How much do you pay for the vet?

how much do you pay for a vet

My Vet Charges $35.00. For visit. I just brought fecal sample not my chameleon.Had it tested just paid $$42.00 for test..was negative got away cheap just had to pay for test..
 
Thanks everyone!

I will try to make an appointment with ARK pet hopital in antioch, before i do i will ask some questions of course. Btw if i sounded like i was complaining to anyone about the price of the appointment i was not, i was just curious if that was the usual price. Also i have to convince my dad lend me some money if the vet bill gets out of hand. Man i need a job!
 
ferretinmyshoes said:
But I too am reluctant to do so because exotics owners are notoriously unwilling or unable to pay that kind of price for their "cheap" pet. It's either "you want me to pay 3 times the price of my leopard gecko? I'll just go get another one instead" or "I paid $300 for my special morph ball python, I can't afford the $60 for an exam". Lose-lose.
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I know, it's the nature of the beast. it usually doesn't matter if it's a $2000 mastiff puppy, a stray cat, or a dog that was adopted from the pound for free. they are just seen as less of a "throwaway" pet and owners will usually do the right thing. the initial cost of the pet plays no part in those decisions as it tends to in the herp world.

but it will change over time, and already is if you even consider the few but growing number of owners that take their herp to the vet, rather than back to the pet shop for advice :shiver: . heck, 50+ years ago it was essentially unheard of to see a cat in a veterinary practice! and look how far we have come from that!!
 
Raphael1047 said:
Btw if i sounded like i was complaining to anyone about the price of the appointment i was not, i was just curious if that was the usual price.
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I never thought that for a second, and I think we are all entitled to complain about bills anyway! I just saw a little opportunity to throw in some facts on the other side of the coin that partially explain the variances in prices. but the main factor is the usual "location, location, location" which corresponds to relative salaries and lease/mortgage expenses. I used to have my sister send me her bill from her NYC upper west side vet. a single heartworm test or rabies shot was more than the entire standard yearly at my practice. I don't even have the cojones to charge those kinds of prices!
 
Mmcbain1 said:
I wish I was a vet :rolleyes:
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Well, you can always change that. :D Could always use another reptile lover as a vet in whatever area you are in. Just fixing to start the vet thing so. What insurance is a good one for animals? Have never had it.
 
Our old vet we spent no less than 300.00 every time we went but now we found one that comes to us charges 85.00 and 20.00 for each one after. We were able to get exams for 10 chameleons & a mountain horned dragon for 265.00 and he is great
 
mcbdz said:
What insurance is a good one for animals? Have never had it.
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VPI is by far the industry leader and vets love it b/c there's no paperwork. you just pay us and submit our bill back to them for reimbursement. i never had a client complain about them, only praise. just like any insurance, there's all sorts of levels of options and prices. there may be other programs for herps, but 99% of what i ever dealt with was VPI.

this would be their starting page for herps: http://www.petinsurance.com/plans-and-coverage/bird-and-exotic-pet-insurance.aspx

(and i am not affiliated with ANY insurance company or anything like that)
 
Hey, I'm new and I want to know how much it cost to take my veild chameleon to the vet. 34208 is the zip code.
 
I live near Detroit, MI and our last visit included a fecal, antibiotics, and wellness for $109.00.

Unfortunately, there isn't as many exotics as I assumed, and they also had mixed reviews on Google and Yelp. So far his resp infection is cleared, tho I suspect both poor husbandry at pet chain and then misinformation following purchase adding considerably, I realize our climate isn't the most forgiving esp for a Jackson.
 
Dr O said:
just some fyi's for exam charges on reptiles or many other exotics--

whereas a common assumption may be that it's a $30 lizard and tiny or whatever and therefore should get a cheaper exam, it doesn't work that way on "our" side. when i see a dog or cat i don't have to quiz the owners on day and night temps, humidity, types and brands of bulbs, substrate, caging, diet, supplements, etc. etc etc., in addition to recording all of that information in our records (and the average client doesn't have a clue what wattage bulb or humidity levels are). the exotic exam takes much longer (my staff would typically block out 2 app't slots for one reptile). additionally, things like getting a fecal sample from a dog takes about 2 seconds with a fecal loop, whereas if i need to get one in a herp i need a large syringe, saline, a red rubber tube, and need to insert that tube into his cloaca and colon to flush and get a sample; that's all extra costly materials and time which is how we charge. nevermind the husbandry lecture that we tend to give to clueless owners. the average member here is 99% more educated than the average client; y'all don't count!

i have never and will never discount my exam charge, something which has gained great popularity over the years in vet med. in fact, veterinary practice management experts continue to try and persuade us to charge MORE for an exotics exam due to all of the extra time involved, which is theoretically fine but i don't do it. if someone wants to discount their vaccines or something basic, then that's fine. but discounting an exam in the long run makes the perceived value of the exam less and less, and any doctor in any field will tell you that the exam is the most important part of the visit. anyone can give a shot, and even buy it off the internet or feed stores nowadays. but the exam is what we all spent untold hundreds or thousands of hours studying for in school, and is also the Step 1 of where to go after that (bloodwork? rads? meds? nothing?). the newer generations of vets typically understand this concept and it's less and less common to see discounted exams.

however, when it comes to medications or procedures i will typically discount. it's still the same calculations that need to be done to figure out doses and such, but i am not going to pretend that the 3 cc's that one dog might need costs me as much as the 0.3 cc's that a hamster gets.

in the past decade vet prices have started to catch up with inflation and other costs where for 20-30 years prior we were by far the only professionals (MD's, lawyers, dentists, architects) that never raised prices in accordance with inflation. a lot of vets feel guilty about charging for services when, as animal lovers, we want to see things fixed irregardless. so prices have been increasing across the board in general, although we are still far behind where a graph of our costs, inflation, and other similar professions tell us we should be when looking at decades of our expenses vs. our prices (dentists are actually the closest thing to a typical vet office and are used as a comparision in many studies).

finally, the increased use of pet insurance has made generally positive leaps and bounds in the industry. now someone can have a co-pay of $200 for an MRI rather than paying $2500 out of pocket. in the long run that benefits the patient, the owners, and the end result since advanced diagnostics are much more readily acceptable. there is little doubt at this point that the future of veterinary medicine will revolve heavily around insurance, for better or worse. but mostly better, imo.


just an fyi peek into the types of things you might read about in a typical veterinary industry practice management journal.
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Do you recommend insurance on our living nature exhibits? I hadn't even considered this was viable--its def something I'd pursue after realizing the likelihood of our Jackson requiring much more intense care than the stores inform you of.
 
JacksJill said:
This is a very old thread and some of the contributors aren't on the forums regularly anymore. You should ask @jannb about the insurance she uses.
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jannb said:
I highly recommend insurance. It is well worth every penny spent.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/pet-insurance-is-very-important.160267/
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Thank you both!!

I very excited that my assumption that this was specific to canine/feline/large mammel only was incorrect.

I was wondering how so many had thousands for some of the testings and treatments, especially with purchase being thru Petco, I was already concerned that my male would be a much higher cost than anticipated, further I wasn't impressed with the exotic we established care thru and was worried about continued costs to find a satisfactory vet.

This abso makes my day and will give me a lot of peace of mind:)
 
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