Vet bill!!!!!
 

Hi All.....

Not sure if this is the right area to post but thought I would try.

Took my 2 Yorkies in for their annual check up yesterday. My one little guy is 13 and my little princess is 11 (going on 14 and 12 by January). So being they are older now I sorta expect to do a little more checking of different things "just" to be sure they are in the healthy zone.

They both needed their DAAP and Bordatella (3yr) shots. Each shot cost $34 so that was $68 each and of course the charge for the office visit for each and other $69each. Pucci had an irritated eye.... blood shot red on top portion of the white...so the Vet wanted to do a glaucoma test..I said ok given his age it would not be a bad idea to check it out.....he did 3 little test on Pucci's eye, one involved some blood work in addition to his blood work for his heart worm check up. All was ok...still have to get the results on the blood work. For GiGi he swabbed her ear with a Qtip and said she had some kind of smelly yellow substance (not waxy or oozy) that she need to have treated with some ear cream. I did not smell anything and her "usual" vet at this place never commented over the years and checks her ears every visit (I always see that little yellowish substance after bathing her) (for this he charged me $29 and $27 for the ear cream. I also bought some Cosequin which they charged me $50. My total bill came out to $600 which included some meds for they eye and ear. I feel like I was raped.

Did anyone ever have a situation like this or this a customary bill for 2 dogs and do you feel the tests were necessary. My vet bills on the annual visit is usually around $220 which includes the tests.

Any comments appreciated....
Thanks
Tina

My vet is pretty cheap and annual visits are over 200 hundred dollars a dog. Any extra costs for tests or medications would be on top of that

Nope sounds about right to me, small price to pay once a year in the grand scheme of things. If this were a human child it would be far more than that. Have you looked in to insurance? Maybe this is something you might be interested in now that they are getting older.

Good Luck, I'm hoping your pups live long beautiful lives....

Considering what you had done for 2 dogs, I don't think it is that outrageuos of a price. I guess, as you mentioned, given their ages...you'd want to have these things checked out so I wouldn't say any of the tests were unnecessary. I definitely can see how walking out with a $600 vet bill can blind side and shock you, though. Ouch!

My vet is expensive, so I can not even offer an opinion! I KNOW my vet visits are going to be brutal....The only thing I would suggest is perhaps be more assertive with the vet....they can be like doctors and as they are prattling off all the things they think you are needing, it can get overwhelming....You say this is not your regular vet? Your regular vet is on vacation or out of the office? If that is the case, step one is to make your appointment when YOUR regular vet is going to be in the office. He KNOWS your babies, he knows you, and that is who you want to be seeing....unless it would be an emergency. If a vet says, look here is yellow stuff, we need to do this and this and this.....point out that he has this issue before and your regular vet has never treated it before, "lets just wait on the yellow stuff treatment and I will have that checked again when he gets back in town....". You have the right to say, "No, lets wait until Dr.Whozits gets back and see if this is something that has been present all along and now we have to act on it." Next thing you want to do is buy your meds from another source...vets always charge much more for the medicine...you can buy Cosequin on Amazon.com, Revival, Lambert Vet Supply....at much better pricing. I guess if you look at it as $300.00 per dog, once a year, it isnt as bad....but I know a $600.00 vet bill is a frog strangler!....will make your knees buckle!

That sounds right to me too. Granted, vet prices vary by region. I just took Kaji in recently for something I thought could be a cancerous growth. Turned out to be a giant pimple! (Or pimple like) by the time all was said and done, I was out $130. She really didn't do anything to him except make him mad when he got his temperature taken. ;) That's ok though. Anything for my piece of mind.

I wanted to add, maybe your vet will allow you to pay it out over some months....senior citizen discount...for either YOU or the dogs or both of you! Vets are more apt to work with you especially if you are a long time customer! Ask them....you may be surprised.....

sound about right to me

Wow, that is high! I just took my girls in because Tatiana and Teeka were not feeling well and their vet bill was $35 for both of them. It included oral medicine, a shot for nausea, fluids to hydrate, exam & office call! We live in Iowa, so it might be the area.

Sounds like a good deal!
I'm not sure if you do yearly bloodwork on top of heartworm testing, but it is necessary. Urinalyses and fecals are also good.

Rule of thumb is $1000 a year to own a dog unless something major goes wrong.

Ummmm....this is outrageously unfair! Crimeny I'm moving to Iowa!

Vets are generally expensive even here in RSA. When we go to the vet we don't walk out there without a bill of at least R700. And the vet that we are with now is cash up front. So what we do is pay money into a saving account at the vet to build up a credit.

Okay what I budget for each dog every year for normal vet visits is $500 per dog.

That includes the cost of their heartworm preventative, titering, and full blood panel. I also do a urinanalysis for both. Also a couple of vaccines that I can't titer for.

I do live in an expensive city, so I think coming out with $300 per dog is cheap so to speak.

Why do kennel cough vaccine if you are not boarding them?

That might be one area you could skimp on.

It is a shocker I know getting the bill.

Deb1
 

Wow!!! What a deal! Sure you didn't leave a zero out?? Lucky you have those low vet costs. I can't walk in the door for that price.

Lol....I did not leave a zero out! They only charged me $5 for Teeka and the rest was for Tatiana. When Teeka was spade a couple of months ago, it cost $150 and that included the full blood panel, pain meds and spay! Our office call is $15 and they just started this fee in the last couple of years!