Price to spay gyp

I was quoted a price of about $300 to spay my 2 yo pointer gyp. There’s $90 worth of blood tests they say are highly recommended, but optional. Why would I need these blood tests? It’s been 9 years since I had a dog spayed, so I don’t have anything to compare.

The test is a liver function test. I think it's mostly to make sure the dogs liver can handle the anesthesia. My mom lost a Schnauzer pup by not doing the test. I always go ahead and fork it out if I can.

Here's a low cost clinic in Boerne

http://hcaltx.org/spayneuter-clinic/services-fees/

says their spay package includes:
Spay Surgery
Rabies Vaccination
DHPP or DHLPP Vaccination (dogs)
FVRCP or Combo Vaccination (cats)
Microchip
Pain injection

all for $135

That’s a good deal. High volume place?

I won’t qualify for the reduced rate

Took the gyp in to get blood work done early for discount. I noticed she was swelled yesterday. Vet said bring her back 2-3 weeks after cycle is over. Her last cycle was middle of February.

You get what you pay for with those low cost clinics

Also - the blood work is done to make sure there are no conditions that would contradict surgery (infection, kidney/liver issues, etc). When I was in college my parents had a weimaraner that they never did blood work on. No indications anything was wrong with her. Took her in to get her teeth cleaned when she was 6 and my parents decided to do blood work. Middle stages of renal failure. Even with a kidney diet was too late - she lived about 4-5 more months. If it was caught early on could have been managed and probably prolonged her life quite a bit. That's a big pro of semi-frequent blood work - to catch things before they get bad and can be controlled/fixed/ or managed.

We do full blood work on our labs every 6 months. We have been testing one of them every month for the past 6 months because his SDMA level was higher than we were comfortable with (kidney function...still within the "normal" range, but high). Wife is also in the vet business...so it costs me very little. I'd probably still do it even if it didn't.

It wouldn’t make any difference on my dogs getting blood work done. If I have to feed a dog pills to keep it alive it’s time to get a new pup.

I think the last pup I had spayed was $125.

I paid $150 last year for a Pointer to be spayed.