AIBU VET BILL £5700

[bellewilson]

Long story apologies- We own a beautiful Exotic cat she is one year old. Perfectly healthy took for one year vaccinations and she had a bad reaction temp and loss of appetite and started getting wobbly on back legs after 6 days. Obviously back and forth to local vet but when became wobbly local vet suggested she was better off being assessed in local veterinary hospital. Take her there (have insurance with £4k limit was supposed to be their top of range superior plus policy) vet hospital assessed her and said we need to admit her for tests and suspected neurological FIP (cat coronavirus) sedated her and did X-ray and scans and biopsies of fluid found in chest and abdomen and blood tests. Only had her in for 24hours and bill was £3150 took a week to finally get results as positive for FIP carrier with low probability of infection which means with her ongoing symptoms they think she has neurological FIP. So as now 7 days later our cat has got more poorly not eating or drinking having to syringe feed/drink. Re-admitted to hospital and they agree to only do minimal care to keep her comfortable whilst antivirals drugs kick in (drip and appetite stimulation) and would cost max £280 a night admitted for 3 days and everyday checked with vet the bill and costs and how much left on insurance. Collected today to be told owe £5700 so £1700 over insurance. Was expecting £600 max but £1100 more than I was told on the phone several times is a joke. Ask for bill breakdown and it’s CF at its best and laughable they can actually get away with it… from working it out the initial £3150 they have charged approx £1400 just for sedation to do the X-ray £450 and ultrasound £680 plus extra for biopsy and tests plus nursing care and £450 consultation. I made it completely clear to them we couldn’t afford a large bill and they agreed all along to do a direct claim with our insurance company and get pre authorised payments from them through a portal. Turns out didn’t do that either so if insurance doesn’t pay we have to. What can we do. I have Googled and average cost for Anastasia for a cat is £300/400 in Uk so how can they charge 4x the average cost. AIBU? Any advice please so stressed.

Vet costs are insane. Our cat was recently in for 4nights as he'd eaten flip flop which caused a blockage. I got the itemised bill and they charge £86 for a bag of fluids!

My first thought when I saw your thread was “fuck me”, so I don’t think you’re being unreasonable. What you do about it I have no idea.

F hell! I cannot imagine the stress of that. Jeez 🙄 I’m in the wrong career…. Sorry not helpful.

Their charges are ridiculous, I agree.

Cue everyone saying how expensive vets are.. money grabbers etc. You only think this because you don't see your NHS bills!

It does sound a lot OP but your cat needed specialist care which I wouldn't be surprised is pricey. Equally I'd expect to be liable for the bill if insurance doesn't pay which you often don't find out until after treatment.

Hi,

Sorry to hear your cat is so poorly. I’m a vet, I’ll try and help a bit with your queries with this, but only the vet hospital will be able to fully explain everything, it’s impossible without your cats history, notes etc to know why various things have been done.

With a consultation fee of £450 it sounds like your vets have advised/sent you to a referral centre - these are places which will have specialist medics, neurologists, anaesthetists, nursing care etc, so the cost of an anaesthetic here isn’t necessarily comparable with the cost of an anaesthetic for, say, an X-ray at your local practice. £1400 does still sound more than I would expect for just an anaesthetic, but depending on how long your cat was under, what was done etc, it may be about right (often there is a cost for induction, and then a cost for ongoing anaesthesia time etc).

unfortunately, £4K limit is very low, as you may now be realising. If I’m referring a neuro or medicine case, I’d generally warn it will likely be £3-4K+ for cons/imaging and then treatment/surgery etc would be on top of that.

Pre authorisation from insurance companies can take time to come through, which often is difficult in cases which need treatment urgently. Even in cases that they have pre authorised there are sometimes things an insurance company will decline to pay (based on their small print etc) and the responsibility for the bill always lies with the owner. Unfortunately we have had to stop doing direct claims as if insurance companies decline to pay, we end up having to chase owners who are reluctant to then pay, often to the point of having to involved debt collectors - which then impacts our fees for our clients who do pay up.

having said all that, they should have been keeping you updated with costs, generally with an update each day. If they haven’t, query that with them and it’s put you in difficulty now and ask about any chance of payment plans etc.

how’s your cat doing now? FIP can be a difficult condition to treat, with often a guarded prognosis unfortunately.

They do have to charge otherwise they wouldn't be able to pay the vets, the nurses, buy the machines, rent the building etc etc. Different practices charge different fees as its a private business.

However you do need to discuss what is happening with regard to the insurance company. Ask to speak to the practice manager to find out whether they have actually submitted the claim properly and why didn't they tell you it was over your limit at the time.

I hope your cat recovers soon

That does seem excessive, coming from someone who has had multiple vet visits with a sick elderly cat recently, and I'm with the more expensive vet in my region too. Their handling and communication sounds poor. My vet called me every time they wanted to do something different and made it clear on costs/whether it would be covered by insurance before agreeing.

Wow....For context £7600 gets you home call out, hospital admission, bloods, abdominal surgery, 5 days bells and whistles hospital stay and two post hospital check ups for one moderate size horse. £5700 for a cat seems insane. I'm thinking my fee wasn't that bad given they also happily risked life and limb to even treat him because he tried to kill anyone in striking distance while he was losing his mind with tummy ache.....

I just took my little cat to the vet. She has a heart condition which has caused fluid on her lungs. Co saltation plus teeny bottle of diuretic - £103…
Not in your league, but Jesus Christ!

There's no animal that id pay 5700 quid for (or even 500 quid tbh)!!

But, if you think the charges are unfair, is there any sort of ombudsman you can raise it with? If not, maybe they will let you do a payment plan at the vets?

Your insurance is the problem - not the vets. Look for a better insurer.

It’s daylight robbery and absolutely disgusting and shameful.

Not the vets fault as such, but greedy partners. I wonder if practices encourage their vets to push treatments, my dog had an ear infection and the wet behind the ears vet initially wanted to carry out an mri £1,000. I laughed in his face. Second opinion and £80 later and steroids sorted the infection.

Did you ask for an estimate?
Do you have it in writing? Did the practice know you had a £4K limit? In my experience they’ll throw on tests you don’t necessarily need to quickly hit the limit and get the maximum pay out.

The most you can do it complain, it may buy some time to get the money together, but ultimately I think you’ll be stuck with the bill.
Do they have payment plans?

We're going through this right now in that our pet needs a very pricey treatment that we absolutely cannot afford and that the insurance will only cover about 10% of it. I also don't know what to do. So no advice but lots of solidarity!

I hate vet bashing threads! Medical care costs money and we are in a period of high inflation. Their overheads are massive. Insurance with a £4000 limit isn’t really that much. We have 3 times that for ours.

@bellewilson what a stressful time for you worrying about your cat and also the bill. I have no idea what you can do other than perhaps complain that you weren’t kept fully informed of/agreed to charges.

my rescue cat had to get a tooth out and it was just under £1k (but hey, they clipped his nails whilst he was anaesthetised) - I got a filling (amalgam) the same day for £16 and was telling my dentist who said “I’m in the wrong job” - which is ironic coming from a dentist lol. And dental not covered by my insurance.

I was considering rescuing a dog but am completely put off by the thought of what I might need to pay if it got sick.

Hope you can get something sorted.

£4k limit is very low for pet insurance I'm afraid. Who are you with that considers that top of the range ?

Our old Labrador passed the £6k limit we had on her insurance about 6/7 years ago with a couple of ear ops and related treatments. Limit increased to £8k after that.

It’s not vet bashing.

It’s greed. Pure and simple. I know a vet and she’s left the practice due to greedy partners, rising charges, tearful owners.

The name of your policy sounds like it’s an Animal Friends policy and if it is, I’m sorry to tell you that you’d be extremely lucky to get the full £4K out of them if the items are particularly expensive. They have a list of caps that they don’t publish (eg will cap items at say £25 for interpretation of bloods, £200 for a consultation).

Specialist vet care is expensive. You are paying for the expertise and the Specialist equipment.

I hope your cat is doing well now.

Helpful post from @cat234 there @bellewilson and I agree you should have had updates to agree costs, unless there was a case for emergency decision and you were not available or it was a time critical decision. Either way, this should have been explained afterwards! So sorry you're going through this, but think you should ask for a full explanation.

It is vet bashing. Moaning about the costs.

My father is a vet and he most certainly is not rolling in it. The average vet salary is surprisingly low around £47k. I hate it when people complain about vet fees.

If my father had a pound for every time they got a complaint about fees he would be rolling in it! People have the attitude where they think vets should be cheap because it’s helping animals and it’s some sort of charity! They are businesses at the end of the day people struggle to grasp that concept.

They should have advised you the cost would be over the maximum allowed on your policy. I would not be able to afford to spend this much on my cat frankly. I would raise a complaint.

Just had a nightmare with my supposedly insured 11 yo dog they refuse to pay for an oral tumour I've had to cancel the policy. Paid £650 for mass removal and awaiting histology. If it comes back cancer she will be on best supportive care. I cannot pay anymore. I've since re-examined the policies for my cats and other dog and you'd be shocked at all the exclusions just from a minor vet consultation.. one-offs. Insurers are c

My cat was in last week for an infection. Overnight stay, some fluids, antibiotics and then a course to finish at home. That cost
us £1500! I thought that was expensive 😳