more than it would be for us if we had the issue. I recently had a foster kitten with an eye ulcer, luckily for me I can take it to work, put the dye in the eye and flush it out and then take it home and use my daughter's old eye cream Much cheaper for me, but I still had to pay for the dye, which was $25.... yep.

Food.... oh don't get me started on the cost of food :P

[Vixstar]

I love my boy and would pay the earth for him......we used to buy him dogfood that cost almost $90 for a massive big bag.....now we have kids......we buy dogfood from Coles and his coat looks like crap now!

Vets are exy......I guess the Govt won't sub it as pest might be seen as a luxury.....wonder about seeing eye dogs etc....are their bills subbed???? They darn well should be!

xxxx

[christy]

Seeing eye dogs bills are covered by Guide Dogs Australia... So give deep to Guide dogs!!!

[krysalyss]

It still seems a little bit pricy if they only looked at it, flushed it and put on the AB cream (although some of those creams are pretty exxy), plus the E collar. Did they also put some fluoroscein in to check for scratches? But you did say last night - was it an after hours consult?

[misty]

Agree with christy about the reasons for the costs, but it doesn't make it any easier.

My parents spent over $15k a couple of months ago when one of their husky's got sick (don't tell my mum, dad stopped telling her the costs at $7k). Unfortunately she go better for a couple of weeks and then started to get sick again - mum and dad had no option but to have her put down, they simply couldn't afford to spend any more money and the vet still wasn't 100% sure of the cause. It is very sad, they have one 11yr old husky left pining for her sister, who she had never spent a day apart from before this.

[human bean]

Yep don't get me wrong, I do understand the need for the high costs - heck I tend to whinge about anything that cost me money lol

I cannot fault my vet, they are always really helpful and happy to answer Q over the phone for simple things, plus we drop in now and then to use their scales to keep an eye on our dog's weight. They don't tend to agree with the raw diet she's on but know that I'm paranoid of having a dog with weight issues (like her owner ha ha) so they help me keep an eye on how she's going.

The actually hinted at tea bags to help with her eyes too so goes to show they are genuinely helpful and aware of the costs involved.

Anyway sorry to go off on a tangent Sunshine - how is the cat today?

[BrightSparkles]

It still seems a little bit pricy if they only looked at it, flushed it and put on the AB cream (although some of those creams are pretty exxy), plus the E collar. Did they also put some fluoroscein in to check for scratches? But you did say last night - was it an after hours consult?

Dh went in. He didn't say anything about fluroscien?
It was at the RSPCA vet. They close at 7 and we got there at about 6.45/6.50 so not sure if they charged an after hours fee or not? Oh well...what has to be done has to be done.

[somewoman]

if in Melbourne I would always recommend lort smith animal hospital. My cat had a blockage in his intestines a few years back, and the university hospital (using vets in training!!!!) wanted me to pay $3000 in advance for the surgery, after $800 for xrays (and not including the lengthy stay that he would have needed for his recovery)!!! Lort smith did the same thing for $1200 including keeping him there for 5 days after surgery. Saved his life, AND gave me a payment plan so that I could afford to do it over time.

Don't get me wrong - I would have paid the 3k if I didn't have another option... I'd already lined up a loan from my parents until my finances weren't so tied up (I was in the process of seeling my house and buying a new one, and everything from my savings was paid as a deposit to the new place until the settlement of the previous house came through). The payment plan at Lort Smith allowed me to pay them once all the settlements took place and I had available funds again, although they basically said "pay what you can, when you can. It doesn't matter if it takes 6 months or a year" They were awesome.

When DH and I married a couple of years ago we requested no gifts, and instead asked people to donate to Lort Smith. I think the well and truly earned more than the damned vet training hospital would have (albeit about 4 years later)

I'm sure that there are other non-profit vets around, but LS are the ones I know of in Melbourne.