Six hundred pound estimate after a five minute exam, how do you ask for a second opinion without burning the clinic

Five minutes is short but it is not always a red flag, because an experienced vet can narrow a stiff back end a long way from watching a dog walk across a room. Ask her what she saw in those five minutes. If the answer is specific you will feel very differently about the estimate, and if it is vague you have your reason to go elsewhere.

The thing I did wrong in your exact situation was going quiet, feeling uneasy, and then just not booking anything for two months. That was not a second opinion, that was a delay, and it made the eventual bill larger and the dog more uncomfortable in the meantime. If money is the constraint, say the number you can manage out loud, because clinics deal with that conversation daily and it changes what gets suggested.

Ask one question and it usually reframes the whole conversation: what would change in your plan depending on the result of each of these tests. A good vet will answer that immediately and will often tell you which items can wait and which cannot, and a rushed estimate frequently gets shorter once someone says it out loud. Asking that is not rude and nobody in a clinic reads it as a challenge. Requesting an itemised estimate in writing is also completely routine.

Second opinions are ordinary and clinics deal with them constantly, and nobody I have asked has taken it personally. You are entitled to a copy of the records and the notes, request them politely and in writing, and take them to whoever you see next so the tests are not repeated. I did this for a chronic skin thing and the first clinic sent the file over the same afternoon without a word about it.

Cost order is worth asking about too. In my experience bloods and a good clinical exam often come first because they are cheaper and can rule things in or out before anyone books imaging, and asking whether the plan can be staged rather than done all at once is a normal request. Obviously the vet in the room knows things we do not, so ask rather than assume, but staged plans exist and are offered more often to people who ask.