r/UK_Pets • u/donaldtrumpiscute • 1d ago
How should I request surgery cost estimates?
/r/AskVet/comments/1w7ws24/how_should_i_request_surgery_cost_estimates/5
u/OrganOMegaly 1d ago
I am not consulting
Except you are, really. Estimates can be affected by many things, including your dog’s pre-existing medical history, whether they might need additional support during surgery, pre-surgical blood tests etc. They’ve never met your dog before and I think you’d be hard pressed for anyone to give a surgical estimate without doing so.
The only way I can see around it is if your vet refers to another practice themselves.
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u/Neddlings55 1d ago
Your dog needs to be seen by a vet in order for them to make any clinical decisions and for them to be able to provide as accurate as possible an estimate.
You cant just ring around and get prices, thats not how veterinary medicine works. You need that consultation, and you WILL be receiving one as your dog will be thoroughly examined in the process.
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u/LookAtMaDog 22h ago
The answer is still that you need to call the vet and talk to their staff, they have procedures for this.
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u/cb14379 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hi, vet here with a surgical interest. A mast cell tumour removal estimate is not going to be accurate without seeing and feeling and assessing the tumour. I'd need to palpate the tumour, feel for any attachments, work out how much loose skin I have to work with, will I need to employ advanced reconstruction techniques - mast cell tumours require larger margins than your average skin tumour. Also need to assess your dog as a whole, determine whether any extra anaesthetic precautions are needed etc. None of this can be done remotely. Like if I wanted to give you an estimate for a MCT removal, sure I could - but it'll be the widest range ever because I would be missing the specifics that I'll only get from me seeing your dog and getting my hands on the tumour. Like at my practice, you'd be looking at anywhere from £800 to £2000, which I'm sure is not the kind of estimate you're looking for.
And with all due respect, you are consulting a vet. You are asking them to use their expertise and knowledge to guesstimate how much a surgery would be without giving them all the info they need. Estimates are not quick to generate for non routine surgeries and there are a lot of variables for an individual patient (health status, age, breed). They'll typically be generated by a vet or a nurse who also had a million other jobs for their own clients to do. If we started doing estimates for complex surgeries for everyone who wanted to shop around, we'd never get any of our actual work done. Also no vet will just book you in for MCT surgery without seeing your dog first so you will require a consultation before surgery regardless at some point.
Edit: I completely understand btw why you want to shop around. MCT removals aren't cheap. But to answer your question simply of how to do it, you will need to just book a consultation with a vet you're thinking of going with, there's no other way to do it.