So our cat became ill late on Saturday. We don’t have our own vet yet as we’ve just returned from abroad 10 days ago and we’re still in quarantine. I was told by Vets Now Preston just to examine our cat would cost £220 which seemed excessive, (Vets4Pets charge a £34 consultation fee during the week) but hey they have you by the short and curlies because there isn’t another emergency vet in the immediate area and you don’t want to see your pet suffer. Plus we could not leave the house as we were quarantining. We waited to see if what we thought was constipation would resolve itself, but by morning he was no better, so he had to go in. Slightly less charge of £170 as it wasn’t an evening call, but it was a Sunday. He had a blockage in his bladder and total costs just for the emergency vet is £1400. I’m waiting for a breakdown. I will be challenging the call out fees and will reserve judgment on the rest of the bill until I receive a breakdown. 7 times a ‘normal’ exam fee, to me, is excessive and is taking advantage of pet owners who don’t choose when their pet gets sick, but obv don’t want their pet to be in pain until 9-5 on a week day. I accept that you pay more for out of hours, but 7x more? I also have additional fees for his follow on treatment including another (admittedly much less) consultation fee from Vets4Pets, because they deal with his ‘in hours‘ treatment which may continue a few more days. That’s going to be at least another £260, possibly another £780. Vets Now will be monitoring his out of hours care while he’s at Vets4Pets Preston surgery. I’m sure the treatment he had and is currently receiving is good (although because of Covid I cannot check on him or the treatment). I’m just very disappointed that I had to agree to the outrageous price as there was no alternative (unless you call euthanasia an alternative) and delayed treatment because it was so high. If the price had been more reasonable, I would not have waited until Sunday morning to send him in. Unfortunately I don’t have a case number as I have not received a final invoice, nor receipt for the 50% deposit.