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Pyometra Costs


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A friends dog has pyometra. He took her to the vet last night and she is in now being desexed.

He was telling me about the quote he was given and I wanted to check what others have paid for it. His quote includes Anaesthetic costs of $240, pyo removal $455, 3 lots of meds at $100, 2 units of saline $155, plus ear cleaning at a charge of $160, bringing the total to $1,105. Granted, I have never had a dog with pyo, but this seems excessive. He also was given one lot of antibiotics yesterday, so why three lots of meds? Painkillers, Anti inflammatories maybe and ?

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A pyometra is abdominal surgery, not a 'spey', and the pathologic process of developing a pyometra affects many body systems not just the uterus itself.

Costs depend on where the surgery is done, what is included, how long the dog is in hospital etc. There will be an often wide variation in cost and also what is included so it is important to compare like with like.

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Yeah I understood that it's more indepth than a spey. But why did they list the anaesthetic separately? And is 2 units IV normal for pyo? And what would be the 3 meds?

This vet seems slightly dodgy. She also told him she was doing a health check, checked her heart only and charged him $100 for that!

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Was it an emergency? Was the dog extremely sick when taken in for surgery? Were there complications? Emergency operation is far more expensive than a simple desexing operation.

Vets usually explain the invoice/receipt and answer questions then so your friend would be best placed going back and at least asking the vet surgery what each cost was for if they really think it was overpriced for saving the dog.

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Yeah I understood that it's more indepth than a spey. But why did they list the anaesthetic separately? And is 2 units IV normal for pyo? And what would be the 3 meds?

This vet seems slightly dodgy. She also told him she was doing a health check, checked her heart only and charged him $100 for that!

:shrug:

Must be one hell of a thorough heart check!

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Was it an emergency? Was the dog extremely sick when taken in for surgery? Were there complications? Emergency operation is far more expensive than a simple desexing operation.

Vets usually explain the invoice/receipt and answer questions then so your friend would be best placed going back and at least asking the vet surgery what each cost was for if they really think it was overpriced for saving the dog.

Not an emergency. They booked her in for the next day though. But, I can usually get dogs in for desexing with a days notice. No complications, although pyo is complicated enough.

They didn't really explain much. They first gave him a quote of $1,700, offered him finance with GE money (plus 38% interest) and said they could do it for $1,500, then dropped it to $1,200.

He's glad his dog will be ok and still put her in after the quote. Maybe a little "I told you so", but I mentioned "well, I told you to get her desexed. That would have been a lot cheaper and better for her".

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The heart thing sounds weird. But I don't think anything else sounds terribly excessive. Non-routine abdominal surgery is always going to be expensive, and it can be very expensive if the dog is particularly ill.

It is a lot more than a routine spay, but a routine spay is also rather a different matter - firstly it's a routine surgery on a healthy patient, and secondly it doesn't usually make a profit for the clinic, in fact in some clinics spays actually make a loss (this is done firstly as a kind of loss leader as clients expect cheap spays, secondly to help control overpopulation by making spays accessible). They can't do that with all surgeries, though, or they'd go out of business pretty quickly.

If he's worried about the charges, he could ask for a full breakdown of costs. It seems unusual that they've just listed "meds" on the invoice and not told him what the dog was given, for example (although there are a lot of drugs they could legitimately have given), so he could ask them to break that down a little further.

Edited by Staranais
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I suppose unless one has time to shop around for quotes there is no way of knowing if this is expensive or not.

At least it ended up cheaper than initially quoted.

When I am billed for surgery every single item is listed & costed seperately. Even disposal of items. Think this is the usual now for most. I don't even bother asking what anything was. If the dog needed it at the time that's it.

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A standard spey can cost over $300 so I don't think its too bad really, considering it is a life-saving procedure. How much fluid is needed depends on how long the dog was in hospital, the size of the dog, its hydration levels, etc. If she was quite sick, she may well have needed more than one bag. Meds ARE expensive - she would have had some form of injectable pain relief and AB's at the time but she would also be taking home some ABs and anti-inflams/pain relief. The only thing that I think is excessive is the ear cleaning charge.

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Exactly what Kirty said. I had a young pug with Pyo and the thing is they have to be extremely careful not to nic the uterus and spill the contents into the abdominal cavity. This can cause serious problems.

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A standard spey can cost over $300 so I don't think its too bad really, considering it is a life-saving procedure. How much fluid is needed depends on how long the dog was in hospital, the size of the dog, its hydration levels, etc. If she was quite sick, she may well have needed more than one bag. Meds ARE expensive - she would have had some form of injectable pain relief and AB's at the time but she would also be taking home some ABs and anti-inflams/pain relief. The only thing that I think is excessive is the ear cleaning charge.

OMG! if something happens to one of mine i just get it fixed no matter the price but $300 for a spey!!!

My girls run $150-$185 and boys are $130!

and that is greyhound sized dogs!

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Was it an emergency? Was the dog extremely sick when taken in for surgery? Were there complications? Emergency operation is far more expensive than a simple desexing operation.

Vets usually explain the invoice/receipt and answer questions then so your friend would be best placed going back and at least asking the vet surgery what each cost was for if they really think it was overpriced for saving the dog.

Not an emergency. They booked her in for the next day though. But, I can usually get dogs in for desexing with a days notice. No complications, although pyo is complicated enough.

They didn't really explain much. They first gave him a quote of $1,700, offered him finance with GE money (plus 38% interest) and said they could do it for $1,500, then dropped it to $1,200.

He's glad his dog will be ok and still put her in after the quote. Maybe a little "I told you so", but I mentioned "well, I told you to get her desexed. That would have been a lot cheaper and better for her".

This is COMPLETELY OT but I would never go with GE Money for anything. I used to work in insurance and they are a rip off and aren't very reliable. They're interest rates say it all I would think.

A little more ON topic... I'm confused as to why they would offer him finance? Can someone explain this to me? Do vet surgery's normally do that?

I mean I understand that not everyone has that amount of money just lying around (I know I don't!! :D) but is that a common occurrence when people take their pets in for a surgery? I've just never heard of that before that's all.......

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GE Care Credit is often offered as an alternative when the clinic is not able (or willing) to offer an account.

The options otherwise are payment in full prior to discharge, having the surgery done elsewhere for less or not doing it at all.

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"My girls run $150-$185 and boys are $130!

and that is greyhound sized dogs!"

Your vets are running the bitch spays at a big loss, the boys are about spot on. As previously stated most vets do neutering at a reduced profit to encourage people to neuter. Even on a slim dog it will take at least 30 mins for a spay (and that is FAST!) but mostly it will take 40 mins surgery time, about 50-60 mins of GA time.

You need to pay for 1 vet, 1 nurse, anaesthesia dugs, equipment, sterilisation, premises etc from the surgery fee. Your vets are obviously keen to get those dogs neutered!!!!

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