Vet fees

40-50 is the normal fee here... but rechecks are about half

Some give shots without a office fee

I just found a new guy about a mile from my house who charges $31 for office visit.

$59 for check up, $45 for recheck, and about $30 per vaccine. $15 for tests such as ear mites, eye dyeing, and stool samples. I live on the north side of Chicago so prices are all going to be at the highest part of the spectrum.

May I ask what an eye dye is?

With my cats, it depends on which one of two vets offices I take them to. The cheaper on takes a little longer to get into but charges $40.00 for office visit and the basic meds and vaccinations are cheaper but if they need more specialized meds they see the other vet (such as for the injectible antibiotic and their asthma meds.) The other vet charges $59.00 for office visit, the meds are slightly more but they also have a vet on call 24/7 and the equiptment is better. The bloodwork is the same at both offices as is most other procedures. I wouldn't be suprised if they go up soon.....

Memphis had an eye ulcer, so they put a dye in there that reacts with the ulcer and turns it bright green. That's how they tell if the ulcer is open or if it's healed as much as it's going to.

Thank you ... Here they call it something different

I'm extremely lucky. We have a vet here that charges next to nothing. There is no office fees. A basic checkup is under 25 dollars. When my Parker had a URI, he was there there for 3 days. I was given a weeks worth of medication and it all came for 45 dollars. Its a long drive from where I live but she's helped me in a few emergency situations.
I wish all vets were like this.

This is very timely. Today, my daughter brought her 3 torties home from being spayed. The bill was $1,006.00

Now two or three weeks ago, they were in for their pre spay exam and shots.

Then today, the vet charged again for an exam....each 35.00. Is that the normal procedure? It's been so long since I have had a cat spayed, I don't remember.

I have only had one cat spayed (all the others came already altered) and my vet charged for a recheck but at the time it costs $25.00 (its now $30.00.). The cost to have her spayed was near $300.00.

Gasp! Hyperventilating! Heart Attack! I am NEVER moving to New York. And I'm going to be very grateful for my vet. I just had 4 kittens spayed and it was $384.something. $90 each plus tax. Yikes.

And do you mean he charged to take their stitches out? I've never known a vet to do that. It's usually included in the charge.....especially if the charge was over $300 to begin with!

Oh wow thats cheap.

My vet charges $65 for an exam, $100 for deworming, $100 for vaccines, $400-$700 for a neuter/spay...

Wow. I think if I lived somewhere like that I'd have to go on a road trip just to get kitties fixed, LOL. Yeah, my vet is cheap but even the most expensive vet I know charges only $125 for a cat spay. My vet only charged $110 for Moose's neuter, and Moose is maybe 125 pounds. He doesn't charge an office fee for shots, for an illness visit it's a $35 office fee. Shots are $20-ish each. I guess I'm glad to live in a rural area. . .although many people don't value pets, which is sad, at least that means the vets are cheap!

The ONLY spay/neuter clinic in my area charges $65 plus $140 to spay females and $65 plus $80 to neuter males. The $65 is the vaccine/exam fee and the $140/$80 is the spay/neuter fee. Not very low income if you ask me but hey I am not complaining. I would rather pay that then the $450 my vet wants for a neuter and the $95 for shots.

Shall I send you some oxygen?? We live in a rural area. The sad thing is he was the second cheapest of the four or five we checked with. A couple were astronomically high. Practically charged for the syringes!

No, the stitches will be no charge. They were just spayed yesterday. I thought it was crazy to charge for another exam at the time of spaying. I wonder what it consisted of....checking ears, teeth, bla bla bla. That was done 2 weeks ago.

We knew going in what it was going to be. We have been going to him for almost 20 years. There was a cheaper vet, but my daughter decided and I agreed, it prob was better to go to our vet who we know is competent than go for the extra cheap one.

This isn't a ritzy area. Our vet does lots of cattle and horses too. My daughter even takes her goats to him.

LOL about the oxygen--thanks!

I guess that even rural areas in New York probably have a higher cost-of-living than the Midwest. I hope wages there keep up with the costs, at least!

The vet visit for Ariel yesterday came to $133.00. The Rhino/Calici/Panleuk shot was $25.00. The 3 year rabies was about $52.00. So the exam was $56,00. That's all that was done and all that was recommended, considering her age and general overall good health. If he had recommended anything, I would have said, "Yes," because I trust this vet.

For that he looked her over really well. Listened to her heart and lungs with a stethoscope. Felt her all over. Opened her mouth to check that and her teeth. Checked her eyes and ears with one of those magnifying lights. Looked at her rear, paws, etc. They weighed her.

I am near Chicago, so I think that price is very fair. And to go to a vet that one has confidence in, well that is priceless to me. I drive 20 miles to see this vet that I've been going to for 25 years. He sends you to specialists if there is something he can't diagnose or do. He has a surgery specialist vet come in once a week, also.

My cats all come spayed/neutered. That's one of the many advantages of getting cats from a reputable no-kill shelter. I've paid $100 or less for each of them. For that I got much more - in vaccinations, de-worming, de-fleaing, microchip, etc.


Robin

Also, I think it's important to compare apples to apples - is your vet's office a clinic or a hospital? Are there staff assigned to stay overnight to monitor patients? How is the access to specialty treatment? What are the hours (my vets' practice is open seven days a week - Sunday only ten to noon, but still...some practices are open only five days a week). Are they good at getting urgent cases in quickly? How available are they for phone or other consultation? Do the vets and techs keep up with all continuing professional education programs? All that sort of thing.

To a point, the more services available, well, they have to be paid for somehow. I'd rather pay a bit more for a check up and know if my two are stuck there overnight, staff is at hand.

$100 for deworming!!! What kind of super wormer is that? I worm my rescue kitties myself using Strongid (which is what most vets use) and it costs me about a quarter per cat, if even that. I don't understand at all how you can justify charging $100 for some dewormer. I should move to your area and open up a deworming clinic and charge the bargain price of just $80 per cat. That would be a $79.75 profit! I'd be rich!

Vet care is way too expensive. I took my dog in for diarrhea and he got two weeks worth of Metronidazole (28 pills) that they charged me $25 for. The next day I got a catalog in the mail and they sold a bottle with 100 Metronidazole pills for $8.99!

Don't you hate when you don't have something on hand then see it SO much cheaper

My vets an angel. Office exam is 55 I think but if I bring in a few it goes down and shes very fair about a few minute check being next to nothing. Sometimes to crowded to go then I will use my local vet-many drs and about same price.

Both are very good about not pushing extras and being honest in a if this is my cat I would run xyz and not the most expensive tests either.

Have gotten many afternoon same day appts and treated just as wonderfully as appointments made in advance. Alot of things around here are a bit disapointing(stores having very old items for sale/bad stock...) but I did luck out to have found so many wonderful vets and also animal rescuers.

Good point. My vet is just a TINY clinic out in the sticks. Getting through on the phone is very hard. However, they will return phone calls if you do need to ask questions.
She will stay overnight if she has animals that are critically ill. Or she at least has someone who will stay. She will even stay open later if you call at closing time with an emergency. So there are some downsides, but when you're in a financial pinch, she will do anything she can for you and at some of the lowest prices I've seen from any vet...and she will go out of her way to help an animal in need. Some of her long time customers even have her personal number and can call her any time day or night and she will go to the office.
She is a very, very odd person. Seems sort of out in left field, but she has an amazing way with cats and they all seem to instantly trust her. I've never questioned leaving Parker there for a few days.

For a shots and all checkup, my bill was about 500$ (160$ish x3), plus $100 for boarding for a day (which was about 30$ x3 and from 7 am to 8 pm, the same day). I live in Hawaii, though. My spay bill was crazyyyy. Hawaii requires you to get a spay/neuter certificate, which runs from like 40$ to spay a female cat to 150$ for a dog. That's on top of a 300$ vet bill! (If you're moving to Hawaii, or thinking about taking a pet to visit with you, PM ME!!! I can help you figure out the paperwork. Its weird.)

(My mom's dog had a 100$ vet bill to receive a health certificate. The vet listened to his heart and that was it. He turned out to be sick when my aunt got him home with her. I've been going to this vet for years but this was the first time this happened! Note: Different vet from above)

The vet we've just moved to, we're in love with and she happens to be the cheapest vet in the downtown of Toronto--we called EVERYONE we could find the number for and she also happens to be just around the corner from our home. She's a clinic, not an animal hospital, but she's the nicest ever.

Exam fee is 58.50 (compare 65 as the next lowest) and she waives the exam fee for vaccinations, which are 75 dollars all included except Feline Leukemia, which is an additional 30 dollars because so few people actually want it here that she does it only if you ask. To do boosters is 60, exam fee waived. Everywhere else we called was charging 30-60 for the vaccines after a 65-95 dollar exam fee. With four medications (topical dewormer, flagyl, tyrosin tartrate, a probiotic, enough for two kitties) our total fee came to 226.43 after taxes. She was going to suggest a prescription diet for them, but when I said I fed grain-free, she said I was already doing better than any of her prescription foods and to keep up the good work. Her techs talked to us about everything and worked with us to make everything as cheap as possible. She also doesn't charge for a follow-up appointment after a full course of medication.

A feline leukemia test is going to cost us 105, down the road and her spays are around 300 each. Sad as it is, we probably won't be able to afford to do a spay through her because there IS a cheap spay/neuter clinic a few times a year that does it for 100 and the vets that do it are, by all accounts, very, very, very good with the animals.

In Minnesota I just paid $53.00 for a physical exam/office visit
$35.50 for a ear cytology - (check for infection or mites)
$31.50 for fecal exam (check for parasites)

I only use low cost clinics for spaying and neutering and also rabies vaccines. I do not vaccinate my cats every year so I don't have to take them in much. Every 3 for the rabies shot. It's like $15 to come in and $5-10 for the vaccine. Unless I find a walk in rabies clinic and have it done for $5.

The low cost neutering is $30-50 depending on sex of the cat.

I make up for it in their food which is $30 for a small bag! eesh!

I don't remember ever walking out of a vet visit for anything less than $100.

I've lived in San Francisco and Orange County and vet bill is so high.

About 2 months ago, I took the neighborhood stray/abandoned cat to the vet for a wound care. It was a skin abrasion but I didn't want to risk an infection. I had the obligation to take it to the vet because I caused the wound while removing matted fur.

The bill for the visit was about $116:

Hospitalization Services (IM/SQ Injection Antibiotic) - $32.50
Orbaz (30mg/ML) - $39
Wound Care (cleanse/medicate) - $15
Environmental Hazard Fee & Office Examination - $30

They told me that if I wanted to do blood work, it would be an additional $140. Honestly I didn't think it would be so expensive.

I will probably continue to use the vet that is taking care of one of my cats that is sick for all vet care. They are on the other side of town in a wealthy area and a cats only clinic so their fees are higher but they are very good.

New patient exam $77
Existing patient exam 58
New kitten exam 51
existing patient medical
exam 65
re-eval of existing prob 23-40
behavior counseling 77-158
vaccines other than leukemia 16
leukemia vaccine 21
leukemia/FIV screening 54
deworm 15 each
fecal screening 23

My sick cat just stayed there several days and had a lot of diagnostics done and it came to a little over $1800. That always runs into a lot of money but I feel that she knew what she was doing and would be willing to work with someone to keep costs down as much as possible. Fortunately my financial situation has brightened considerably recently and this has been an ongoing problem with him and I wanted to get everything that should be done.

Last time we had kids in for visits, our vet charged $38 for an office visit, regardless of how many cats we brought in at the same time. We took 3 cats, so it was $12.66 per cat. No one needed shots or anything, so we got off cheap that time. The only shots we allow is the rabies vaccine. That's it. Other than Mollipop's normal kitten shots. Now that she's had those, the only shot she'll continue to receive is her rabies shot....it's PA law.

I think, but don't remember, Mollipop's spay was around $300+. We opted to have the laser surgery for her spay.....which we wouldn't do again as it actually took a longer period of time for her stitches to remain...a little over two weeks versus 10 days or so for a regular spay. And she had to wear the collar....she wasn't happy about that, poor baby. We gave her pain meds, too, but I don't really know that they did a lot for her.