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[Theerah0166]

Some of the bigger Charities do help with the cost of neutering dogs. Blue Cross (0300 123 99 33) will give £75 towards neutering and Dog Aid (0131 668 3633) will give 75% of actual cost, but you have to be on benefits and to prove it, and as you know Dogs Trust will also help. It does pay to keep phoning them as they do sometimes try to fob you off. Just keep asking. You will not however quallify for help from them all at the same time, help will only be forthcoming from one per dog.

[missemma2]

Can I just say that all of this 'macrgregors have a monopoly and can charge what they like mentality' is a load of crap!!! Granted, they are the only practice in caithness, however, due to the fact that they get 100% of veterinary business locally, they can afford to and do charge very competatively!! £20 for a consultation is £5 less than my old practice used to charge. £150 for a bitch spay is no more than you would be charged elsewhere. They do not charge injection or dispensing fees (usually £5 or so per drug) that practically every other practice I have worked in does! So I feel that the criticism they are getting on here is a little unfair.

If you do your research on what a comparable procedure on a human would cost - what vets charge is cheap considering that the minute a peice of equipment is labelled for veterinary use its price doubles.

There is absolutely nothing stopping another vet opening a practice. It is just that nobody has chosen to.

At the end of the day, in my experience, pet owners do have increasingly high expectations of veterinary practices - especially now that so many owners have insurance. They expect practices to treat their pets like they would be treated if they were ill. And altho as has been said on here macregors have been long established - equipment does not last forever! It needs constand updating, suffers a great deal of wear and tear and is evolving.

Lastly, if you are not happy paying for vet care for your pets, its simple - dont have them!!

[KEEP_ON_TRUCKIN]

I have to agree with Emma - prices up here are for sure a lot cheaper than those I have experienced in Dingwall and Inverurie for like for like proceedures.

But Emma as previous posters have pointed out they do not have 100% of all veterinary business, I know a number of Horse owners for example who choose to use Kessock Equine Vets for example.

[missemma2]

Yes, But there are no other practices based in caithness - the percentage of owners using a service such as kessock equine is negligable in the overall scheme of things. How many owners travel to Orkney for treatment? or down to Rogart / Inverness? not many I would imagine, unless you count referrals to specialists on Edinburgh / Glasgow.

I think that it can work both ways - either a practice can go mad overcharging as people have no other option or they can charge less as they are doing well and getting the main proportion of business in an area. In the case here I think it works to the benefit of the community.

Emma

[Hogfather]

I just wish I could get private health care for ME as cheaply as I get it for my dogs! Have found MacGregors to be on the cheaper side of average. Very glad I don't live in the south of Englandshire, where it is not uncommon to be looking at upwards of £250 for a <girl dog> spay, for eg.