Veterinary Fees

In many ways the pre-occupation with veterinary fees that some clients have is the fault of the veterinarians themselves or at least a fault of the system which they are a part or indeed the product of.

Veterinarians like most professionally trained people focus primarily on the job in hand. Whilst veterinary practice is a small business, few veterinarians actually spend much time on this aspect of the business, instead absorbing themselves in the technical aspects of doing a thorough job on each and every case with which they are presented.  They in fact, as a group, do a very good job but inevitably very few in fact transmit this to their clients.

We work in an industry where asymmetry of information is probably at its worst. Veterinarians know a great deal about animals and for the most part their clients know very little. Add to this the fact that animals can't speak and we have a situation where clients often have very little idea about what vets are talking about and very often vets are very poor communicators because they are busy and for a variety of other reasons.

Take the case of fees. The Veterinary Surgeons' Board and the Act it administers prevents practitioners from claiming pre-eminence over their colleagues in advertising their services. Therefore clients have no way of telling the good from the bad from the ugly. Add to this the fact again that animals can't tell tales about their experiences behind closed doors and we have a real lack of information.

When clients telephone around for estimates for various procedures they in the most part are not being told the same thing or rather they are not comparing apples with apples. At Petpro we try very hard to simplify this process. Don't be dismayed when we decline to give you an estimate over the telephone for a non routine procedure without seeing the animal. How can we possibly do that when "every case really is different".

When you are ringing around for say quotes on so called routine procedures like vaccination and sterilisation, ensure that the comparisons are realistic.  Does that seemingly cheap price for an initial vaccination include a nail clip, anal gland attention, puppy class vouchers, extended consultation, a wellness check 6 months later and so on.

Does that seemingly cheap price for sterilisation include pain relief following the procedure, adequate monitoring during and after the surgery, a nail clip, anal gland attention and so on. These are issues that some may take for granted but is this reality?

Our receptionists are trained to point all these things out to you when you ring, in an attempt to level out this asymmetry of information. Veterinarians are all trained the same, are visited by the same pharmaceutical representatives, for the most part sell the same drugs and largely do the same things. Their consulting rooms and premises are generally very similar as well. In the end the sameness is exasperating and so price becomes the major issue. In fact there is much more to it than that. We try to highlight our differences and not the similarities.

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