Correction: Prices for veterinary care of dogs, cats and horses in selected countries in Europe

A Correction on
Prices for veterinary care of dogs, cats and horses in selected countries in Europe

by Egenvall, A., Höglund, O. V., Hoffman, R., Valle, P. S., Andersen, P. H., Lönnell, C., Byström, A., and Bonnett, B. N. (2024). Front. Vet. Sci. 11:1403483. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1403483

There was a mistake in Table 1 as published. There was a minor problem with the exchange rates for the Norwegian prices from the price comparison site. The conclusions and general reasoning remain identical. The corrected Table 1 appears below.

Table 1

Table 1. Direct validation demonstrating differences (in percent) in price between the price at the veterinary clinic (web) and the price-comparison site (vetpris.se, VP) for cat and dog gonadectomy for two countries.

There was a mistake in Table 2 as published. There was a major problem with the exchange rate from the Danish prices from the price comparison site and minor problem with the exchange rates for the Norwegian prices from the price comparison site. The conclusions and general reasoning are moderately different for the Danish prices while they remain identical for the Norwegian prices. The corrected Table 2 appears below.

Table 2

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the prices (€) for gonadectomy of cats by country.

There was a mistake in Table 3 as published. There was a major problem with the exchange rate from the Danish prices from the price comparison site and minor problem with the exchange rates for the Norwegian prices from the price comparison site. The conclusions and general reasoning are moderately different for the Danish prices while they remain identical for the Norwegian prices. The corrected Table 3 appears below.

Table 3

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of the prices (€) for gonadectomy of dogs by country.

Supplemental material Supplemental Figure 1 was omitted. The file(s) have now been published.

File Presentation 1.pdf was erroneously published with the original version of this paper. The file has now been removed.

File Data Sheet 1.xlsx was erroneously published with the original version of this paper. The file has now been removed.

File Supplementary Table 1 was erroneously published with the original version of this paper. The file has been replaced with Supplementary Data Sheet 1.

File Supplementary Table 2 was erroneously published with the original version of this paper. The file has been replaced with Supplementary Data Sheet 2.

File Supplementary Table 3 was erroneously published with the original version of this paper. The file has now been replaced with Supplementary Table 1.

The Abstract included an exchange rate error within the Results section. This previously read: “By October 2023, median prices for male cat GDY ranged from €72 (SE) to €230 (DK), and €130 (SE) to €361 (DK) for females; for dog GDY from €390 (SE) to €599 (DK) for males, and €461 (UK) to €1015 (DK) for females. Across sources, median prices for cat and dog GDY increased by 2–24% over a year for procedures with at least 10 clinics per extraction.” This has been corrected to read:

By October 2023, median prices for male cat GDY ranged from €72 (SE) to €152 (DK), and €130 (SE) to €269 (NO) for females; for dog GDY from €390 (SE) to €438 (NO) for males, and €461 (UK) to €803 (NO) for females. Across sources, median prices for cat and dog GDY varied from a decrease of 1% to an increase of 31% over a year for procedures with at least 10 clinics per extraction.

A correction has been made to Results, Prices section, second paragraph. It previously stated: “For cat GDY (Table 2; Supplementary Table 1) the median web and VP prices (VP prices originally from the web) were generally similar. For male cat GDY, SE had lowest prices after 1 year (in fall year 2023 median for web and VP, respectively, was €74/€72), followed by the UK (few prices found, Supplementary Table 1), NO (€148/€135) and DK (VP €230). For female cat GDY, in SE (for web and VP, respectively, the prices were €136/€130) and UK (€155) had lower prices than NO (€269/€247) and DK (VP €361). For male cat GDY (Table 2) and male dog GDY (Table 3), in the UK few prices were found (because it was not possible to readily identify them in the collected data, see Supplementary Table 1 for actual numbers). The smallest median price in the fall of 2023 for male dogs was found in SE (for web and VP, respectively €390/€396), followed by NO (VP €449) and DK (VP €599). For female dog GDY, after 1 year the median web price in the UK was €461, followed by SE (for web and VP, respectively €656/€668), NO (VP €823) and DK (VP €1,015). Yearly changes in price [from first to fifth extraction] varied from 2% (female dogs in DK) to 24% increase (female cats in NO). Supplementary Figure 1 shows PPP-adjusted prices along with prices in Euro for the data in Tables 2, 3. Both measures suggest the same between-country differences. Note that while currency rates are continuous, PPP is set per year, which makes it difficult to compare price changes within a year between Euro and PPP-values.” This has been corrected to:

For cat GDY (Table 2; Supplementary Table 1) the median web and VP prices (VP prices originally from the web) were generally similar. For male cat GDY, SE had lowest prices after 1 year (in fall year 2023 median for web and VP, respectively, was €74/€72), followed by the UK (few prices found, Supplementary Table 1), NO (€148/€132) and DK (VP €152). For female cat GDY, in SE (for web and VP, respectively, the prices were €136/€130) and UK (€155) had lower prices than NO (€269/€241) and DK (VP €238). For male cat GDY (Table 2) and male dog GDY (Table 3), in the UK few prices were found (because it was not possible to readily identify them in the collected data, see Supplementary Table 1 for actual numbers). The smallest median price in the fall of 2023 for male dogs was found in SE (for web and VP, respectively €390/€396) and DK (VP €396), whereas the price in NO was larger (VP €438). For female dog GDY, after 1 year the median web price in the UK was €461, followed by SE (for web and VP, respectively €656/€668) and DK (VP €670). NO (VP €803) had the largest mean price. Yearly changes in price [from first to fifth extraction] varied from −1% (female dogs in DK) to 31% increase (male cats in NO). Supplementary Figure 1 shows PPP-adjusted prices along with prices in Euro for the data in Tables 2, 3. Both measures suggest the same between-country differences. Note that while currency rates are continuous, PPP is set per year, which makes it difficult to compare price changes within a year between Euro and PPP-values.

A correction has been made to Discussion, first paragraph: “For pet GDY, the results showed median price hikes ranging from 2% (female dogs in DK) to 24% (female cats in NO) over the year.” This has been corrected to:

For pet GDY, the results showed median price changes ranging from a decrease of 1% (female dogs in DK) to an increase of 31% (male cats in NO) over the year.

A correction has been made to the Discussion, Price comparisons, section, First paragraph. The incorrect paragraph reads as follows: “We attempted to focus on several procedures with the aim of obtaining valid, comparable results across countries and with relevance to similar procedures within each country. Magnitudes of prices were prioritised over price changes as the time window was short, only 12–15 months. We note that even though prices for male cat and male dog GDY from the UK were found in the dataset (found during ‘manual' scrutiny of data), few were captured for analysis (Tables 2, 3; Supplementary Table 1). It was deemed impossible to securely filter those out (correct species and correct sex) from the dataset, even when using extensive regular expressions (Supplementary Data 1; sheet SAScode castration). The data for GDY were represented by a large number of clinics in SE, with most other countries having at least 10 observations per extraction, which was deemed the minimum for interpretation. Considerable variation in prices was observed at each point in time across all countries, with clear differences in median prices between countries. In the autumn of 2023 (1 year after the initial extraction), SE had the most affordable male cat GDY (for web and VP, respectively €74/ €72), while SE and UK were collectively the cheapest for female cat GDY (SE web/VP €136/130, UK web €155). The highest prices for cat GDY were observed in NO (males approx. €140, females ≥ €247) and DK (males €230, females/€361). The price for female dog GDY ranged from €461 (UK) to €1015 (DK) at the penultimate extraction. Prices of GDY may have been subsidised relative to other prices, as previously found (40), which could vary across countries. For GDY there was no direct relation between price and prevalence of insurance. This may be due to that GDY is not generally covered by insurance and thus prices are lower in Sweden (GDY may be covered by insurance if part of essential treatment of disease). The reason for low prices on GDY in the UK may be that GDY prices has been kept low for the greater good, to keep the overpopulation low, for quite some time. However, to compare prices between countries more generally necessitates price information on a large number of procedures. Considerable variation in standardised prices was also observed within each country. However, the variation would likely have been even larger if actual amounts on receipts had been directly used. In SE, prices for emergency procedures for dogs differed substantially between clinics, with the highest price being up to 5 times higher than the lowest. Median standardised prices for regular-hours caesarean section/pyometra in SE were approximately €2,300, rising to nearly €4,000 for after-hours procedures in the final extraction.” This paragraph has been corrected to:

We attempted to focus on several procedures with the aim of obtaining valid, comparable results across countries and with relevance to similar procedures within each country. Magnitudes of prices were prioritised over price changes as the time window was short, only 12–15 months. We note that even though prices for male cat and male dog GDY from the UK were found in the dataset (found during “manual” scrutiny of data), few were captured for analysis (Tables 2, 3; Supplementary Table 1). It was deemed impossible to securely filter those out (correct species and correct sex) from the dataset, even when using extensive regular expressions (Supplementary Data 1; sheet SAScode castration). The data for GDY were represented by a large number of clinics in SE, with most other countries having at least 10 observations per extraction, which was deemed the minimum for interpretation. Considerable variation in prices was observed at each point in time across all countries, with clear differences in median prices between countries. In the autumn of 2023 (1 year after the initial extraction), SE had the most affordable male cat GDY (for web and VP, respectively €74/ €72), while SE and UK were collectively the cheapest for female cat GDY (SE web/VP €136/130, UK web €155). The highest prices for cat GDY were observed in DK (males €152, females €238) and NO (males approx. €140, females ≥€241). The price for female dog GDY ranged from €461 (UK) to €803 (NO) at the penultimate extraction. Prices of GDY may have been subsidised relative to other prices, as previously found (40), which could vary across countries. For GDY there was no direct relation between price and prevalence of insurance. This may be due to that GDY is not generally covered by insurance and thus prices are lower in Sweden (GDY may be covered by insurance if part of essential treatment of disease). The reason for low prices on GDY in the UK may be that GDY prices has been kept low for the greater good, to keep the overpopulation low, for quite some time. However, to compare prices between countries more generally necessitates price information on a large number of procedures. Considerable variation in standardised prices was also observed within each country. However, the variation would likely have been even larger if actual amounts on receipts had been directly used. In SE, prices for emergency procedures for dogs differed substantially between clinics, with the highest price being up to five times higher than the lowest. Median standardised prices for regular-hours caesarean section/ pyometra in SE were approximately €2,300, rising to nearly €4,000 for after-hours procedures in the final extraction.

The original version of this article has been updated.

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