BBC Article on vet bills

[Maz]

An interesting article here about how expensive vet bills are now. £500 for tooth removal for a hamster seems very excessive. I think vet bills have gone up in the past couple of years. The average consultation fee round here seems to be £50 ish now. Mine used to be £26 so has doubled. Most hamsters are generally pretty healthy with the right environment and diet and not need any treatment until old age usually. But occasionally they might need something and I had to have surgery on a 21 month old Syrian once. Further down there is an interesting bit about why bills have gone up

globally vets are in short supply. In the UK that’s exacerbated by more of us getting pets, Brexit fallout and professional burnout

The CMA said that many vet practices are also no longer independently owned.

This does explain why most of my local vet practices have more vets from other countries than from this country. And one of the vets nearer me no longer has their own web page - it just goes to a generic vet group web page, which I find off-putting.

It then lists some major groups that own previous independent practices. So I guess a bit of research needs to be done when choosing a vet. It's good the PDSA was mentioned as pets shouldn't go without treatment if people can't afford it.

We've usually recommended a vet fund - eg a monthly amount into a separate account as opposed to paying a monthly amount for pet insurance. I did look into pet insurance once but found too many things were excluded and it seemed more relevant to cats and dogs than to hamsters,

Vet bills: Owner quoted £500 to have hamster's teeth removed

With costs rising sharply, one dog owner considered selling their home to pay a vet bill.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Lovelyness]

Owning a pet, especially a dog, seems to be becoming possible only for the wealthy I have a friend who lives in France who says that vet treatment there is much more reasonably, and realistically, priced.

 

[Maz]

That's a bit sad isn't it. No wonder there are so many abandoned cats and dogs. Thank goodness there is the PDSA in the Uk though. I was quite shocked at how much I was charged for putting to sleep earlier this year. It used to be about £12! Vets used to specifically charge a very low fee for it as it was a sad time for the owner and necessary to help the pet. I can't remember how much I paid in July/August but I think it was about £95. I should have checked before I went to that vet (which was closer to me than my usual vet).