Vet fees.

[Moggy91au]

Our Chihuahua had three teeth extracted yesterday. Itemised Estimated cost $392-$641. When we picked him up we were presented with a bill for $775. I queried amount and revised bill was $685. Paid the bill but feel it is an exhorbitant  amount. Would like to find a cheaper vet in Geelong area but with $80 consultation fee just to receive quote it would be very expensive to “shop around”. Any advice would be helpful. 

[karen15]

It doesn't sound expensive to me. My staffy had a number of ops, two for teeth removal, and apparently teeth removal is a big surgery. I can understand why vets won't quote without seeing the dog. They need to assess what needs to be done before knowing what it might cost.

[ish]

The key is to find a vet you trust, then you can be confident the bill at the end of the day is justified. I do agree it isn’t easy, and the trial and error can cost both your pocket and pet. I travel 2 hours to see my trusted vet for this reason and he’s never let me down 

 

Hopefully someone will be able to recommend a good vet near you 

[Maddy]

It depends a lot on which teeth they're pulling and the condition of those teeth. Trying to dig out teeth that crumble into a stinking mess or removing things like canine teeth can be more difficult and involved.

$775 for a very small dog does seem a little high to me- I've had 30+ kg dogs done for far less- but it's hard for people to guess at whether your vet is overpriced without knowing what the vet had to do. In my experience, extractions have always included a general dental to clean up whatever is left, so your vet may also have done that.

You also don't mention whether the bill included pre-anesthetic bloods, any fluids, ABs or extra pain relief.

[Jumabaar]

$400 of that was probably anaesthesia.

 

Possible additional costs

Pre anaesthetic bloods - maybe $80

Fluids-- $50/80ish

ab- 30

pain relief- 30

Dental xrays -100to200

 

Then the dental may have taken over an hour to complete- with a veterinarian and a dedicated anaesthesia nurse. Some teeth just take a really long time- even if its a specialist performing the procedure!!

 

The special dental machine that needs to be payed off + have upkeep.

The special dental tools required for extractions.

The facility, electricity bill, water etc also needs to be paid. 

 

An equivalent human procedure would be in the thousands with a GA. I think my wisdom teeth had a 3k excess with private health insurance.......

[Maddy]

1 minute ago, Jumabaar said:

$400 of that was probably anaesthesia.

 

Possible additional costs

Pre anaesthetic bloods - maybe $80

Fluids-- $50/80ish

ab- 30

pain relief- 30

Dental xrays -100to200

 

Then the dental may have taken over an hour to complete- with a veterinarian and a dedicated anaesthesia nurse. Some teeth just take a really long time- even if its a specialist performing the procedure!!

 

The special dental machine that needs to be payed off + have upkeep.

The special dental tools required for extractions.

The facility, electricity bill, water etc also needs to be paid. 

 

An equivalent human procedure would be in the thousands with a GA. I think my wisdom teeth had a 3k excess with private health insurance.......

Seems very high for GA. I can get a 30kg female dog desexed,chipped and C5'd for less than that.

[RuralPug]

If the Chihuahua was a senior, it is likely to cost more than a healthy young dog. And being a Chihuahua, anaesthesia is a bit risker than a larger full muzzled breed so extra precautions need to be taken - plus extracting and cleaning teeth in a miniature jaw is actually more difficult that in a medium size or large breed.

To me, the fee itself wasn't necessarily too excessive, however the difference between the estimate and the actual bill was way too big and something is majorly wrong with their estimation procedure.

[Diva]

1 hour ago, RuralPug said:

To me, the fee itself wasn't necessarily too excessive, however the difference between the estimate and the actual bill was way too big and something is majorly wrong with their estimation procedure.

That would be my concern too. Maybe it was a reasonable price. But I would be expecting a very convincing explanation as to why it was so far beyond the upper end of the quote.

[Rappie]

On 5/11/2018 at 7:23 PM, Maddy said:

Seems very high for GA. I can get a 30kg female dog desexed,chipped and C5'd for less than that.

Desexing procedures are generally heavily subsidised by the practice and should not be a measure for comparison of other procedures. For smaller patients in particular, the cost of a castration may be less than, or only a small amount more than the regular general anaesthesia fee. 

 

With respect to the cost of dentistry - there will be a wide variation in price that is somewhat dependent on your location, the 'inclusions' (blood tests, intraveneous fluids, dental radiographs etc), the pricing structure, the extent of dental disease and whether the extractions performed are surgical or not. It is important to know what is included in the cost to be able to make any comparison but no, that doesn't sound unreasonable for a dental that required extractions. The cost will be variable based on difficulty of extractions (often charged based on time or number of tooth roots), length of anaesthesia etc.