Dramatic differences in veterinary cost between clinics

[Lunabear1988]

Has anyone run into this? I’m in Colorado if it makes a difference. Trying to get my horse sound and comfortable, money is tight at the moment, so yes I must pay attention to pricing. It is far from ideal. But I’m noticing dramatic differences in the cost of certain therapies in between different vet clinics.

My own vet is a solo practitioner, have used her for over 16 years. She always has my back and helps me out where she can. Since she is a smaller practice she doesn’t have as many fancy technologies. She can basically just do regular steroid injections, Osphos, and Pro stride. I suppose she could get some of the other injections like noltrex. But that’s basically it she can do basic field x-rays and ultrasound but nothing too complicated.

My horse was recently diagnosed with some mild kissing spine.We did a steroid injection (very reasonable for all the x-rays and injection itself .) I kept hearing great things about mesotherapy and that it was something definitely worth trying. She doesn’t offer it so I called a few vet clinics.

Both clinics that I called are known to be a bit more pricey. They have their own facilities to do rehab and surgeries. And they have a lot of the newest technologies. So I do understand them being pricey, they have to pay for the facility and technologies. But even the difference in prices between the two was mind boggling. For clinic A mesotherapy was $250.
For clinic B, I was quoted almost $700. I went with the clinic A…

For Prostride, last year, I was quoted almost $1,500 from clinic A. With my small town vet, it was $850.

Two and a half years ago I had PRP done, Horse was in training and I use the trainers small town single practitioner vet. I looked back at the cost and I think it was at most $500. I was quoted from clinic A that it would be $1,200 for PRP in the same joint.

Clinic B charged my SIL almost $500 more for shockwave than CSU charged her the following year.

Honestly pricing differences of over $500 for things is significant for me.

Is anybody else noticing wild price differences between clinics in their area?

[Amy3996]

Very generally, our local clinics will run significantly higher in price for the same services versus our local university hospital. I imagine that cost of travel, overhead, equipment, and volume of business all play into that.

I went through a lengthy NQR, not sure why situation during my TB gelding’s 6yo year. The best thing I could’ve done for him and myself was skip the local clinic entirely and go straight to New Bolton. We did a thorough workup with all the bells and whistles (everything they recommended, short of a bone scan pretty much). Even with a 3 day stay, it ended up being a fraction of the price of doing it locally.

[Lunabear1988]

Oh yes definitely! I got a lot of comments that people think that going to our local university would be a lot more expensive, but for certain things they are a lot cheaper. I will say they are a lot more expensive in their general lameness exams these days. But I also find they take a heck of a lot more time than any local vet. And it’s usually with multiple vets or students watching the horse. So you’re paying for more eyes. Which can definitely be worth it!

[trubandloki]

Sometimes you have to make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Does the price at one place include the use of a stall for the day or sedatives that another place might not include and are additional costs to the price quoted?

Does the price include an exam fee, or is there an additional exam fee?

That type of thing.

I guess in the big picture, look at it as being blessed that you have the ability to price shop and pick so much where you live.

[Lunabear1988]

So for my examples that was a vet coming to our barn. Mesotherapy isn’t a very hard procedure to my knowledge. So I wouldn’t think they would need multiple vets. I had clinic B out and I already got the bill. It was $250 for everything. Clinic A had qouted me $600 but said that did not include a call fee or sedation.

[JB]

Bigger clinics just have more overhead - more space (heating, cooling, maintenance), more staff for cleaning stalls, the building, etc, and often more $$$ equipment, all of which means higher monthly expenses that’s beyond just the salaries of the vets

For normal things, like bute, SMZs, dormosedan, ace, etc, the bigger clinic near me is significantly (percentage-wise) more $$ than my vet. Their farm call is also on par with my vet’s despite them being 10 miles from me vs more like 40 for my vet

[Lunabear1988]

What sucks is I actually like the vets at Clinic A better than B. They are just more personable and easy to talk with. But I cannot afford that type of price difference for bed side manner so I had to go with clinic B for the mesotherapy.

I almost wondered if they misquoted me.

[Lunabear1988]

That’s what I figured. Although both of these clinics have just recently acquired actual facilities for rehab and surgeries. Not big facilities but not cheap. So I was actually surprised that clinic B was much more affordable than clinic A. I thought they were going to be more on par with each other for this.

[Foxglove]

Big Name Clinic about an hour from me just sent an update on pricing for Health Paper to travel one state to another:$200. AND must have seen horse within 10 days. My vet (local cow doc who also treats horses) is $25 and saw my horse when he vaccinated him in April.

[Lunabear1988]

Wow!

I had another boarder tell me that she didn’t think me using different vets was a good idea and then I should stick with one. Well I do agree in part, I really just can’t pay out of the nose for everything. Special therapies it in depth lameness exams? Sure. But for vaccines and everything else? There is just no reason.

[Amy3996]

@Lunabear1988

Wow!

I had another boarder tell me that she didn’t think me using different vets was a good idea and then I should stick with one.

On the one hand, continuity of care with a single vet is theoretically a good thing. On the other, different vets have different resources and areas of expertise, so why not play to strengths when necessary?

[NaturallyHappy]

This is what we do. It also casts a wider net in the event of an emergency…more people to call and see who is available.

[cnd8]

For the more difficult issues, I have found that the medical center a couple hours away from me actually works out to be less expensive on many things. The local vets have higher rates on the things they tend to do less frequently. However, the big medical center with the experts and the fancy facilities and equipment, have so much more experience and they handle the complicated issues more, so their prices tend to fall below that of the local vets.

I spend the most when I give my local vet(s) a couple tries to get it right, and then end up having to haul to the medical center after all anyway. I tell myself every time that I’ll just cut out the local vets, but each time, I seem to give them a chance first. I guess I wont ever learn.

[cnd8]

@Lunabear1988

I had another boarder tell me that she didn’t think me using different vets was a good idea and then I should stick with one. Well I do agree in part, I really just can’t pay out of the nose for everything. Special therapies it in depth lameness exams? Sure. But for vaccines and everything else? There is just no reason.

I use different local vets for different things. One for simple matters like vaccines, coggins, etc. and she will do prompt farm calls when needed. Another for joint injections and lameness matters (she is kind of a step up from the basic vet). Another for specific imagining I may need. And then the medical center for the tough stuff.

I think having different vets and relationships with different vets is actually helpful! And often, when one is not available, the others may be. I want as many resources as possible and have working relationships to some degree with each of them.

[RosebudLaVie]

Oftentimes when you go to “big clinics” or specialty centers, prices can be higher because you’re paying for the opinion and skill of the specialists. You know the vet is a specialist by the letters after their name (a general vet is DVM or VMD, but specialists will have DVM, DACVIM (internal medicine) or DVM, DACVS (surgery), etc). To become boarded in a certain specialty, extra internships (1 yr) and residencies (3 yrs) are required. You’re not always going to need a specialist for routine care, but if you do, that’s why they can be more costly, in addition to other factors that were mentioned. You can get a lot of bang for your buck at veterinary teaching hospitals, which are often less costly than private specialty hospitals, but still have the specialty care you might need.

[Lunabear1988]

These aren’t emergency hospitals. They are just local vets that are expanding. They would not be able to do all the surgeries that the university or the bigger emergency hospital would be able to do. But I think they can do little things. And they just have treadmills and other things there for rehab. Not sure how specialized their training is compared to a university. I’ll have to look at their websites closer. But they advertise themselves that’s just performance vets.

[Texarkana]

My local university often gets a bad rap for being “expensive” which is completely untrue. It is almost always to cheaper to go through them than any local vet!

For many years I lived in an area with very limited veterinary services. The few equine vets in the region were so ridiculously expensive. The “big” equine clinic in the region was expensive but at least had a lot to offer with multiple vets, a board certified surgeon, and all the latest technology. The problem was, the smaller clinics, which were significantly more limited in their scope of practice, would set their prices in line with the big clinic. The price of vet care was a contributing factor in me wanting to move from that area!

[Lunabear1988]

The University clinic near me also gets that bad rap sometimes from certain people but I have also found it’s cheaper in the long run…
That being said there is another big emergency clinic with all kinds of specialist which were significantly more expensive than the university in my experience.

So I would definitely be more inclined to head to the University for emergencies.

University was not one of the clinics that I mentioned in my original post though. These are smaller local vets that are making their own rehab facilities.

[Cowboy_Girl]

If you are in Colorado they all know each other. They all know each others price structure. It isn’t unusual to use 2 or 3 different vets because of vacation (theirs,) availability, travel time and type of purchase. The one that you use for vaccines and health papers and basic wound care is often one guy, pre-purchase and lameness another and serious issues a third. And they know its just business/cost management.

[SLW]

@Foxglove

Big Name Clinic about an hour from me just sent an update on pricing for Health Paper to travel one state to another:$200. AND must have seen horse within 10 days. My vet (local cow doc who also treats horses) is $25 and saw my horse when he vaccinated him in April.

That $200 fee for an equine HC is insane. It’s like they hope no one ask them to create one by pricing it so high.