Veterinary practice Ullmann

Nibelungenstrasse 17th
89518 Heidenheim an der Brenz

Phone: 07321 4709485

Medicines must be ordered in advance either via Whatsapp or SMS 015738809905, you do not need an appointment for this.

Our range of services at a glance

Our fees are legally regulated fair prices. The official fee schedule for veterinarians (GOT) is used for billing, so you don't have to worry about excessive fees.

The services in our practice are billed according to the fee schedule for veterinarians. Cost estimates for operations and treatments of any kind can only be made after an examination of the animal in our practice.

Do you still know the advertising slogan “GEIZ IS GEIL!”? Not awesome at all. Animals cost, not just to buy, but for a lifetime

Yes, we all want to save. And we only want the best. That, in turn, should then cost nothing. And if it costs something, then only because someone wants to get rich. Granted, there are exceptions. Companies that are only interested in their own good. Companies that fill wells, for example, in order to then sell their overpriced water in plastic bottles to the population who can hardly afford it.
But let's be honest, we all complain about the price of petrol. Is that why we do without the car? The new cell phone costs 800 euros. So what? It's awesome and I'm the first to have it! Yes, that's how the market economy works.

For a long time we have noticed that there are more and more inquiries about what one or the other treatment would cost us. Colleagues also report to me about such inquiries and whether a vaccination might be cheaper if two or three dogs are vaccinated at the same time.

Unfortunately, very few people think about why a service costs, what it costs, what it has to cost.

Veterinary services cannot be compared to goods such as telephones or televisions. The Apple Phone 12 is always equipped in the same way, if it costs less at one retailer than at another retailer, it is actually cheaper there. In medicine, the final fee depends on the equipment: For example, a castration is not just simply a castration, as it can be carried out in different ways! Inhalation or injection anesthesia etc ...

Example vaccination.
According to GOT (fee schedule for veterinarians) a vaccination consists of several items. There is, among other things, the examination of the animal, the vaccination, the certificate of vaccination in the vaccination card and the vaccine. The basic price, i.e. the services without the vaccine that results, is the price (the fee) that a veterinarian must at least take. Then there is the price of the vaccine. What a vaccine costs depends on how much the manufacturer wants for it. If the vet uses a very high quality vaccine that may work better, longer or more versatile than another vaccine, it will also cost more. This means that one and the same vaccination, depending on the vaccine used, can cost more or less.
The price, or better the fee for the vaccination, depends, among other things, on how “good” the vaccine is.
So whoever asks what vaccination against a disease costs, should also ask which vaccine is used. But as a layperson, can I know which vaccine is good? So here we have come to trust. (There are veterinarians who offer vaccinations well below the fee prescribed by the GOT, this dumping is illegal.)
I have to (be able to) trust my vet to advise me to the best of my knowledge and belief and to treat my animal accordingly.

Example castration bitch.
A castration can cost 350 or 850 euros. But why?
The castration consists, among other things, of the examination of the dog, the anesthesia including medication, the procedure and the medication and consumables used.

But let's start from the beginning ...

The anesthesia: There are several options here.

There is a Injection anesthesia that the animal is given into the muscle or vein.
Advantage, it is inexpensive.
Disadvantage, it is difficult to control because once the drug has been injected, it can hardly be controlled.

In the Inhalation anesthesia the animal is given the anesthetic via an oxygen-anesthetic gas mixture. Either a tube (a tube in the windpipe) or a breathing mask is administered for this purpose.
The advantage is that it is very easy to control and very tolerable.
Disadvantage: It is more expensive because you need an anesthetic machine and the drugs cost many times as much.

Once the animal is under anesthesia, the anesthesia can be monitored using a special device.
The patient monitor: It is this device that you know from the hospital series and always does "PIIIIIIIEP" when the actor blesses the time. It permanently shows whether the ECG, oxygen saturation, breathing etc. are OK.
Advantage: The doctor sees how the patient is doing in real time.
Disadvantage: The device costs a lot of money to buy, which makes the anesthesia safer but also more expensive.

Then we come to the procedure itself: I open the stomach with the scalpel or one Electric scalpel (HF device) or a laser ? Or at least with that endoscope ? Depending on which way you decide in consultation or according to the practice standard, the operation will of course be cheaper or more expensive. The procedure is accordingly better tolerated if I opt for the most modern, often the most expensive form.
Now we have to sew up the stomach. Let's take the cheap one thread that sometimes loses its hold too early and is not so well tolerated, but is much cheaper? Or would you prefer the thread that is used in cosmetic surgery in human medicine? It allows the wound to heal perfectly, but costs twice as much.

Sometimes on the edge. Let's say your car needs new brake pads. Would you swap the brake pads with the cheap replicas from a China backyard factory or would you prefer to swap the more expensive original spare parts?

One could list countless examples ...

Last example:

A cat needs a tooth to be extracted. That costs more or less. Because the question is what do I do to stop it hurting? And is it done with pulling one tooth or should I also professionally remove tartar from the other teeth so that they can still bite tightly tomorrow?
But let's start. The tooth hurts and has to get out. To do this, you first put the animal under anesthesia, it also hurts to pull a tooth without anesthesia. Now the tooth is carefully exposed and pulled. The roots are all removed and the resulting hole in the jaw should be closed by sewing it up. To make sure that all root remains have really been removed and / or that other teeth are affected, you can take a dental x-ray in advance. Lo and behold, the tooth next to it also has a problem at the root. Hasn't even noticed the owner yet. So it's better to take it out right away, before the animal has to be anesthetized again in two weeks and then the tooth has to be extracted. Finally, the wound (hole in the jaw) is sewn up. The animal is given a pain reliever, possibly an antibiotic, and is allowed to go home. So that the food intake is not too difficult and painful in the next few days, you also give a very soft moist food that can be easily consumed without having to chew. .

You can, of course, start using the red pencil here and save. Here we go:
Let's delete everything that is possible but not absolutely necessary. So:

The anesthesia works. As long as the animal is breathing everything is okay, why the monitoring with the patient monitor? Costs money, canceled.
We leave the wound open, hopefully it will heal that way. Costs money, canceled. Well, that one hole is really big. But let's not take the thread that the dentist also uses. This one, which healed so wonderfully last time, but the cheaper thread. Saved again ..
Dental x-ray to check the other teeth? Kindly meant, but if it still hurts in two weeks, I'll be back, until then ... I'll save up for another anesthetic.
Painkiller? Also costs money. Because the cat doesn't tell me it hurts. we do without it. There are no painkillers in nature either.
Teeth cleaning? I've never seen a cat brush its teeth in nature. As long as it just stinks ... And if it hurts again, I'll come over. Or go where it is cheapest ...

So we've saved a lot of money, but will that help your darling too?

Everyone wants to save, but quality has its price. How is your experience with clothes, cell phones, food? Is cheap always just as good as expensive, only cheaper? Here is an example: An Apple phone costs significantly more than a cheap phone from the Far East. But you also pay for the quality, the innovation and the longer shelf life. We are happy to spend a little more on that, right ?!

Anyone who thinks, for example, a castration actually always costs sum X, is wrong. The assumption that everything above it is the doctor's greed is therefore wrong. A medical service cannot be compared to a cell phone or a car. Do not compare until you have considered all of the facts. I'm not saying that a colleague is better or worse because he operates differently. But ask yourself how the fee is made up. Inhalation anesthesia is more expensive than injection anesthesia, with all the advantages. Monitoring makes anesthesia safer, but it is not always essential.

Do I have to pay immediately?

Yes, we also offer cash payments or EC card payments from an amount of 15.00 euros

WHAT WILL THIS COST?

We will be happy to inform you in advance about the expected costs of necessary examinations and treatments. Please note, however, that a binding cost estimate, as in the car repair shop, is often not possible for living patients. The diagnostic effort and the resulting treatment options depend on the patient's condition, as well as the drug consumption.

Please understand that such calculations cannot be made over the phone or remotely. If you present your patient to us in the practice, we can calculate the treatment and operating costs and discuss them with you individually.

With the price information in the GOT, please note that there are always additional costs for the treatment of your animal for preliminary examinations, medication, surgical materials and consumables! If treatments take longer than usual, additional costs may arise due to the so-called time factor.

A note on cost comparison in veterinary practices. Before you make a decision, however, you should definitely inform yourself about the scope of services that the practice offers you. Supposedly identical services often differ in crucial details, e.g. B. Qualification and further training of the practice staff, spatial equipment, quality and type of anesthesia, monitoring of the anesthesia and the wake-up phase.

The fee schedule for veterinarians (GOT) is a statutory ordinance that prescribes how veterinary services are to be billed. It is issued by the federal government in order to protect the legitimate interests of the animal owner and veterinarian.
An amended GOT has been in force since July 27, 2017. After nine years of constant fee rates, the fees were increased by a flat rate of 12%.

The GOT is binding for all practicing veterinarians.

What is important for you as a pet owner is a manageable fee framework and the quality of the veterinary service. The fee not only ensures the vet's livelihood, but also covers the costs and the investment and innovation needs of the veterinary practice.

Around 800 individual veterinary services and treatment steps are numbered here with their fee rate. The schedule of fees does not include final prices for treatments. The fee rates for the individual medical steps must be combined according to the modular principle in order to be able to calculate a complete treatment. This is necessary to meet the patient's individual treatment needs.

The breakdown into individual treatment steps requires medical understanding and is not always comprehensible for the layperson without explanation. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations are therefore not uncommon, especially when GOT is quoted in press reports. The veterinarian is liable to prosecution if the prices of the fee schedule are not met

The GOT is published in the Federal Law Gazette, which is available in many public libraries and can also be viewed on the Internet at:

http://bundesrecht.juris.de/got/ http://bundesrecht.juris.de

Search word “GOT” or as a PDF file

http://bundesrecht.juris.de/bundesrecht/got/otal.pdf

The easiest and fastest way, however, is to ask your veterinarian for inspection.

Example: Veterinary costs for neutering a cat plus medication

If you have any questions about your vet bill, please contact us directly. You can address our employees openly, we will be happy to provide you with the necessary explanations. You can also access the fee schedule for veterinarians (GOT) by clicking on the link belowwww.bundestieraerztekammer.deview directly.

If you would like more information or a review, please contact the relevant veterinary association