Vet Ruth Brownlee is one of the Clinical Directors at St Peters Vets.

Speaking to Mike Waddington, she comments on the Competition and Markets Authority's interim report into transparency; she welcomes the report and gives some advice (reproduced below) to ask up front about costs and discuss your budget too; 'contexualised care' is about the patient and the client's circumstances.

Ruth also talks about autumn hazards, from acorn and conker ingestion, to the more  serious mushroom digestion - hot cross buns too! Some food people eat - like garlic - are not good for animals. She talks about anxiety medications in fireworks season (and others like separation anxiety).

Owners need to be aware and vigilant and should call their  vet for advice if you suspect something!

Ruth's advice on coosts:

My general thoughts about vet fees and advice to pet owners;

• Don't be worried about asking for costs up front, we would much rather have an open conversation about cost and possible solutions.
• Let us know your budget or if there are financial constraints. In  certain situations we may be able to provide a variety diagnostic or treatment options with different costs (with the knowledge that the lower cost options may not result in as fast a diagnosis/treatment resolution etc)
• Look at options that will save money such as joining a health care plan for routine care if that suits your needs.
• For new  pet owners - look into the ongoing costs for a pet before taking one on, Investigate the cost of routine care but also potential costs if your pet becomes ill.

From our point of view at St Peters Vets we always try to provide estimates particularly for any patient requiring hospitalisation or surgical procedures at the time of admit.  Accurate estimates are fairly straight forward to produce for surgical procedures and day patients but can be trickier for ongoing complex medical cases that can require a large variety of diagnostic tests so we try to keep owners updated with costs.