Heart Worms and Cost of Veterinary Services.

I took Rowdy to the vet a couple of days ago, to check to see if the heart worm treatment he had last year cured him.  It was good news and he is no longer infected.  I got some more preventative  medicine to keep him that way.

I am finding that the cost of veterinary services vary greatly, and the vet I used for the treatment was much more expensive than the one I used for retesting. 

After they called to tell me that Rowdy was due for retesting, I got upset with that first clinic.  Everything was fine until I inquired about the cost.  Due to greatly reduced hours at my work during this Covid19 crisis, I need to save every penny I could.  They told me it was $17 for the test, but he also has to have an exam that cost $39.  This is a total of $56.  But, they told me if the two are combined that I would receive a discount for doing both and only have to pay $46.  I thought that was okay, but then they informed me that he also was due for his shots and the total of it all would be about $89, plus the cost of the heart worm preventative medicine.  I told them that I couldn't afford all of that now, so I would agree to the $46 for exam and test and that I intended to get him his shots later.  Then they informed me that without the shots, the price would be at the $56 price and I would not get the discount.  All of this was told to me in this order, so I got the $46 price before adding the need for the shots.  So if I got everything including the medicine and shots, the total would have been somewhere around $125.  I got internally angry about this, feeling like I am being ripped off and when they would not let me do the exam and test for $46, I told them I would do something else and politely hung up the phone.  Though this clinic also did large animals, this vet is a town or city vet office, just outside of town.  Seems like they want to charge human prices for veterinary services.  I'd hate the see what the cost of working on a large animal would be.

I then called a country vet and was able to get the test for $25 which was higher in cost for the test, mot including the preventative medicine, but no other charges.  The six month preventative treatment was a little more expensive, but it also included a flea prevention treatment in it.  So the total was about $75, saving me about $50 and I won't have to buy flea treatment for him. 

This savings is money I needed now and I still was able to get Rowdy taken care of.  I have a feeling that many businesses may price themselves out of business, during this downturn in the economy.