Complain to the vet

[Cheripie64]

Poppy was just not right, hesitant on walks, didnt really want to move, knew she was not right. Went to vet on friday, who checked her over, no problem with legs or back, vet thinks maybe a stomach problem. Gave her anti inflammatory injection and pain killer injection. £118.00 bring back on monday after monitering. A bit brighter at the weekend, but not eating her dinner. Back to vets today. Poppy nervous, does a wee on the floor. They keep a sample, say to me, blood test £98.00 they take that, wait for 20 mins for result. Blood test clear, oh should they do a urine test as they have it there, £18.00
Eureka! Water infection. But really vet should have done urine test first as much cheaper and far less painful for Poppy. AIBU to complain?

Was the urine sample taken from the floor? I'm a "people" nurse rather than a vet nurse but that still sounds many shades of wrong

Are you in London or SE, as £118 for a consult and (probably) rimadyl seems somewhat pricey?

I would say that YABU about a blood test causing unnecessary suffering - most pets don't take well to it if sampling from the jugular (my old country vet used to do it this way), but if it was peripheral sampling it's not likely to inflict suffering if done by experienced hands.

Pinkponies a small animal caesar out of hours can cost upwards of £2k in some cases, it's amazing how heavily discounted farm vet prices can be.

Except of course anti inflammatories and some antibiotics are contra indicated in liver or kidney disease, and so if there had been an underlying disorder doing this could have put your pets life at risk.

So shouldn't the blood test have been done on the Friday rather than the Monday?

There can be huge variation in vets costs. We don't have pet insurance because we never needed it with our previous vets as they were very affordable. Unfortunately when we moved we found the new vets were about twice the cost. Luckily so far it's been painful but affordable just about - and no point getting insurance now as our cats are 14 and 16 and checking out the costs suggests that with the higher excess, plus quite often having to pay a percentage of the remainder and pre-existing conditions not being covered we wouldn't save anything.

My dog had very similar symptoms a week before Xmas, our vet never mentioned a urine sample at any point, blood was taken and tested which came back clear then a scan was done which showed an abnormal mass in her abdomen, we had to have her put to sleep on the 28th December.
Please trust your vet to know the procedure for ruling things out, I’m sure they do it in a standard order and just be happy your dog will be healthy again.
If you don’t trust your vet find another one.

Maybe next time OP ask what the vet is doing at the time and if it’s necessary if you don’t agree or want clarification.

Not a vet, but I imagine it’s good for them to check kidney function which can differentiate between a simple water infection and one that has spread from bladder to kidneys and may be causing damage.

Your fees in general sound very high, but I think the vet hasn’t done anything wrong, and you should focus on the fact that your lovely dog is getting better.

Peter i would say that a large proportion of the urine samples I test are syringed or scooped up off the floor. It's not ideal as it does preclude certain tests, but given that we can't explain to the dog/cat/rabbit that they need to pee into the sterile pot it's better than nothing if the owner is struggling to collect a sample directly from the animal and I will only catheterise as a last resort.

Vets can be bloody infuriating - a lot of the time the cost hovers around the excess price of the insurance premium ! So no point in claiming. My vet is pretty good at explaining his diagnosis strategy and an estimate of costs for various treatment options. I always assume I'm paying £100 on any non routine visits and just ask for the gold standard - that way the insurance company picks up the bill ! Las time was £490 for what turned out to be quiet possibly trapped wind (although twisted gut was suspected)

Surely unless they were 90% sure they were dealing with a simple urinary infection it makes sense to run bloods either first Od alongside the urine test? As pp said a blood test can diagnose/go toward diagnosis of a much greater range of issues, and even if the urine test found the issue there may be more going on which bloods would highlight.

And if they had only done the urine test and then decided they needed bloods, it would have meant bringing her in for another consult and blood test - so more charges, and more delays.

Also to add that urine tests aren't always non-invasive (obviously in your case the vet was able to get a sample from the floor). Some pets can be an absolute nightmare to get a sample from, and need a needle into the bladder. (Eldest Dcat refused to pee within 500 yards of house or vet, and needed 3+ cystos).

They're rip off merchants. I got my 18 month old dressed and it cost me £240.
Couple of weeks later she got a nip on the side by another dog and needed 4 stitches.
£380.
How they can justify that I have not a clue.
Probably because they expect they can charge more for unforseen incidents because most of them are covered by insurance, whereas neutering is not covered, so they charge less.
Not so good for those that choose not to insure and have to dip into the dogs 'emergency' fund.

I think OP forgot to put in her first post that the £118 included a flea treatment. Doesn’t sound exorbitant to me.

Anyway, YABU. I’m sure the vet has good reasons for proceeding the way he/she did.

My dog has had many tests which have come back negative. I find it bizarre that because the blood test was negative you consider it to have been unnecessary. There is a good reason why vets (and human doctors) order blood tests early on as it gives them a good picture on the health and how the major organs are functioning.

I have lost count on the number of times my dog has peeded on the vets floor. It does not indicate a urine infection. If it did most of the dogs going to the vets would have it.

You always have the option of saying I don't want that specific treatment so if you thought that the blood test at the time was unnecessary why didn't you refuse it? You didn't because you couldn't have known it would have come back clear and if it hadn't you would have been glad. Honestly when my dogs blood tests showed nothing last time I was pleased rather than thinking I had wasted money and they shouldn't have been done.

Vet fees are private medicine. We don't have NHS for pets which is why I think people tend to think of them being high. If you ever saw what things cost for private human medicine you would be pleased about the relatively low cost of vertinary care.

I see what you're saying - it's not about the fact the blood test was negative, it's that the order the tests were done it was not designed to minimise distress for your dog or cost to you. The vet ought to put the least invasive and the least costly tests first as a best practice for diagnosis.

I'm not sure that's true though. The urine test might normally be quite difficult because of the difficulty of getting a dog peeing somewhere sterile on command? So it may not be a go-to test in most circumstances and the vet didn't think about the fact they already had a sample from your dog. Also, from a cost perspective, the cheaper test wouldn't make most sense to run first if it's likelihood of picking up the issue was far less than the difference in price (i.e. the urine test is a fifth the price of the blood test, but if it's only a tenth as likely to pick up the problem more people would be wasting their money on it and overall the blood test would be better done first.)

pinkponies - where are you based? We had the vet out to one of our sheep on a Sat night/Sun morning (4am) to help deliver a lamb - cost us 184 pounds! Still cheaper than my dogs vet bills tho!

OP you sound medically qualified which is fantastic news as next time you can perform the right tests in the right order and save yourself a lot of money.

Seeing as 6 months worth of flea treatment is £60+, the first charge is fine. As for the order of tests, you either defer to the vet’s judgement or get a new vet. Or go train in vet science yourself. You’d clearly pass with flying colours as you are already so knowledgable.

Vets are dealing with not being able to ask an animal what the issue is. Yes they are expensive, but the level of training is ludicrous and very expensive. I’d rather pay that than half price for half qualified.

Those bills don’t sound bad. Take a rabbit for emergency dental treatment and a couple of nights stay and then start talking about expensive.

if that is the way you deal with your clients, I bet your practice has plenty of complaints

I’m on the internet offering free advice to strangers in my own time. Weirdly enough i’m Not that bothered whether you think i’m rude or not - you aren’t my client, and you’re clearly determined that you know better than your Vet despite their years of professional training and comments from at least two other vets on this thread supporting their actions. That determination to complain against all advice is wilful ignorance. You’ll also know if you’ve seen my comments on previous threads that I don’t automatically defend other vets if I think there’s an issue. But I suspect that it really doesn’t matter what I say - you obviously know best

We are a single income family, but I have never ever grudged a single penny spent at the Vets.
Insurance and occasional costs like this should have been factored in before you got your pet.
Complain if you want, but do so in the knowledge that they will smile, nod and quite rightly roll their eyes the minute you leave.

It's actually quite a breath of fresh air to be anonymous and be able to say what you think. I very much doubt Veterinari speaks to her clients quite so plainly, usually we have to just take the abuse that so often comes our way.

I don't think owners that tear the profession down time and time again, usually because they don't want to pay their bills, have any concept of how massively demoralising it is. But keep it up, OP. You're just one of the many.

Oh, YABU.

My vet charged me $160 for something that sort of ‘fixed itself’ the following day. I’m not complaining. It was my choice to take my dog in, and he gave it best-practice treatment for what he thought the condition was.

Of all the rip-off things in life, vet care isn’t one of them.

I think YABU and I wouldn't complain. However as you clearly don't seem to like or respect your vet for doing the best for your dog, I'd find another vet you do like.

Let's compare private medicine and vet care. I have been a qualified vet for 20 years I have additional qualifications that took me considerable till and effort to gain. I see a doctor regularly under my private health care for review of my condition and prescription of repeat meds. He has been qualified for a similar time and has similar qualifications.

My follow up consult cost £23
His follow up consult cost £120

In general people have absolutely no idea of what their health care costs to do a fair comparison.

Well @earthmover there is an easy fix for that... insure your dog!

If you aren’t going to insure, you shouldn’t own.