to think this vet is totally unreasonable

[LisaD1]

Last night I got home to find my 20 month old cat was very wobbly on her back legs and sitting listless and dribbling, we had a vets appt for today as she had been losing weight. Anyway, called the vet at 6.40pm (they close at 7pm) nobody picked up phone, so rang branch a little further away, they wouldn't see us as said own branch open so try them again, kept ringing until 6.55 and still no reply, called other one back and they said they still wouldn't see us and to wait until my appt today, I tried and failed to explain that my cat was imo very sick and in need of urgent medical assistance, she told me to call out of hours so I did, they charged me £149 just to see my cat!

Sadly, after blood tests and a scan we were told she was in end stage renal and heart failure, had most likely had both conditions since birth (we had rescued her at a very young age and hand weaned her), and we were advised the kindest thing to do was let her go so she was pts last night.

As I left they handed me a bill for £645, that does not include having her cremated.

AIBU to think these charges are extortionate? I know vets are expensive but £149 just to look at her?

I may well be BU, feeling very emotional and angry today.

I'm sorry that the outcome wasn't better, my cat went through this last year and ended up with a series of blood tests, urine tests, an operation and medication for the rest of her life.
Vets' charges are very high and even more so out of hours, they display the charges and most good vets will tell you exactly what you will face as charges if you ask.
You didn't have insurance? It was the only way I could meet the payments.

I dont think you're being unreasonable to be shocked at the prices. I know i am after reading your post! I'm sorry for you loss though. Its never a nice thing when a pet dies, they're like part of the family. But i think you did the right thing by calling the out of hours. Unfortunately, theres always the shock of the bill. Could you not ask the vets to check again?

Vets sometimes seem to lack compassion and only want money, but I'm sure that's not true of them all.

Giving you the bill then was harsh. Could you return and question it? If they won't relent you could ask to pay I installments

Sorry to hear you have lost your pet in such a horrible way

Yup, disgusting, but that's the cost.
But nobody should have an animal without either being able to afford to pay vet bills easily or have pet insurance.

My cat has just turned a year and a couple of weeks after getting him (also a rescue) he broke his leg and I ended up with a vet bill for £1100. I am paying off in installments. I'm really pissed off and depressed about it but I'm the fool who didn't get insurance the moment the cat set foot in my house.

Needless to say he is insured now.

Sorry about your cat.

Vets do seem to have some prohibitive costs, ok I know it was only a gerbil, but it seemed to have had a stroke, so I called the out of hours vet and was redirected to a practice a couple of miles away. The gerbil needed putting down. £80 just to be seen.

People knock insurance, but I'd rather that with bigger animals than face an horrendous bill.

So sorry to hear about your cat.
The charges do seem excessive though. My large (8.5 stone) dog has just had blood tests, scans & a weekend in an out of hours vet surgery and the bill was the same. I would have expected it to be less for a cat.

I am sorry about the loss of your cat.

No, YANBU, it is extortionate, IMO. I am not sure why anyone would think £500 is reasonable for a scan and some blood tests? A scan on a dog's abdomen costs around £50-£70 and that is at my (extortionate!) vets, bloods would be a couple of hundred max I think. So you'd assume they are charging extra for the consultation fee out of hours and then extra again on top of the normal cost for services.

I think a lot of this is to do with the fact that a lot of vets contract out their out of hours business to a provider these days. My previous vets did not do this (and rightly so IMO, if my pet is so sick it needs to see an out of hours vet, I want to see one I know and trust preferably) and their charges were very reasonable. Obviously a vet was on call and only came in if needed.

My other bugbear is vets asking if you have insurance. The treatment an animal needs is the same regardless, surely?!

No, she wasn't insured but we always have savings for the animals (I have horses too so used to vets bills), I guess I'm just angry, mainly at losing such a young and beautiful cat but also how the vet dealt with things, the not answering the phone during hours left me with no choice but to go to OOH, they didn't even say sorry to hear the news when I called to cancel today's appt, just seems like they only care about the cash, no empathy.

I'm used to my horse vet who ALWAYS treats with empathy and compassion, we lost our pony last year and my vet was amazing, guess I'm used to that level of care.

I'm sorry to hear about your cat, it must have been a terrible shock made worse by her being so young :(

I think the handling of the case by the practice (not answering the phone, the other brand not heeding your concerns or taking responsibility for arranging an appointment) was not good enough. I am a vet and can categorically say that would result in serious trouble for the staff concerned if it happened where I work. Definitely worth talking to them about this.

The fees are a different matter. Unfortunately many people are oblivious to the cost of healthcare. We have access to fabulous imaging and diagnostics these days, but these things are very costly. Because we're so fortunate here to have free health care for people, the general public have no clue about the cost of the procedures or drugs used. People think 'vets are expensive' but they'd say the same about doctors if they knew how much even basic things cost.

I can understand how bereft and shocked you must be feeling right now, and I think the handling of this case by your own practice was rubbish. But the costs seem to me to be reasonable.

Insurance pays the cost of treatment, bit like private medical for animals. You might pay a small portion, eg my policy says I pay the first £80 of any course of treatment for my cat. But faced with a possible bill that could run into thousands, I'd rather the £80 then, say the cost of a life time of drugs if she were diabetic.

I'm sorry your cat had to be put to sleep, I hope you're ok?

Is the bill itemized? It does seem excessive. A couple of years ago we had to take our dog to the vet as he'd eaten half a box of after eight mints and a full box of liquour (sp?) chocolates. It was Christmas Day so you can guess the out of hours fees were huge! He had blood tests, his stomach pumped, lots of iv drips and was in for three days. He was fine in the end, but the bill was about £500, so your bill does seem rather large.

Have you got a phone bill/records showing you tried to call your regular vet within practice hours? I don't know if that may help in trying to get them to take off the OOH charges?

Definitely scrutinize an itemized bill though, I took 2 cats to be speyed a few months ago and nearly had a heart attack when I got the bill, but looking at it they had apparently speyed one of the cats twice

Could you ask your horse vet to recommend a small animal vet for future pets? Given that you encountered an unhelpful attitude at two different branches it does sound like an endemic issue with this practice.

Thank you for your replies, I am going to make a complaint to their head office, not today though, really not up to it.

I had called my horse vet last night to see if he could look at my cat but sadly he did his small animal training many moons ago and couldn't help, he has however already called this morning to see how things are and he has also emailed me details of another horse vet who still has a small animal practice, I will be moving the hamster over to them.

We will not be getting any more pets for the forseeable future, we lost a 1 year old cat to the road a couple of christmases ago, we have had our fair share of pet loss and not signing up for any more, at least not for some time to come.