I would be very nervous if a vet did a spay for under $250. Is this vet (that charges $130) doing spays at his/her cost or only charging for material? If this is the price for any abdominal-type surgery there I wouldn't do it. A microchip costs atleast $15. Now we are at $115 for the spay. A vet gets paid about $25-30 an hour (atleast). A spay takes 15 minutes to 1 hour. Now we are at $85. I am a strong believer in antibiotics after a surgery. They are about $15. So $85-$15 is $70. I would never spay an animal without pain meds. Ellie's vet agrees and gets really upset when people won't use them. The only time pain meds aren't given at Ellie's vet after a spay is if the dog is nursing puppies. Pain meds are about $12.50. That is $57.50. I will go on the low side here and say an IV catheter is $15 (it is LOTS more than this though), so we are at $42.50. There is waste disposal which would be about $5. So that's $37.50. Now we have anesthesia. The best kind is quite expensive. I would say the low end at a normal vet office would be well over $30 for an hour. I will use $30 though. Now we are at $7.50. We have an e-collar (which most vets make you take. Lets just say $5 for that. That is $2.50. I guess the clinic makes a profit of $2.50?
The problem is that the techs (who monitor your baby during anesthesia) haven't been paid. Neither have the receptionists. The monitoring (as in breathing and heart) that they do is in question. The electricity and all other bills there haven't been paid. And we didn't even do preop bloodwork (which cost me about $95 for Ellie for a surgery). I really hope your vet takes a loss on spays and neuters to help people. If so, that would explain the price and that is wonderful. If not, I would be scared. I see so many people get major surgery done too cheap. I can tell that you love Dakota so much and I am sure you will make the right choice for her. These are just my thoughts and I realllllly don't want anyone to be offended.
