I've owned a cat for 1.5 years now, and has been to pet hospitals quite a number of times for various physical examinations, vaccinations, and health treatments. I usually go to Banfield Pet Hospital located inside the local Petsmart. It astonishes me how much they charge for petty services and I wonder if I got ripped off. For a general health check they charged $26, however, whenever they see any suspicious sympton, further tests are required. A lot of times these tests consist of nothing more than the assisstant bringing in a chemical strip or drop and apply it to see reaction, or getting a little body fluid sample from the cat and check. Each service like that they charge between $20 and $40 dollars, not counting the more serious ones. This makes me wonder why I even paid the $26 for "office visit." And I heard some places don't charge anything at all for a full physical exam.

Sometimes, during office visits, if I don't point out what is suspicious, they wouldn't even notice the problem, which makes me angry. It seems they only look at what you think need to be looked at while as soon as you suggest looking at some other problem, they seem to start thinking about how to charge more money! Finally, they will sell me products that "can only be purchased through the pet hospital" which are exceedingly expensive. My cat hasn't needed any "procedure" performed on her yet, but it seems any of those will easily cost $100+ in there.

Question: have you experienced something like this? is this normal or rip off? or are most pet hospitals trying to rip you off? how do you find one that doesnt do that?

Forgot to add one of the most annoying visits. I paid $90 for a visit to check the cat's eye and received some antibiotics to apply for a week. The follow-up visit, doctor made me wait for 45 minute in the room and then came in, took 2 minutes to look at the cat and said: "looks much better" (which is very true, almost looks no problem at all to me), "but come back in to check again next week". And I was out of the office, and had to PAY for it. $18 for THIS. Even when I had a $3600 ankle surgery, none of the follow up checks costed any money. Suppose they really like take advantage of stupid people like me......

I've been in and out of the vet 3 times this year because my dog has a hard to diagnose neuritis issue of some sort. They're really good about not charging us full price for subsequent visits and a lot of times they trim his nails when I ask and don't even charge us. I'd suggest finding a vet that doesn't work out of a Petsmart. Someone more independent would have more freedom to charge you prices based on the level of service they had to provide.

I have a vet that isn't too far from where I live (it's easy to bring the cat in the carrier on the back of my bike). I found them to be overly insistant on pharmacutical drugs. I found their rates to be very unreasonable, and I felt I was always being pushed towards more expensive testing or drugs at one point I was chastised because I didn't want General anaesthesia for my cat who was getting neutered. He survived quite fine from the ordeal.