More pets being put down due to rising costs, BBC told

Pet owners gradually ensure that patient animals are released, or delay taking them for treatment to prevent increasing veterinary invoices, veterinarians and animal charities.

While the BBC left some animal lovers to the centers reorganizing pets, others decided not to have more in the future due to high costs.

Many veterinary surgeons and nurses say that the treatment prices have increased after purchasing large companies.

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) said that the maintenance costs increased for various reasons and that the wages reflect the prices that should be financially suitable and open to stay open.

Now Dougie is deaf and Avril worries that his situation may be worsened because he reduces his appointments due to his cost.

He said that he had passed through “too much mood in search” and he said he’d be accused of worrying that he wouldn’t take him from time to time.

“At least I still hang out there, and I hold it,” he said, but he felt “desperately sad for people who gave up their pets.”

Caroline also contacted after a payment of more than £ 4,500 to treat 19 -year -old cat Ozzie when a brain tumor was diagnosed.

The draft was so expensive that after the cat died, he couldn’t afford to cream Ozzie – instead he brought his house and buried it in the backyard.

He said that the cost of Ozzie’s treatment, who died in 2022, was so high and had another pet.

“I’m at the beginning of my 60s right now and I don’t want to be in 10 years later,” he said.

“I don’t want it to be emotionally upset to not be able to meet this and then want someone to re -manage the cat.”

Blue Cross, Animal Welfare Aid Authority, warned that increasing treatment costs are a “time bomb” for the welfare of pets.

“Access to affordable veterinary care has been reduced and more animals can not get the treatment they need and even leave, because the owners can no longer afford to hold them.” He said.

Blue Cross operates a fund for people who cannot get emergencies, and last year, applications were increased by 264%, and in 2023, from 1,319 to 4.807 in 2024.

The BBC spoke to 25 veterinary surgeons, nurses and industry internal people working for various companies, and the majority blamed higher veterinary invoices in large companies that purchased applications.

One said that life was “hell” when the applications took over. Another said that when they achieved their “bad falling” financial goals with animal blood and urine -covered personnel at that time, they received a cake.

Only one person spoke to us publicly because others were never afraid of working again. Locum Veterinary Dr Callum Ladell, who works in more than 250 applications, sees that the veterinarians have lost public confidence and brings less customers’ animals for treatment because they expect a big invoice.

BBC, “Cases come, for months and months left and normally began to become euthanasia – an animal to fall asleep – the invoice can not meet the invoice because it is cheaper than to repair them because it concludes.” He said.

The British Veterinary Union (BVU) in Unite, representing the workers in the industry, says that even if people have other medical options, they are increasingly chosen to their pets due to cost prints.

Charity CATS protection found that 58% of 10,000 cat owners did not visit the veterinarian at any time they wanted at any time.

Dr Ladell said he had a wound on his leg in May that a friend named Elvis was a cat.

He calmed the cat, cleaned the wound and sewed it at a cost of £ 93.19. This did not include the clinical time he predicted to add £ 300 to the bill.

The cat later opened the wound – made it bigger – and this time, Dr Ladell took it to the application where Elvis registered, which belonged to CVS.

Case notes and the last invoice seen by the BBC showed that he had treated the cat under full anesthetic, removed the tissue, reopened the wound, washing, put a drainage and sewing. The bill came to £ 1,074.54.

Dr Ladell said he did not criticize the quality of care, but he thought that a more cost -effective treatment could be done with an equally good result, especially if the owner is not someone who can get more than £ 1,000 for this “gold standard” service.

CVS, which is approximately 500 veterinary applications in the UK and Australia, said two procedures could not be compared.

A spokesman said: “It would be wrong to comment on a public about an individual case because we are committed to the rules of privacy. Also, especially if the surgical intervention level is very different, it is not a professional to compare the high -quality treatment we offer with another member of the veterinary profession.”

In 2013, only 10% of the veterinary applications in the UK belonged to large corporate groups.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), six major corporate veterinary groups – IVC Evidencesia, CVS, Mediat, Home Pets, Linnaeus and VET partners – now 60% of the market, he said.

Corporate ownership between 2015 and 2023 increased more than 60% between the figures from the CMA Show. This is almost twice the inflation rate or the increase in veterinary salaries.

CMA Currently To investigate whether the lack of competition in the veterinarian sector contributes to rising prices.

Seven Veterinarians in IVC Evidencesia’s applications, Files, were followed in Four Research and are subject to the targets set by the company.

One, what he and his colleagues call the company’s “clinical challenge milestones”, and that the number of certain procedures they perform on animals is encouraged to compete against other applications of IVC.

IVC said that the health and welfare of animals is always the first priority and these “clinical difficulty” targets are not financial, but designed to improve the clinical care of pets. All of the selected procedures say that they are carefully selected, because they are necessary to quickly diagnose and stabilize emergency patients.

He said that there are various reasons for increasing veterinary costs, including demands for higher standards than corporate veterinary chains, progress in treatments, increasing working costs and higher standards than domestic animal owners.

There is CMA Make suggestions Changes designed to make veterinarian services more suitable – other services such as price limits, prescriptions and cream in drugs.

The British Veterinary Association (BVA), the Veterinary Union BVC and Veterinarians acknowledge that the regulation of the industry should be updated.

However, BVA said that CMA suggested solutions “reducing consumer selection and potentially increasing veterinary wages.”

President of the British Veterinary Association “If the owners are concerned about the cost, talk to your veterinarian, because they will always give priority to their welfare in the care of animals and work closely with their owners to find treatment plans for their conditions,” Elizabeth Mullineaux said.

The CMA would publish its final report towards the end of the year, but it was postponed for three to six months due to the volume and complexity of feedback from the veterinarians.

Caroline says she can’t bring her cat flap for Ozzie, because it’s completely closing to own a pet.

However, although he likes to have animals around him, he insists that the cost of looking at someone means “another urge to fight another pet”.