free neuturing?

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

We are eligable for free neuturing so we booked our dog in for this morning.

At no point was cost mentioned. The person on the phone said yes it was free just drop him in this am and they would phone when he was ready to get picked up.

Go to pick him up and we are asked for £39.99. This then gets refunded by the dogs trust.

And an extra £10 for extra pain relief. DP didnt have his wallet so we had to come home. Decide to phone the dogs trust to check.

They then tell us that the extra pain relief is included in the £39.99 and that yes they will refund it aslong as we fill in a form and get the vet to fax it.

We are really really skint. And we only have the money which is to pay the monthly bills in two weeks. So we are going to have to use that and hope it gets refunded in time. If we had known about this we would have waited until we could afford it.

AIBU to think the vet has acted really underhanded here by not outlining it all and then trying to get another £10 out of us?

Yeah that's right. Due to my dogs age and previous medical history his insurance is over £80 a month now :( It's still much better than leaving him uninsured and there isn't another company who will take him at all now so there isn't a choice. Was a bit of a shock to the system when I saw the price increase though!

Well we have paid that now on the advice from the dogs trust that they will refund that money to my card. DP watched them fax the form through to make sure.

The worst part now isnt the money. Its that they didnt tell us straight away that his heart had stopped. All they were worried about was getting paid.

I know its a business, but surely people become vets because they care about animals?

Thanks everyone. Hes lying down now looking very sorry for himself and we have the info sheet for what all we have to do, and the extra pain relief. So hopefully he will be ok!

It's up to a vet if they will bill insurers direct. DKittens are insured with morethan but my vet requires payment at time of treatment. Not a problem as they are very good.

Plenty of vets also price painkillers separately to the OP, that does not make them charlatans. £8-10 is perfectly average.

So what is the alternative then impty? The Ops husband lost his job so their financial position has changed. Do you suggest that they now just get rid of the dog, perhaps sticking him in a bursting-at-the-seams-already dog shelter where he will probably be put to 'sleep'? What a sensible animal loving idea! Or maybe the OP and her family do the best in the current situation and use the services that are on offer for times like these.

Dogs are for life are they not?

The only reason we did it now was because the baby is due in 3 weeks and we wanted him recovered before that. If we could have waited until after that then yes we wouldnt have been so concerned about the money because we would probably have had enough to cover it.

DP had a 3 year contract. We thought that was stable. Otherwise we wouldnt have had a baby. He lost his job and we are stretched to the limits.

We will get through this as a family. That includes our dog.

How

Bah. How old is the dog?

Mumsgoto I wouldn't take an animal to have an operation if I hadn't the funds to cover the worst case scenario. The alternative would be to wait until you have the money to pay for the operation and/ or any complications yourself.

I hope that the Ops financial situation changes soon, but why neuter now when there is no spare money other than you are getting it done for free?

Unfortunately things do and can go wrong and Vets are expensive.

There are many animal charities which do not put animals to sleep. Also there are great Vets such as The Pet Vaccination Clinic who provide great affordable vet care all year round.

Hes 3. He really should have already been done but DP was being all macho about it until I put my foot down.

I never suggested that any one 'gets rid of the dog'! Just that you don't go and take it for an operation if you don't have the funds to cover any problems.

Any way I do hope he recovers well xx

FWIW we intend to make a donation to the Dogs Trust when we are in a better position.

We are not the type who are out to get all we can for nothing.

they said "We haven't charged you for resusitating the dog"

so where did the £39.99 --> £87 happen.
What's the extra £47 for??

Surely if the dog has complications, the vets are liable to treat him.They assessed him as fit for surgery.

And as for the painkillers- what kind of vet would class post-op painkillers as an optional extra? .

Have you asked them for a complete run through of the bill ? Itemised?
Because if the surgery was £39.99 and the resus was 'not charged' then £47 for painkillers

The surgery was (inc vat) 58.

The "optional" painkillers were 10.01.

The buster collar (which they said was free) was 7.30

And I assume its the anaesthetic that was 11.88.

It still says "amount outstanding" for the remainder. Do we have to pay that? I havent a bloody clue.

Oh and the vet also got the dogs weight wrong by three kilos.

So had my DP not insisted she double check we would be giving him the wrong dose of painkillers tomorrow.

Did they say what caused the complictions during surgery?

If there is anyone on here who knows about these things, would the anasthetic not be calculated using the dogs weight?

I imagine you would have to pay the outstanding amount, I think you should contact TDT.

Thats what DP thinks. He thinks his heart stopped because they used the wrong amount. It was only after that he noticed she was talking about the wrong weight.

We are going to phone TDT on monday again. But DP thinks we dont have to pay anymore.

If we have to pay it we will pay it. But its just really weird. Something free turning out to not be free at all.

If the Dogs Trust are in a contract with this vets to provide neutering, then they should definately know. They've got more clout behind them than an individual dog owner.

Also WRT to the weight- yes the anaethestic dose would be worked out in relation to weight, so it would be worth finding out if the "We didn't charge you to resus your dog" was due to the doseage.

But you may find it difficult to get information.

BTW- OP there's a similar thread on Doghouse - someone had their female dog spayed and the charges were piled on (and she wasn't happy with the after result- dog left bloodied, scar untidy, post op infections)

Might give you some ammo?

I will go read that thread now. I started to read it earlier but got busy.

DP is pretty raging. The dog is his life. And to think they had to resus him and didnt think it important enough to tell us is just crazy.

OP - I use a vet (for my cats) who SEEMS expensive when you directly compare them to other practices, but they are kind and actually love the animals. I nearly got my cat 'done' at a vet that seemed cheaper - but when I spoke to them on the phone they were too 'businesslike' for my liking and on reading their t's and c's there were lots of hidden charges.

In future shop around and listen to your gut instinct. Teling you it was 'free', charging you and not telling you asap about your dogs heart stopping is not the sign of a caring practice.

I hope he's better soon.

Thanks.

We definately wont be going back to that one.

DP said they were very false when they brought the dog out. All happy and smiles like they really cared but he said it felt forced. And when the dog went straight to DP and sat right at his feet resting his head on DPs leg a male member of staff commented "oh he did that to me earlier." Like the dog couldnt tell who his master is.

I know thats neither here nor there, but anyone who meets the dog can see how much he loves DP. Hes a one person dog.

The whole thing just felt really weird.

The induction would be based on the dogs weight, but is given to effect. So its unlikely to factor, maintenance again is to effect. The only worrying thing is the premed which is calculated using the dogs weight but vets tend to use the lower end of the range. So depending size of dog will depend if it was overdosed or not i.e extra 3kg on a 30kg dog probably still in the dose range but a 5kg dog May have problems.

Things are commonly priced individually but randomly i.e. Pain meds may be half included in the cost of operation but extra doses may not be. Some vets itemise gloves that are essential for the op but then don't itemise take home meds.

Insurance companies offering to pay your vet direct do so because is not their money they are keeping hold of. Its the vet who has to sit and wait months for payment because the insurance company have said to pay direct.

I would call the vets ask them to explain the additional costs and why you weren't rang regarding the resuss.

Vets commonly use debt collectors so the Bill needs to be settled somehow i.e. Them writing it off or someone paying and not left.

I thought the dogs trust did a voucher scheme I hope you get your refund quickly , Mine came without his bits from dogs trust so i didn't have to go through it,

They are unreasonable not to be clear from the start about the cost and what you have to pay when.
£40 is only just over the cost of a 10 minute vet consultation, and in no way covers the time and materials involved. A dog castration would normally be in excess of £100 and that is already a reduced fee for a routine procedure where many people will shop around on price. A general anaesthetic and non-routine 10-15min surgery could easily cost £200-300. Many vets have refused to participate in this scheme because the amount they can claim is just derisory. So they are not unreasonable to pass any additional costs on to you, though you should have been made aware of this possibility in the first place.
What are you going to do when the dog is ill or injured if you can't afford the entirely forseeable cost of neutering?