CMA investigation: "We were with the vet 3 minutes and walked out with some ear drops (£8.99 on Amazon) and a £76 bill. Bonkers pricing!"

I took my tiny (5kg) dog to the vet yesterday with a suspected ear infection. We were with the vet three minutes and walked out with some ear drops (£8.99 on Amazon) and a £76 bill. And this is a supposedly family run vet practice. Bonkers pricing!

I had to pay £9999.97 for an emergency operation on my dog after he paralysed himself jumping off the back of the sofa. My own vet took one look at him and said I’d have to take him to a vet in Derby as they didn’t do that sort of operation but it would cost me £10000 up front. As it wasn’t my own vet they wouldn’t wait for the insurance to come through. My other options were to have him put to sleep there and then, just give him steroids and painkillers but he’d never walk again and probably be incontinent or get the operation done within 24 hours. Miraculously out of the blue my friend called me just as I was about to have him put to sleep. She had just been paid some redundancy money so she lent me the money for the operation until the insurance came through. I was extremely lucky that she, just at that one moment in time, had that money to lend to me or I would have had to have had him put to sleep. It would have broken my heart. He was only 7 years old at the time.

I've experienced both ends of the spectrum. When one of my sheep broke its leg, I was fully expecting a 4-figure bill by the end of it, and was amazed when it turned out to be about a quarter of what I had expected (and yes, my sheep is fine now). At the other end of the scale, despite having insurance for both dogs and the cat, when it came time for the dog to have dental work, the insurance didn't cover it. It was nearly a thousand pounds, just to try and prevent pain in an old dog. Even then, I am not sure the work carried out was as thorough as it could have been, necessitating return visits at significant additional cost. It is no wonder that some people end up euthanising or dumping their animals when the costs are so eye-wateringly high.

We have had a few experiences with high vet fees, however, I think the time when our family dog had an allergic reaction to a bee sting was the most unreasonable, we were charged £430 for a 5 min appointment and we were prescribed half of a Piriton tablet, a human antihistamine that costs around £6 for 30 tablets. Thankfully we have insurance, however, the fact insurance is paying does not justify the costs.