Rising Vet Costs

[sandgrubber]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8j3020kl04o

 

What's happening in the UK seems to be happening in all developed countries.  Veterinary practices are becoming businesses, expected to turn a profit for shareholders.

[tdierikx]

Most vet clinic customers want gold star service for little to no cost... which unfortunately isn't actually how things work. If you have a sick pet, and the exact cause isn't immediately obvious, then certain tests will at the very least open up other avenues for diagnosing/treating said pet.

 

I'm definitely no fan of the corporate model of dealing with animal health services, but also understand that any diagnostics/treatments are going to have a cost attached that may not be blatantly obvious to the general public. There are a lot of "hidden" costs that go into providing what is seen/done in a consult, so when someone says a vet "only" did xyz, you can guarantee that abc costs have also been incurred behind the scenes to provide for that xyz consult.

 

Everything in life and business has increased in cost over the past 5-10 years, so why are we expecting veterinary services to be less affected by those increased costs than any other business?

 

T.

[Mairead]

My main concern was to find a vet that knew sighthounds. Greyhound vets had the knowledge but are going to be harder to find is my guess. 

At one local (non-greyhound) vet I had a reputation for being very detailed with symptoms, and when I wasn't sure what the problem was with one of my old dogs I remember saying "Spare no expense" which was probably a pleasant surprise for them.

I also remember talking with a woman in tears about the poor chance of successful treatment [or possibly the cost she couldn't afford or wasn't allowed to afford, or both - it was a long time ago] for her badly injured large dog, and would have to have it put down. I told her we were very lucky to be able to make that decision for our pets to end their suffering, people who were suffering weren't allowed to make that choice. 

I agree the business model is not the one I prefer, but the same is happening with medical practioners. When my GP retired, I would rather not have supported the clinic that also offered "vitamin infusions" but I was running out of options in the local area and needed a new referral. 

 

 

[_PL_]

Vets can do more now, and offer more treatments and tests. That costs. And they have to be paid for their services.
The specialist places look like human hospitals with every bit of equipment. All this comes at a cost and of course prices rise anyway - everything is more expensive now.
But vets are hard working, good people for the most part. Their lives revolve around work and burnout is a real thing. Corporate pressure to generate more and more revenue is the last thing they need.  

There's also incredibly heavy societal pressure to do and spend everything you can for your 'baby' or you're 'not a good pet owner'. I see it every day on FB. The comments are awful. What happens if you simply can't get hold of thousands of dollars in the blink of an eye? The guilt people feel because they don't have the money to pay for all these extra new options and interventions is sad.  

There's NO excuse for neglect though so I'm not making excuses for those who don't even maintain their pet's health with basic vetwork, or a euthanasia when necessary.

/rant over

[sandgrubber]

One reason for rising cost is the increase in testing.  This needs to be viewed critically as it doesn't always result in better outcomes.

 

Rational Use of Diagnostic & Screening Tests | The SkeptVet https://share.google/0Y7LHEDFnl71UYzhO

Edited Wednesday at 11:12 PM by sandgrubber

[tdierikx]

When Harper pulled up very crook, her symptoms looked like either a kidney issue or an obstruction... hunching and drinking water excessively were the main symptoms.

 

At the very least, a blood test would rule in or out the kidneys being the problem... but they actually showed a completely different issue, in that her red blood cell count was virtually non-existent - meaning a very significant internal bleed was happening. I'm thankful that the clinic had an ultrasound machine which I convinced the vet we could at least use to have a look at what was going on straight away rather than waiting for a specialist appointment to do the scan. We found the cause pretty quickly, and Harper was given her wings as a result - essentially her spleen had exploded due to a haemangiosarcoma, and there was no coming back from that, so euthanasia was the kindest thing for her.

 

Now, if I had taken her to an emergency clinic (that are all run by corporates here), I would have been told that she needed a blood transfusion and possibly major surgery... with no guarantees that any of it would resolve the issue. Sometimes doing all we can isn't really the  best option, as it may buy some more time for us to process what's happening, but at what cost to our beloved furry friend?

 

Harper passed quietly and peacefully in my arms, surrounded by an awesome vet clinic team who comforted both of us through the process... which I will always be grateful for.

 

Interestingly, I paid around $500 for Harper's final vet visit. We had a full blood test and an ultrasound, euthanasia and disposal of the remains (sorry for the blunt terminology here). We took up a good hour and a half of the clinic staff's time, which I'm pretty sure wasn't charged for. I was expecting a bill around $1800 for all that we'd done that afternoon. Possibly as I am a vet nurse and assisted at every stage of the testing and end result, I may have been credited for that, but still, the final bill was basically what it had cost in consumables to get that diagnosis and final "treatment".

 

Conversely, when Pickles definitely had managed to get an obstruction and was vomiting up blood (she had Pica, so no doubt about the obstruction), we ended up at one of the local corporate run emergency clinics, where I ended up having to argue with the vet that Pickles needed to be given her wings rather than a raft of treatment options that weren't going to fix the problem at hand. Again, as a vet nurse, I have more knowledge about some things than the average Joe. I eventually convinced them that we were going to give Pickles her wings which was done. The final bill was around $650 just for the consult, euthanasia and disposal, as no treatment options were applied. Oh, and the next morning, I got a text and an email asking me how Pickles was doing after her visit to the emergency clinic... someone had forgotten to mark her deceased in their system... grrr! I had to call them and tell them to update their records to mark her as deceased, and I didn't even get a hint of an apology about the error.

 

When Zeddy decided it was her time around midnight on a Sunday night, I took her to a different emergency clinic (also corporate run), where we gave her her wings with no fuss, and they must have applied some sort of discount, as the final bill was only $350ish - and I know that the consult fee for midnight on Sunday was at least $270 (was quoted when I rang to tell them I was bringing her in). All I can think of that may have reduced the fee in that case was that after I'd said goodbye to Zeddy and was waiting for them to make up the bill, I was talking with a young couple with a very sick cat who were not sure whether they should leave their cat in hospital overnight or take her home and wait for their regular clinic to open... the best place for the obviously very unwell cat was in the hospital, and I convinced them of that fact. They finally noticed that I'd gone in with my own pet, and was now sitting there holding only a collar and lead, and realised that I'd just lost my own pet, but still was concerned enough about their pet to talk with them. When the receptionist gave me the bill for Zeddy, I looked at her quizzically, and she just smiled and nodded at me, and looked over at the couple who were handing their cat to the vet for hospitalisation... I said thank you and paid with no further hesitation. Strangely enough, when I called my regular vet to advise of Zeddy's passing, they said they would have had to charge me $10 more for the procedure than I'd paid at the emergency clinic.

 

3 different clinics, 3 different approaches and final bills... 2 of those clinics will get return visits by me when I need a vet for any particular issue. I have no qualms about paying a fair price for services received, but what I also expect is professionalism and compassion during such a stressful event, which I don't feel I got at the other clinic with Pickles.

 

T.

 

 

[DogsAndTheMob]

There are very justifiable reasons for veterinary costs outpacing inflation. The failure of some vets to communicate about prognosis, options and costs is less justifiable.
 

When my 14 week old puppy started vomiting and stopped eating, I took her to a local vet who, I had been told, provided emergency care. After some initial scepticism, the vet ran blood tests which indicated advanced kidney failure. She told me my options were either “um” or take her to a specialist veterinary hospital an hour and a half away. After phoning the hospital, she told me that my puppy needed to be cared for at the specialist hospital but would not actually be seen by a specialist until Monday. (This was early on Friday morning.) 

 

The vet at the specialist hospital told me, one again, that my puppy would not be seen by a specialist until Monday, or possibly Tuesday. In the interim, I could either opt for “um” or leave the puppy to receive supportive care at the hospital over the weekend. What would that cost, I asked. Reluctantly, she told me that it would be at least $6000 for care over the weekend and another $6000 for diagnostics before treatment started, if her kidney failure was treatable.  What was the prognosis? She didn’t know and/or wasn’t allowed to say because she wasn’t a specialist. Had she ever seen a puppy with such severe kidney failure respond to treatment? No, but she was only an about a year out of University. 
 

I opted for euthanasia. By the time they brought my puppy to me for the euthanasia, she seemed close to death… a little, semi-conscious bundle, huddled against the pain. I saw nothing to indicate that she had received any care except inserting a catheter in preparation for euthanasia.
 

I’ve owned dogs all my life and had quite a bit of experience talking to vets, so I was able to get at least some information on which to base my decision. I think a younger, less experienced owner would not have gotten that information.  I had the very strong impression that neither the local vet nor the specialist vet was allowed to say the word “euthanise”. I also had the impression that the local vet and the specialist hospital were under the same corporate umbrella. Referring a patient to another part of the same corporate entity without mentioning conflict of interest borders on unethical.

 

The two vet consults, testing and euthanasia cost just under $1500. I could afford that but it would have been unaffordable for a lot of people. For many people, a $12000 bill would be catastrophic and it might put them on the path of spending even more money that they didn’t have, due to the “sunk cost fallacy.” Although, in this case, that point would have been moot. I don’t believe my puppy would have survived the weekend.

 

(Background information for those who might find it useful: My puppy was one of two runts in the litter.  The breeder told me that they had been born at the same size as their litter mates but stopped thriving at around 3 weeks old. My puppy would eat a food once, then refuse it at the next meal; I think that was because the food made her feel ill. )

Edited Thursday at 10:29 PM by DogsAndTheMob

[Mairead]

I had a runt puppy, low birth weight. Behaved as the others, shiny coat, but not growing at the same rate after about four weeks of age, and thin. Blood tests revealed only low haemoglobin. Did tests for every condition ever known to have occurred in the breed, with nothing conclusive. 

When she was desexed she didn't come out of the anaesthetic, in a way or at a stage that was apparently unusual. The vet was very upset. I told him that we knew she had something wrong, could he now try to find out what it was? He discovered she had an abnormally small diameter connection between the small and large intestine "size of a drip tube". 

I can imagine that in today's "furbaby" attitude to pets, as well as not being able to say euthanasia, perhaps they are not allowed to suggest necropsy (autopsy), or if suggested it may result in a one star review. 

[tdierikx]

You may be right about necropsies @Mairead- I've only ever been offered it on one animal in all my years of pet ownership and working in the animal industry. I know that zoos will more often get them done on animals that have passed with little to no warning, so they can rule out issues that may affect other animals in their care, but never have I been offered one after a domestic pet has passed with little to no warning.

 

The one animal that a necropsy was offered for was a goat kid that belonged to my work. The vet was happy to do it gratis, as he wanted to know what had happened also. The results showed an issue that could have become prevalent in our herd, and by making a few simple adjustments to diet and age of castration of the males, we never had another incident of the same nature (urinary calculi causing obstruction). Without that necropsy, we may well have seen many more cases of that problem, and deaths associated with same.

 

The interesting thing to note is that necropsies actually don't cost all that much, and can be an amazing resource for future diagnosis/treatment of certain issues that may not necessarily present as expected during a consult, or even after most regular testing regimes. Just think of it as exploratory surgery without the need for anaesthetic (which is the biggest factor in any surgery cost really).

 

T.