Pet parrot peeve

[Navre]

Being charitable with your time and resources does not obligate others to donate their time, services, or resources.

Neither me, nor my birds, nor the birds in the rescue are "entitled" to the services of a vet for free, or at a reduced rate.

It's not charitable, at all, to demand that others give services for free. That's socialism, theft... it has a lot of names, all bad.

[marie83]

Tbh, I think most vets deserve to have a nice house and car to relax in. They have such a stressful job. I sure as hell couldn't do it. I can't say all of them deserve it though after some of the vets I've seen lol.

The thing is people always want more regardless. I'm one of the cheapest in my area for what I do- which earns me a pittance btw and still people want discounts.

[Wolf]

Not begrudging them the nice trappings but I am saying that I do feel that they are overcharging for their services. I know that it requires more skill and expensive equipment and expensive modifications to some of that expensive equipment. And I am not saying that they should not make a profit either, I am saying that they don't have to double or triple their cost for everything. I don't demand discounts or special considerations and I pay what is asked without any complaints, but I can't help but to feel that I have been overcharged most of the time. Especially with the level of service ( or lack of it ) that I find with most of them, most of the time. That is what I am saying.

I took in the birds that I have for my own reasons, which they had no part in, and will pay what it costs to give them a better life than they had. I am not asking for anything special, I did this not them and they are not responsible for my choices.

[shiraartain]

I know the local avian rescue I volunteered at does have a special deal they get from the vet, which is nice.

Navre, I think it's not about charity, or free prices, but more of fair pricing, as they are earning quite a steep profit.

As Wolf mentioned, I agree that things like surgery are rightfully pricey, but to pay more to have a vet glance at my bird, when a cat/dog being checked is priced at less, is tolerable when there's one or two birds. But when there are more, not so much. In large flocks though, and in the other case mentioned when both cats had the exact same problem....there is definitely leeway.

I don't believe I've ever been charged for a syringe. Maybe it was included in the medication cost.

Also, thank you for the medication advice! Definitely going to look into that. Useful information to have.

[marie83]

How do you mean double or triple their cost for everything though? Do you mean triple from one vet to another or do you mean triple on the trade price of a drug/machine or other equipment?

Something like baytril they are going to order in bulk so they are going to get a good discount for that- the vets will get through loads of it so it's unlikely to go out of date too.

Other drugs they won't be able to order as much of so there is a bigger cost. They have to take that into account and if it's more rarely prescribed they have to take into account any wastage.

I can understand a small price difference here between surgery to surgery as there a limited client base to supply, some small independent surgeries will get through less than a larger independent surgery.
Pharmacies will be so.much cheaper because their client base is so much bigger. They can take prescription from. Any vet in that area & alot of it is human medicines anyway so they can bulk order and get huge discounts. What I can't understand is why massive chains are charging 3 times the amount of the littlest independent surgeries. Their costs may differ slightly depending on supplier etc but when a 5 day course of baytril for a mouse costs £12 there compared with to £3 at a smaller place for 2 weeks worth that cant hold as much stock you do start wondering why?

Frankly I think we are lucky we are in a position to even ask for a prescription. Of course it wouldn't be worth asking for one for a course of baytril but for other things it can save owners loads of money.


I am not disagreeing with you about some vets at all but I feel that are are vets out there with reasonable prices. It's just cost me £145 for my rabbit. Consultation, extra charge for emergency out of hours appointment, 2 nights hospitalisation, 3 x painkilling injections. 2 x meds by injection to keep his gut moving, syringe feeding every 2 hours, general anaesthetic and then the procedure to do his teeth anyway. That's not to mention all the cleaning and equipment they need and staff wages to carry out all that. I am *very* happy with that price.

Most places would have been that price just for the out of hours consultation.
One of those big chains I mentioned- they charged me £130 yet for the same 2 injections for gut stasis a few years ago.

[marie83]

Just to add, it's more important to have a vet you trust. Mine had moved to a vets4pets branch (one of those big chains)last time I saw him (when we took Rena). If he ends up staying there then so will I- I really hope he doesn't as that one appointment was stupidly expensive & don't have their own out of hours service.

[Navre]

Part of it may be that there are so few avian vets and so many birds. Simple supply and demand.

My GCC just stayed a day and a half in the avian ICU. It cost less than $500 with all the tests, garage feelings, etc.

[shiraartain]

That is definitely possible. Or perhaps they try to balance out the costs by charging all bird owners the same prices, so that certain breeds don't find themselves paying exorbitant amounts?

Also, I thought I had settled on a vet, but I think I will look around a little more based on the prices mentioned here.

[Pajarita]

Vets do get meds samples for free - exactly the same as the human doctors do. They get food samples, too.

[Navre]

I know that when I owned a bar, we would charge 3 to 4 times what product cost us. Stuff like candy in the candy machines was up to 8 times markup. We couldn't even keep the doors open once the state changed the smoking rules on us.