Cost of having dog x-rayed for the OFA - Page 1

We live in the suburbs of a large city, population over 1 million. For many years, my old vet, who has since retired, did the x-rays for all of my prior dogs. I have not had it done for 5 years and now want to do it for my new dog who is 2.5 years old. My current vet gave the cost of $870 for hips, elbows and OFA documentation. I could not believe it. So I asked a different animal hospital about 5 miles away what they would charge. They said $360 this is for everything, hips, elbows documentation from the OFA, everything included.

I realized my current vet was ripping me off and decided to look around for other animal hospitals nearby but first asked each one what they would charge to do hip and elbows x-rays for the OFA. I got estimates all over the place from $350 to $800.

What is going on? Is this like buying a car or a house, whatever the mark is willing pay, whatever the market will bear? What is a typical or fair price for this currently?.

I’m in a suburb of NYC and got an estimate for just under $800. I’m going to use them, because they have lots of experience in this area. I’ve heard stories of some vets not positioning the dogs properly, so I think you pay a premium for expertise. Good luck!

Personally I think $870 is WAY too high, but I have seen quotes for hip/elbow x-rays around the 800's here too. I have to travel 2-3 hours, but I use a couple very experienced vets and one charges about $350 for both x-rays, the other charges around $475 for both.... Prices certainly have been going up though.

My breakout is as follows:

OFA - Hip/Elbow Eval.- Rads & Anesthesia- $631
Submission fee- $56
Hospitalization drop off/ procedure- $65
Medical waste handling & disposal- $21

Thanks for the replies. That is pretty interesting. Like Joe said, experience is important obviously, you want to choose a vet that has done it often. I used to get some of my dogs x-rayed for the SV (the German Shepherd Dog Club of Germany) and they are pretty finicky also.

But obviously, prices are all over the place.

Here is the partial breakdown for the $870 estimate
Medical exam $65 / Sedative and reversal $153 / Radiographs $420 / Radiograph interpretation $105 / OFA registration $41 / Hospital nursing care $49 plus a few small fluffy fees

Here is the breakdown for $370 estimate
Medical exam $43 / Pre and post nursing care $28 / Sedatives $100 / Radiograph setup fee $71
/ digital radiographs and interpretation $114 / Medical waste fee $3 / OFA documentation $11.

Dont base your decision on cost, the very best vet in all of the USA is Dr Lonnie Davis in Troy Ohio, people send their dogs from aro0und the wolrd to this vet. We drive down to him from Michigan, his prices are slightly higher than any other vet, however he has actually trademarked "Precise positioning" and he has a website with before and after ratings based on that very thing, it is soley on the position of the hip, and this is what will make or break a rating. I encourage you to look him up and go to his site and see what Im talking about. Both my GSDs females are rated excellent, and my male is rated good.

I was going to post what GSCat just said, about differing overheads and skills, but I see the points have been well made, so I won't bother !

Aw shucks, thank you @Hundmutter [shuffles feet]

I live in Wisconsin and pay 230.00 for hips elbows and sent to ofa with no sedation. Some of these prices are insane.