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Price for a canine skull MRI

I am just curious about a comment made in an earlier post about the cost of a diagnostic test. Specifically the cost for a skull MRI costing $3,000.00.

I always thought that the costs for any diagnostic test tended to track with the cost of that same test for humans. I did not think the cost for a skull MRI of a human was anywhere near that amount, so I am a little shocked that the cost for a dog would be so substantially higher!

If anyone has actually had to have their dog undergo a skull MRI, I would be curious to know what the actual cost was they paid, when they had the test done, and what part of the country the test was done in.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Re: Price for a canine skull MRI

Funny you should ask this cause the other day before the Vestibular Disease hit my girl the holistic vet who I take her to for adjustments said her rear was weak (this was just hours before she got bad with the verigo) and that it could be a brain tumor but the only way to diagnose that was to do a MRI and she did mention the 3k as the cost

Re: Price for a canine skull MRI

A diagnostic MRI of the skull for a dog opposed to a human might be the cost of I.V. sedation or anesthesia. Then in human medicine the MRI is done at a fee but there is also a fee for the radiologist to read those films, you may not be including that cost in a human MRI. You're probably also thinking of a part of the spine, a knee or shoulder which are smaller areas that take less time.

Then there is the difference of contrast versus no contrast. For the skull-brain, they might want contrast used which is an additional cost also.

I do think the possible added cost is the I.V. sedation which a human doesn't typically need. A dog can't be told to lie completely still and not move such as a human can. Then someone is monitoring the dog's vitals, their respiration and heart rate . There may be an anesthesiologist fee for that. I'm not sure but it sounds likely.

So sedation, the person that observes the dog during it and possible contrast may be the extra costs not involved with a human possibly.