veterinary fees - some important information

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Stewybus said:
Hi Beks,

If you ever need to get a piggy to Jacqui Patterson's for treatment I could arrange to meet you en route to work & take the piggy in for you. They're open till 6.30pm weekdays so you'd be able to collect yourself on way home. They're also open 9 to 5 on Saturday.
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Only just saw this :-) thanks for the lovely offer Stewy :-) I shall bear that in mind :-)
 
my vet charges 20 for first consultation then less for follow up consultations. For fizz (who i sadly lost) was 40 for consultation, baytril and recovery food. Had to take her in to be pts and all she charged was the price of the drugs to do it. She also gave her a wiff of gas to make her drowsy before giving her the injection. When i first rang her hadnt been before and toldhe was skint for two days and she let me take her in and paid when i took her back a few days later
 
hello ive been very lucky with my piggies the last few years, I know a wonderful couple called Chris and Titch who live in Hastings they are simply fantastic, kind , caring ppl who have taught me so much about piggies and their needs, any problems I have had I see them straight away. Unfortunately they have now moved and visiting family not sure they can carry on atm, I took my little Barley to the vets and had to pts as he had a tumour of the bladder and was in so much pain :( I now have just got my 4 piggies insured with Exoticpet direct for £36 a month as I had to pay £250 for Barley's treatment .... it is so hard financially as Vets charge such high prices!
 
I'm probably lucky having a good vet that doesn't charge the earth. Consultation fee of just £13.50 & an op such as abscess removal for about £65. Even odd things such as Rhubarb's extra toe removal was included in her consultation fee so again was just £13.50 & she went back to have the stitch taken out 2 weeks later for free when I took her in with Minky for one of her check-ups. The other thing I like about my vet is that they have separate waiting rooms for cats/small animals & dogs. At my old vets they were all in the same room & there was often lots of loud barking which can frighten your piggies.
 
In a newie to all this, do most vets see all animals?
I'm in Bedford , is there a good vet in this area for Guinea Pigs?
 
If you look on the vet locator there may be a recommended vet near you. If not, are you able to get to Northampton? Simon Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit clinic is the best piggy vet in the country. Most vets should see a guinea pig though unless they specialise in large animals only but some vets have more knowledge on guinea pigs than others.
 
For straight forward stuff most vets will do but if you have a mistery illness a guinea asvvy vet is best. Ie all vets can deal with a sinple hay poke as all it requires is dye in eye to check for scratches and antibiotic drops usually. If you have a pig loosing weight with no other symptoms a specialist vet is a must wherever possible as they see more pigs therefore are better at diagnosis!
 
helen105281 said:
If you look on the vet locator there may be a recommended vet near you. If not, are you able to get to Northampton? Simon Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit clinic is the best piggy vet in the country. Most vets should see a guinea pig though unless they specialise in large animals only but some vets have more knowledge on guinea pigs than others.
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Thanks for this , I can get to Northampton but ideally a vet closer. Will check the vet locator there is one in Sandy I saw .
 
Briony_S said:
For straight forward stuff most vets will do but if you have a mistery illness a guinea asvvy vet is best. Ie all vets can deal with a sinple hay poke as all it requires is dye in eye to check for scratches and antibiotic drops usually. If you have a pig loosing weight with no other symptoms a specialist vet is a must wherever possible as they see more pigs therefore are better at diagnosis!
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Thank you, all new to me so any help/ advise is great.
Just wondered if anyone in my area used a good vet for piggies .
 
Sorry cant help with that I'm afraid my guinea expert vet is around 40 mins from me. Over the years ive tried lots of local vets for minor things and found a "good" normal vet for when work stops me from getting to my preferred one and it is something fairly straightforward. I just take what he says with a pinch of salt (ie things like has your guinea pig been nesting (this when when I had a possible pregnancy) I just replied saying no because they don't actually nest lol.
 
my piggies' first vet bill was only $60 USD. Turns out they've got a bit of a yeast infection in their ears so we had to shell out $30 USD for the steroid free ear drops. Pretty inexpensive, but then again, our vet didn't specialise in Guinea Pigs. May have to look for another soon.
 
Consultation cost at my vets is £7.95 for my guins. Shambo's last bill was £19. 80 for a consultation, Ranitidine 5mls, Cisipride 1ml & an injection of Butorphanol for pain relief.
 
I'm really unhappy with the cost of Eddies last vet visit. £57 included the consultation, pain relief and Emeprid. That's it. I had to bring him in the next day as well because the vet didn't consider skin issues I was concerned about (he didn't think too much about what the cause was and just treated the general symptoms), and I wasn't told when I booked that the exotic vet wasn't in, and only the regular vet was to see him.

They tried to charge me another £42 for the second appointment, where I got a consultation, a single packet of Recovery and a single mite spot-on treatment. I was so unhappy about this I requested not to pay the second consultation fee as my concerns should have been noted in the first appointment, and he should have had that treatment then. Not only that, I now have to attend again tomorrow to see the actual exotics vet.

Extortionate. I've taken pigs to two other vets before, and at both places the most expensive appointment was £35, which included consultation, medication and follow up checks.
 
Reading some of the posts, I know we will go to the vets because our piggies are ill but unless it's a real emergency, if you can wait about 3 days for delivery, I would suggest to get the diagnosis from the vet and decline to purchase the meds as you can get them way cheaper online. I imagine that vets charge a premium for them as they know people will buy them because you can't exactly find that stuff in your local chemist. It's like buying toothpaste etc from a dentist, they tend to rip you off but you can buy it cheaper in Superdrug etc. You are not forced to buy from the dentist, and it's cheeky but at the surgery you can just Google the medication and decide there and then if the price difference is significant enough for you to not buy it from the vet.

Obviously, if your piggy has had an operation/is very poorly etc then you really do need to buy the meds but depending on how long the course is, you could buy a weeks worth then get the remainder online.

I see there are some common names of medications: Baytril and Metacam for instance and they can be found in places like Animeds. Vetmeds etc. Research the cheapest prices and postage. You could even buy in advance if your pet is prone to illness already and you have used them in the past.

Just a suggestion to save the coppers and I know it won't work for everyone.
 
shersher78 said:
Woodlands in Plymouth. A very dedicated team too I've gotta say.
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I used them for one of my pigs, and one vet was great, the next time i saw another vet who tried to get me to book a completely unnecessary dental because my pig had stopped eating after having antibiotics without any probiotics! He was talking complete rubbish, so i decided not to use them again, i just stick to where i work in ivybridge now as there is a great exotics vet there.
 
PiggyOinkOink said:
Reading some of the posts, I know we will go to the vets because our piggies are ill but unless it's a real emergency, if you can wait about 3 days for delivery, I would suggest to get the diagnosis from the vet and decline to purchase the meds as you can get them way cheaper online. I imagine that vets charge a premium for them as they know people will buy them because you can't exactly find that stuff in your local chemist. It's like buying toothpaste etc from a dentist, they tend to rip you off but you can buy it cheaper in Superdrug etc. You are not forced to buy from the dentist, and it's cheeky but at the surgery you can just Google the medication and decide there and then if the price difference is significant enough for you to not buy it from the vet.

Obviously, if your piggy has had an operation/is very poorly etc then you really do need to buy the meds but depending on how long the course is, you could buy a weeks worth then get the remainder online.

I see there are some common names of medications: Baytril and Metacam for instance and they can be found in places like Animeds. Vetmeds etc. Research the cheapest prices and postage. You could even buy in advance if your pet is prone to illness already and you have used them in the past.

Just a suggestion to save the coppers and I know it won't work for everyone.
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I would be careful with this, don't just go for the cheapest as some companies don't sell the real deal, and sell phoney products, you may be paying a little bit more from your vets but it is a security that you're getting the right product, also for prescription only medication you're often charged for the prescription that you need to order the drugs anyway, any website not asking for a prescription is a bad one!
 
Oh I didn't think they might sell phoney products but then basically any medication can be phoney including potentially NHS ones (i.e Boots as they supply the whole NHS AFAIK) as organised counterfeiters are very clever to get their fake meds into the supply chain.

I guess if you stick with the most well known vet med websites and make sure that you go on Trusted Reviews (as you should for any website you are suspicious about) to check the site is legit and read the comments from previous customers, you will be safer.
 
If you look for the VMD (Veterinary Medicine Directorate) accredited retailer logo you should be safe. This is a sign that the company is a part of AIRS The veterinary accredited internet retailer scheme.

Here is a bit more info on it:

http://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/pdf/leaflet_internetretailers.pdf

I personally agree with @Toffeewoffee and would always prefer to buy direct from my vet, but it's a personal choice for you to make and as always it's each to their own :)
 
I happily buy online for thigns where a long course is needed, things like ranoxen for the rats a friend and I bought in bulk online and shared them as they're the go to antibiotic for a rat with a URI. I wouldnt advise self diagnosis in any other case but with rats its common to buy in bulk and give whenever they need them in a course how the vet told you to the first time you took them in ... I hope that makes sense :-) For the rat it takes the cost of treatment from £30 per rat down to less than a fiver, handy when you have 6 and each one gets charged a full £23 consultation! I have rescue rats 2 of which have recurrent URI.
 
I think if antibiotics and pain relief are needed you should get them straight away from the vets as these things need to be given quickly. For anything that requires longer term meds then it can be cheaper getting them online with a prescription. I had all 15 pigs on Itrafungol after Buzz and Izzie died on the same day and got this online as it was about £40 cheaper per bottle (I needed 5 of them). We already had some at home luckily so were able to start the course before they arrived. The vet gave me a prescription for all 15 pigs.
 
I do the same, urgent medications are bought from the vet, and long term prescriptions (such as cushings medication for the horse) are bought from whoever is the cheapest online company. currently I'm using Hyperdrug.
 
twiams said:
I used them for one of my pigs, and one vet was great, the next time i saw another vet who tried to get me to book a completely unnecessary dental because my pig had stopped eating after having antibiotics without any probiotics! He was talking complete rubbish, so i decided not to use them again, i just stick to where i work in ivybridge now as there is a great exotics vet there.
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They have a branch in Ivybridge too, that's where Rillo had to have one of her ops. I agree it depends on which vet you see there, there are a couple I won't bother with but the one's I usually see there are excellent. Justine (at the Ivybridge branch) did one of the ops and Jane (at the Plymouth branch) sorted out the rest with Rillo. Sadly, Jane isn't there any more. Can you remember the name of the vet? It wasn't Nick by any chance?
 
shersher78 said:
They have a branch in Ivybridge too, that's where Rillo had to have one of her ops. I agree it depends on which vet you see there, there are a couple I won't bother with but the one's I usually see there are excellent. Justine (at the Ivybridge branch) did one of the ops and Jane (at the Plymouth branch) sorted out the rest with Rillo. Sadly, Jane isn't there any more. Can you remember the name of the vet? It wasn't Nick by any chance?
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I have no idea of the name of either vet, i'm pretty sure it was a blonde woman i saw the first time and a dark haired man the second time, i go to Filham park vets in ivybridge and see Steve :) I only really went to woodlands to see what they were like, i went to the veterinary hospital first and they were quite good but no one particularly good with guineas, hence why i tried else where. Now it just makes sense to go where i work as it's much cheaper thank god haha.
 
I know who you mean with the blonde woman, must admit she's not one of my faves :/ It's always good to hear other peoples views & Filham Park is a note I'll keep in my book for future reference as always handy to have a couple of other options ;)
 
shersher78 said:
I know who you mean with the blonde woman, must admit she's not one of my faves :/ It's always good to hear other peoples views & Filham Park is a note I'll keep in my book for future reference as always handy to have a couple of other options ;)
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I don't remember her being all that nice, she was quite rude, but got the job done so i was just glad to have something for the my pig sorted, but at the time i didn't realise i needed probiotic as well so ended up with an even more poorly piggy. Yeah one of the reasons i try other vets occasionally is just to see what they're like to have other options etc. :)
 
Hi good to hear about your experiences with the Plymouth vets. I use Woodlands for the piggies and tend to see either Jo or Nick. There have been other occasions (with another vet) where the piggies teeth have been clipped needlessly and we have ended up with worse problems than when we started. As for the Vet hospital I have seen 2 different vets specializing in small furries and have been impressed with both.
 
twiams said:
I don't remember her being all that nice, she was quite rude, but got the job done so i was just glad to have something for the my pig sorted, but at the time i didn't realise i needed probiotic as well so ended up with an even more poorly piggy. Yeah one of the reasons i try other vets occasionally is just to see what they're like to have other options etc. :)
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Ah, I didn't know piggies needed probiotics. Which ones do they prescribe? Are they the same ones as humans can take?
 
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