Jacqui wrote:-
 
>I have decided to undertake a small survey into vets fees in the UK, and,
>if possible to campare them with charges abroad.
>
>[Moderator's note: I think the prices quoted here are in British pounds --
>they were prefaced by an unprintable character, probably a pound symbol...
>
>This is because I was charged an outrageous 339.00 for an antihisthamine
>jab ... was also quoted 340.00 ish for a vasectomy.  I have asked one or
>two e-mail friends and they have quoted quite different figures for spaying
>and neutering.
 
I think the figures should have been 39 UKP and 40 UKP. The pound symbol
doesn't come out at all well on e-mails so I'll stick to UKP short for
United Kingdom pounds.
 
My own vet charges, as far as I can remember, 38.50 UKP for spaying and
vasectomies; 28.50 UKP for castration and I think he said 12 UKP for a jill
jab.  Small animal consultation fee is something like 8 UKP.
 
For the jill jab I have heard of fees ranging from 3 to 17 UKP.  I reckon
the 3 UKP is a reasonable fee considering the cost of the drug is something
in the region of .80 UKP.  It makes me cringe when I hear what some vets
charging for the jill jab, I run a welfare/rescue and I spend quite a bit
of time advising young people, many of them still at school, not to bred
their jills but to get a jill jab instead to take the jills out of oestrus.
The kids can't afford the fees so we get a litters of unwanted kits, or a
jill left in season which becomes prone to infection.
 
I have recently been in e-mail contact with a lad in Cornwall and he said
he was going to put his 3 jills to his hob next year and then drown the
kits.  I advised him to get his hob vasectomised.  He wrote back and said
OK.  However, in the next e-mail he sent he wrote that he wouldn't be
getting the hob vasectomisied because the lowest quote was for 50 UKP.  I
have since told him about the jill jab but heaven knows what he'll be
charged for them.  Apparently mating the jill and then drowning the
resulting litter, according to my correspondent, is a fairly common
practice in Cornwall:-( Anyone on the FML from that part of the UK that
have any comments about this?  I guess it will go on in other parts of the
UK as well:-(
 
I know of one breeder who sells hundreds of kits at the start of every
hunting season and the following year the same folk go back to him to buy
new kits - what's happened to last year's kits:-( How many guesses do you
want?  The fortunate ones might end up at one of the rescues......
 
Sometimes I and other welfares feel like giving up, it's like banging your
head against a brick wall, there are so many ferrets out there that need
our help and we just can't cope, shortage of funds is the main reason and
lack of facilities is another.  The largest animal welfare in world, so
they keep telling us, and the richest, the RSPCA couldn't give a toss about
ferrets - taking in RSPCA referrals has run me into debt, do they care do
they hell:-( Even writing to their HQ (recorded delivery) doesn't even get
a reply.  I don't even watch Animal Hospital and Pet Rescue any more - too
much praise about them and not enough about the individuals who work their
guts out to pick up the animals the most *caring* animal welfare doesn't
want and chooses to ignore.
 
BTW when the NFWS secretary wrote to the RSPCA to ask what their policy was
on ferrets he received a reply from the RSPCA's "Wild Life Officer" - I
think they must be in league with CaCa Fish and Gestapo!
 
Sheila
Bolton Ferret Welfare & National Ferret Welfare Society Newsletter Editor
http://www.btinternet.com/~sheila/ferrets.htm (Last Update 18 Oct, 1998)
Waiting at Rainbow Bridge: Jill, Deanna Troi, Cameron, Carnath & Button
[Posted in FML issue 2469]