5 year old male needs stone surgery

[Juliebean2]

I have just had a price for stone removal surgery for my 5 year old male guinea pig and am totally shocked.
My previous guinea pig had surgery in the past when he was 3 and lived fir another 6 months but Ted is older which concerns me.
He has pain relief until surgery is arranged soon.
£1200 .
How can this be justified.
I am calling other vets which are quoting £500 ish.
Advice please and xrays attached.

 

[VickiA]

Have you asked for a break down? Stones surgery especially in boars can be complicated and take a longer time than you might imagine. That might be part of the reason for the estimate. That’s a large sum of money for anyone to find. Good luck shopping around and reaching your decision.

 

[Juliebean2]

Have you asked for a break down? Stones surgery especially in boars can be complicated and take a longer time than you might imagine. That might be part of the reason for the estimate. That’s a large sum of money for anyone to find. Good luck shopping around and reaching your decision.

My previous guinea pig had stone surgery 2 years ago and it all came to less than £300 with a vet that specialised in guinea pigs.
Sadly he has now retired

 

[AidaB]

Sorry to hear your guinea pig needs an operation.
One of our Guinea pigs, Billy, recently had surgery to remove a stone. Billy is approx 3 yrs old.
We were told to expect about £700- the total was approx £650
This was including a ten day course of antibiotics, but not including any pain medication which we already had.

 

[Gem789]

My 8 year old sow poppy had a bladder stone removed early November and the total cost came to £611,that included antibiotics but not pain relief.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

Veterinary charges have increased massively in the last couple of years for a variety of reasons but £1200 is excessive to me, I am not surprised you are in shock. Definitely ask for a breakdown of the cost and maybe ask what the procedure entails, how many people will be involved in his surgery, etc. I was recently talking to my vet about the large price increases over a short period of time and one of the things they said was about providing the optimal amount of care during surgical procedures. Using bladder stone removal as an example she said they now have two vets present and two nurses and equipment to monitor the patient closely throughtout. Which is reassuring but obviously more costly. Also the big increase in energy costs just to run a business must be a factor. That all said, they would still charge a lot less than 1200. They are not an exotics vet tho, I don't know if yours is but exotics vets are always more expensive.