Vet charges being obscene

deandean

€250 might be about right if it included for cremation of the remains.
But I'd expect a standard vet's charge (€50-60) for a PTS when you bring the dog away for burial.

Patrick2010

Had to have our 15 year old springer PTS about 5 years ago. He was having mobility issues, sometimes needed help getting up but eating ok and was comfortable in the house. He must had a stroke one night because when I came down I knew from the smell he had lost control of his bowels (never happened in 15 years), also couldn't stand.
We knew that unfortunately it was then the end and rang our vet of 30 years (we had a previous spaniel) to ask if he could come up to do the necessary. Despite living only 5 minutes walk away he refused saying to bring the dog down when the practice opened in a couple of hours.
I found online a very nice mobile vet who came out to the house. Total bill was 200 euro for the callout and removal for cremation.

Muppet Man

Around 200 euro for my jacker to be PTS, cremated and ashes returned in a nice box. I think Blood work was 80 euro. Leixlip vet

Sorry for your loss.

tphase

€120 to have my old cat put down a couple of months ago, included the test that showed he had FIV plus he was in the vet's for the day

cocker5

Sorry for your loss

Def ask for full breakdown OP you may not know the full story and charges could include other things like urine test (€30), internal and external bloods (internal €65 and external can be €150 plus) ..pain killers, injections etc.. the PTS fee may include cremation, nice box etc.. without seeing the actual bill it’s very hard to know .. (prices above are based on what I pay)

cruizer101

Definitely question it and look for breakdown, it may well be a case that you were overcharged by accident, maybe charged for cremation by mistake.
Its not ideal given circumstances but mistakes can happen.

Lackadaisical

Our cat died a few months ago and the bill was over €750, of which only half was paid by insurance. Most of it was for blood tests and putting him on an IV. Seemed quite steep to me.

I’d say over his lifetime (16 yrs) we easily spent €3000 with the vet and I can’t even remember how much on insurance.

In general I’ve found vets’ fees (with insurance) worse than human medical costs.

He got bad constipation once and I ended up with a bill for €800 to basically put him on fluids.

It’s one thing that’s put me off getting a new pet.

I know vets have to earn money but I found every bill was about 2X what I was expecting and the insurance company often queried them and then cut my cover due to his medical issues being fairly big. As he got older they just paid less and less which made the insurance a bit useless.

tk123

I'd want to see an itemised bill - eg were you maybe charged for cremation by mistake as other have suggested?....BUT..No I would't expect them to write off €500 if everything is accounted for on the bill - they're a business after all and would be out of business if they did it for everyone! They don't have a huge mark up on stuff - well ours doesn't anyways!

IJS84

We had our lab put to sleep a few years ago (age related issues), with cremation etc., was about the €250/€300 mark alright

Karma King

That's outrageous.

Our dog broke his back 2 years ago and the vet came out to the house and put him down. €50 she charged.

AulWan

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I'm also sorry i haven't read all the replies, (short on time) but is it possible they mistakenly included a charge for cremation of your dog in the bill?

I paid extra for a single cremation for my cat, and the end cost was approx €500.

Tony H

We paid around €150 to have our Golden Joey put to sleep and cremated separately
, really sorry for your loss OP ,

bertsmom

Op so sorry for your loss, it's a horrible enough time for you right now. I had my beautiful Springer euthanized in January, he was my best friend since he came into my life in 2006. We always used the same vet who was an absolute dote to him.
We went in that morning and in my heart I knew what was ahead we had a private consultant room to say our final goodbyes while he carried on searing patients in another one, after about half an hour he was sedated and then the final euthanize injection while I held him. He went to sleep peacefully in my arms.
I remember being worried that I didn't have enough cash on me at the time but i was actually only charged sixty euros by the vet nurse/receptionist .
My dad was calling up that evening to collect him so we could bury him with our other dogs on the home farm and when he was leaving the vet nurse gave him back thirty euro because she had charged for them disposing of his body.
Be good to yourselves op and know that in time it gets easier xx

Steer55

DonalB1 wrote: »

Not a city price.

Actually couldn’t believe it to be honest. I thought it was really taking advantage.

I’d understand if it was the first time they’d met us. They’re running a business and bills need to be paid.

But we’ve spent €12,000 in there over the past decade and then for our final visit they charge €500.

I’m actually in disbelief.

Donal

sorry for the loss of your beloved pet :-(

You were charged an extortionate amount of money on top of your loss. You should definitely query this bill and also reiterate all the monies you have paid to them in the past. Did you ever question the high bills you were presented with in previous years. I think I would have left that practise a long time ago.

Graces7

So sorry for all the losses here, and even more sorry for overcharges.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Rows Grower wrote:

There should be no onus on a customer to ask for a breakdown of a 500 euro bill.

Jesus christ on a wildebeest, i didn't say the onus was on the customer. If i am hit with a bill that i expect is too high i would ask what i am paying for. Then i could challenge them on the nonsense figure. Also didn't say that they should have asked when picking up the remains.

Sheepdish1

Hi op,

I’m very sorry to hear about your loss. It sounds like the vet receptionist timing and way of communicating this to you was very poor, if you are long term customers they would surely have sent you invoice in a few days instead of saying it to your after your dog passed away. Maybe she is new or just not good with customers.

I would give it a few days and ask for an itemised bill. Someone could have simply made an error eg included cremation etc or just added on an extra 0 by mistake ...... or there may have been more medication needed or tests run before putting your pet to sleep.....It’s would have been a very traumatic time for you, it could have been mentioned at the time.

When ready call them or perhaps drop in when there is a different receptionist on.

Best wishes

peasant

Very sorry about your loss, op.

Those charges (and the timing) sound pretty bad though.

We had to put our Bobtail mix down, rang the vet at 11 at night, drove out to their house and they charged 50 Euro (weeks later). Cremation and return in an urn was 200 euro, that one goes by size/weight of the dog and was payable only when we collected his ashes.

Benno (our 10 st lump) had a protracted injury with a twig in his paw. He had 2 x-rays, two small ops with full anaesthesia, several doses of antibiotics and umpteen follow-up visits for wound care. All that, over nearly a year, came to just over 600 euro and the most expensive items on it were the antibiotics and other assorted medicines...big dog, bigger costs.

For a small visit our vet takes between 15-30 Euro..depending on what has to be done plus the cost of any meds, if necessary. Again, the big fella costs more there than our terrier.

Generally speaking, I quite often do a double take when I see other people here mention their vet costs. I don't think we could afford our dogs if we had to pay 100+ every time just to say hello to the vet.

But even out here there is a marked difference between town and country vets. The townies seem to be quite happy to pay three times as much ...must be the fear of meeting a farmer, or god forbid, a sheep or cow in a trailer at the vets

boomerang

Sorry for your loss, OP.

Honestly don't think anyone replying to you here can call what you paid overcharging without seeing how the bill was itemised.

Maybe when you feel up to it, phone the receptionist and ask them to email you a breakdown of the cost.

davidk1394

DonalB1 wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a quick one...does anyone have any knowledge on the following (is it the norm?)

Recently our family dog passed away. He had a few issues and the vet thought it was best to put him to sleep. It was a shock to us all at the time but we didn't want the animal suffering so agreed if it was for the best.

When bringing our dog home to be buried the receptionist told us that we had an outstanding bill of 500 euro (250 for the bloods and 250 to put put to sleep). I can understand the bloods, but over the course of the animals lifetime we spent over 12,000 euro in that particular vet, between check ups, operations, food and medicine.

I'm actually appalled and embarrassed for them. To actually charge for that.

I run a business myself and I know everyone has overheads and staff to pay but that's insane

€250 is fairly steep especially if your taking home the dog. How old was the dog that you ended up spending over 12k on a dog ?

Always Tired

That's an absolute gouge job, euthanasia shouldnt be anywhere near that. And did someone say they paid 500.00 for a cat to be PTS?

Having worked for vets before some of them are really bad for ripping people off, but they usually went easy on customers who have pets pass. But it depended on where the vet was. If it was in an area with well to do clientele they got charged more.

I'd say the idea here is, this is the last bill we're gonna get to collect from this guy for a while
and he's already paid 12k so he'll pay whatever, make sure give him a nice fat invoice.

I would tell them to shove the whole thing and let them chase me for it, that's outrageous to charge that, esp after you spent so much there.

The chemicals used is the only real cost in euthanasia. But they're not that expensive. And it's not a particularly complex or difficult procedure in a technical sense, you could learn it in a day. It's kind of hard to screw up considering the desired end result is death, whereas healing procedures require a lot more experience and training.

I can't believe they even charged you at all considering what you spent already, and sorry for your loss. A 500 quid bill on top of that is just gross, why would they do that. They're only chancing it because you have already been so good with paying already, time to put manners on them IMO they're taking major liberties.

JustAThought

I'm so sorry to hear about your pet and your unexpected loss.

I agree with others posting that the receptionists timing and approach was pretty poor but perhaps they have had people who have had their pets pts abscond on their final bills before and she had been told make sure all people weere notified before they left.

Regarding the bill from experience I can well see how bloods /tests and a vet consult could be e250 - this isn't extraordinary. Regarding the pts fee again - its a traumatic and difficult thing for vets and their assistants to do -no doubt its a bitter pill to pay for but the fee for a non rural vets dosn't seem extortinate. Cremation, for a normal size large dog, could be an additional e350.

I appreciate the visit and prognosis must have been an awful shock but the vet and his staff still did the treatment, evaluation and awfully sad outcome at the end (pts) - its very sad and no doubt terribly traumatic but the bill seems fair and the final visit and treatment does have to be paid for, as with all prior visits and bills.

You must have loved your dog hugely to have spent so much over the years on him - he sounds like a much loved and cherished pet. Rip.

Always Tired

JustAThought wrote: »

Regarding the pts fee again - its a traumatic and difficult thing for vets and their assistants to do -no doubt its a bitter pill to pay for but the fee for a non rural vets dosn't seem extortinate. Cremation, for a normal size large dog, could be an additional e350.

It can be traumatic at the start when just learning, and is never fun, but a professional vet will be well used to doing it and it doesn't upset them any more than a mechanic gets upset at doing an oil change. It's just part of the job.

This client had already paid a substantial sum so there was no reason to think they would abscond. In fact they know he always paid so they purposely gave him a big fat bill right away, thinking they would get paid right away. The way they did it was on purpose to try and get as much money as quick as possible before the client has a chance to think. And IMO they should have done the opposite for such a client and gave him a steep discount. That would be the decent thing. But no, they did the greedy thing. They think people will be much more likely to just robotically pay when they are in the sort of autopilot that goes on in the grief state, same theory as the gouging that goes on with funeral costs.

Having worked in the field my experience with vets is that they are often greedy esp the men. and if you think they shed tears over putting animals to sleep forget it, I've seen them trip over carcasses of dogs and kick them out of the way, throw the bagged ones around like rubbish, they really dont give a crap it's all about the money and they are just trying to make one last money grab out of a person who just lost their pet that they clearly loved and spent so much trying to keep well.

Vets should not be charging that much for PTS, humane euthanasia should be accessible for dog owners of all means. Otherwise you end up with scenes like on the rte greyhound investigation where people are using bolt guns or drowning.

The SPCA I worked at was open admission and we would sometimes get people who couldn't afford the vet fee to put their pet to sleep so they would come in and surrender it (when it was near death) and we would have to put it into our intake protocol just to put it down. We would ask for a donation but we couldn't require one so would sometimes have to do it for free. When we got a donation we suggested 100 but what we got was typically between 20 and 100 dollars.

In those situations the owner wouldn't be present for the dogs final moments, and the dog would spend the last hours of its life while in a bad state in a loud, crowded kennel. The PTS room in a shelter is used frequently and dogs could sense what it that room was and would be frightened. It sucked for the dogs, the owners and the shelter workers to be put in that position, all because of greedy vets charging unfairly for a procedure that doesn't take massive skill or time (the longest bit of time is actually the wait between the injection that knocks them out and the injection that kills them) and is pretty hard to mess up.

CelticRambler

Always Tired wrote: »

a professional vet will be well used to doing it and it doesn't upset them any more than a mechanic gets upset at doing an oil change. It's just part of the job.

You know nothing about the veterinary profession. :mad:

Always Tired wrote: »

what we got was typically between 20 and 100 dollars.

Vets in this part of the world bill in Euros (or GBP). Don't assume that American values in respect of animal welfare apply to the same extent in Europe.

Rows Grower

JustAThought wrote: »

I'm so sorry to hear about your pet and your unexpected loss.

I agree with others posting that the receptionists timing and approach was pretty poor but perhaps they have had people who have had their pets pts abscond on their final bills before and she had been told make sure all people weere notified before they left.

Regarding the bill from experience I can well see how bloods /tests and a vet consult could be e250 - this isn't extraordinary. Regarding the pts fee again - its a traumatic and difficult thing for vets and their assistants to do -no doubt its a bitter pill to pay for but the fee for a non rural vets dosn't seem extortinate. Cremation, for a normal size large dog, could be an additional e350.

I appreciate the visit and prognosis must have been an awful shock but the vet and his staff still did the treatment, evaluation and awfully sad outcome at the end (pts) - its very sad and no doubt terribly traumatic but the bill seems fair and the final visit and treatment does have to be paid for, as with all prior visits and bills.

You must have loved your dog hugely to have spent so much over the years on him - he sounds like a much loved and cherished pet. Rip.

Any vet or vets assistant that finds putting an animal to sleep to put it out of its misery would want to find a new career if they find it traumatic and difficult.

I've read some right nonsense on the internet over the years and this is right up there with the worst rubbish ever spouted.

Bunnyslippers

I’ve worked at vets and to say they don’t get affected by putting an animal to sleep is very wrong, especially if they have dealt with a animal a lot they will know that animal. Yes they do get on with the job of injecting it but to say it has no effect would be inhuman and mean they had no respect for life, if a vet did feel nothing I would question why they were a vet in the first place.

As for the charges op unless your dog was larger than a horse and took several bottles of euthatal then there is no way it should cost this much, they are taking the piss! Go back to them and politely suggest they must have made a mistake and could they give you a correct final bill, always go in politely to start with then go upwards from there!:D;)

Rows Grower

Bunnyslippers wrote: »

I’ve worked at vets and to say they don’t get affected by putting an animal to sleep is very wrong, especially if they have dealt with a animal a lot they will know that animal. Yes they do get on with the job of injecting it but to say it has no effect would be inhuman and mean they had no respect for life, if a vet did feel nothing I would question why they were a vet in the first place.

As for the charges op unless your dog was larger than a horse and took several bottles of euthatal then there is no way it should cost this much, they are taking the piss! Go back to them and politely suggest they must have made a mistake and could they give you a correct final bill, always go in politely to start with then go upwards from there!:D;)

I heard a story about one vets assistant that was so cold that after putting a pet rabbit to sleep they had a pair of slippers made from the lovely soft fur.

DBB

Once again, I am forced to remind posters that whilst they can disagree with one another, the way in which they debate their points must be done respectfully.
Rows grower, your post above leaves a lot to be desired. Could you not just have said that you don't agree/that it hasn't been your experience, or something? It's hard to believe that that really is the "worst nonsense" you've ever seen "spouted" on the Internet, and all such hyperbole is going to achieve is to cause an argument.

To any posters thinking of posting in a sarky, and/or bitchy, and/or condescending way, stop. That's another human being you're talking to. Can ye not be nice to each other?
If not, then maybe think about whether this forum is suitable for your posting style.
Thanks,
DBB

DBB

Rows Grower wrote: »

I heard a story about one vets assistant that was so cold that after putting a pet rabbit to sleep they had a pair of slippers made from the lovely soft fur.

Enough.
Enough, enough, enough.
Don't post in this thread again.
Thanks,
DBB

Rows Grower

Once again, I am forced to remind posters that whilst they can disagree with one another, the way in which they debate their points must be done respectfully.
Rows grower, your post above leaves a lot to be desired. Could you not just have said that you don't agree/that it hasn't been your experience, or something? It's hard to believe that that really is the "worst nonsense" you've ever seen "spouted" on the Internet, and all such hyperbole is going to achieve is to cause an argument.

To any posters thinking of posting in a sarky, and/or bitchy, and/or condescending way, stop. That's another human being you're talking to. Can ye not be nice to each other?
If not, then maybe think about whether this forum is suitable for your posting style.
Thanks,
DBB

You don't see any contradiction in what you typed there?

Mod noteYellow card for breaking the site-wide rule of arguing with a mod on thread.
Sometimes, Rows Grower, mods have to take a more stern approach with posters when they demonstrate that they can't demonstrate civility towards other posters. At no stage were you disrespected by me, just reminded that your style of posting is not acceptable in this instance.
In this forum, the ethos of mutual respect is enshrined in a sticky. Such a pity that it has to be there at all.
Thanks,
DBB