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.

What strain of vaccine did the vet use?

My vets is definitely a lot more expensive than it used to be, I've just had my 6.3kg 11 month old puppy spayed and it cost just under £300 for the spay/medication. It's a lot more than I paid last time I had a dog spayed.

My last dog needed to go to the emergency vets (this was last year) when I got the itemised bill I saw that they'd given her an extra dose of her her heart medication. They'd charged something stupid like £37 for the medication and "administration" the tablets actually cost pennies each and if you held this medication out to my dog she would just take it and eat it as if it were a treat. 😂😂 £37 to hand over a tablet 😱😂

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I'm struggling with the posts on here that seem to suggest that if a pet gets ill it's better to have them pts.

Obviously, there are cases where this is all you can do without prolonging the animal's pain but there are also cases where treatment will give the animal a good few more years, at least.

Pets are often like members of the family. It's understandable that their owners don't want them to die an untimely death.

Just wanted to say as well, I had a friend who would pay for her Guinea pigs to have operations if they got sick. They never survived them - it was not in their best interests. But guinea pigs aren't really robust enough to be operated on, whereas cats and dogs can be.

I think this is a story that most people can tell. They've either been through it themselves or they know somebody that has. I currently know a lady, who's got a ten year old pit bull cross, who's got no use in her body from the waist down. She pushes her around in a pushchair. (She was a rescue dog, and the lady has had her three years.) In the last 15 months she spent £11,000 on all sorts of kind of treatment and operations and procedures and tests and scans and X-rays and God knows what else. Was fine when she got her aged seven 3 years ago.

Many people said to her 'why in the name of God have you not had her put to sleep?' She says she loves her and wants to help her but also the vet said she doesn't need euthanising as she's not in pain! I mean, God bless her. She's all she's got. But also the dog cannot walk or do ANYthing but sit and bark. She literally sits on her couch and shits, and sits on a carpet and shits. The lady is cleaning up her shit IN THE HOUSE - sometimes 3 or 4 times a day.

She can't move about anywhere as she can't move off the spot she is in. But because she's a smiley, happy dog that enjoys the sunshine and being pushed around in the pushchair, for some reason, they're keeping her alive. I find it absolutely bizarre and disturbing, and at this point I would try to find a way to euthanize her myself.

Regarding expensive meds. We took our cat to the vet last year as she was choking and coughing a little bit on her hairballs, more than usual. It was £70 for the 'consultation.' (Five minutes.) And £40 this bottle of Hairball Remover for her to swallow. It was actually good, this hairball remover, and in about a week she wasn't coughing and puking up hairballs much anymore.

Long story short, I thought it would be handy to have spare bottle, and went on to the internet to see if I could find it cheaper. I was directed to eBay, and found this exact same product for 9 pounds.. Is there really any need for this vet to charge £40 for this stuff? Nearly FIVE TIMES MORE. No, I don't believe there was any need to charge that at all!

Examples like that are one of things that piss people off and make them angry with vets. Another example - a friend of mine got some eyedrops for her cat last year from a mainstream vet in a town (as she seemed to have watery eyes,) and they charged £90 for them. (And £80 for the 'consultation.. 5 minutes again!) Again, she did similar. Looked on the internet shortly after and found a petstore on ebay selling them for £12.

As I said, this is the kind of thing is pissing people off and making him really, really angry with vets. Even though I'm sure there are quite a number of vets do their best for the animals and only charge as much as they have to; it's absolutely delusional to say that some vets don't absolutely 100% rip customers off, because they do. Encouraging someone to spend five figures (£10K+) on an elderly pet that will very likely only last another year tops is scandalous. If the pet dies within 3 years of the treatment the vet recommends, they should be made to pay every penny back to the customer.

It's now becoming a massive luxury to own pets. We're not brassic, but we can't afford massive luxuries, and once our one cat is gone, even though we're only in our early 50s, we will never have any more pets ... Just can't afford the fees. Wouldn't pay them if we could.

I was directed to eBay, and found this exact same product for 9 pounds.. Is there really any need for this vet to charge £40 for this stuff? Nearly FIVE TIMES MORE. No, I don't believe there was any need to charge that at all!

Ebay? Why would anyone by any medication on Ebay?

Wouldn't pay them if we could.

I'm glad you won't be having any more pets if that's your attitude.

Ebay? Why would anyone by any medication on Ebay?

Why not it it's half the price or more?

Our vet recommends we get certain medication online - eBay, petdrugsonline or Boots all sell medication that's suitable and safe for pets but that doesn't cost the earth.

Why not it it's half the price or more?

Because I liked to know where the medication I was giving my cat came from and I don't necessarily trust Ebay. I wouldn't take something bought from some random on Ebay so I wouldn't give it to him.

We have three pets - one has supplements for urinary issues that I buy off Amazon, another gets allergic conjunctivitis and I get his medication from Boots.

The one with urinary issues also needs a special diet that I also buy online. Going to the vets and paying 3x the price for no reason is ludicrous.

It's from a registered shop that just happens to use eBay as a marketplace.

Ebay isn't just full of loads of dodgy businesses from China. It's no different from buying from another online store.

I would buy online and have done in the past but from reputable online pharmacies.

It would also depend on the medication. My cat was on clopidigrel and I was asked whether I wanted to give him an adjusted dose of human aspirin or order the clopidigrel through the vets. Because I was worried about getting the dose wrong I chose to pay the extra to get the correct one from the vet.

I would buy online and have done in the past but from reputable online pharmacies.

It was from a reputable pharmacy, they just happen to also sell via eBay, like lots of other shops do.

That's different but some people (obviously not you) but wouldn't care providing it was cheaper.

Meh, my dad went private for a replacement knee. £25k for a 1 night stay. Your bill is pretty small considering the amount of treatment your cat has had.

A friend's dog is on Metacam and she is saving £30 a month by just getting a printed prescription from the vet and ordering from an online pharmacy.
That's a huge saving and allows her to buy better quality dog food for his final few years.
When he reached life expectancy for his breed, she stopped insuring him and puts the money into a savings account instead, as she felt that she wouldn't want to put the old boy through any kind of surgery and if cancer was diagnosed she would likely not want to put him through treatment rather enjoy his final days.

The issue with mumsnet is there is no nuance. It isn’t always better to pts, but operations may go wrong anyway there is no guarantee. You need to do what is best for your own situation as long as you don’t cause unnecessary cruelty and pain/ take responsibility for the animal. What is right for one isn’t right for another and people shouldn’t be judged for choosing different but perfectly valid options.

There is also just the simple cost.

£5700 is pretty much a years worth of mortgage payments for us, or 5 months of my salary alone.

I love my pets. But paying that out is just untenable for me. My cats are now old enough that it's simply not worth insuring them.

I'm struggling with the posts on here that seem to suggest that if a pet gets ill it's better to have them pts.

I don't think anyone is saying that.

But I do think that treatment isn't always in the animals' best interests. Animals aren't people, they have no concept of mortality and no understanding that all this horrible, painful treatment now may make them feel better in six months time.

For many people, it's kinder to have the dog PTS while it's not suffering than to put the animal through treatment that will make it miserable and that may not work anyway.

I don't think people should be made to feel bad for choosing PTS.

@halfsiesonapotnoodle
Pointless comparison as yours was not with a specialist referral vets, requiring multiple tests and overnight hospitalisations!
Thanks for your truly helpful insight.
I wasn't comparing, I was sympathising.

I think in the real world for most people this is what it comes down to.

I seriously wonder about the ‘if you won’t pay 10k for an operation for an elderly dog you shouldn’t have one’ fraternity. If everyone followed their advice the dogs homes would be even more overflowing than at the moment.

I seriously wonder about the ‘if you won’t pay 10k for an operation for an elderly dog you shouldn’t have one’ fraternity. If everyone followed their advice the dogs homes would be even more overflowing than at the moment.

Realistically, dogs who would otherwise cost thousands to "fix" would probably be PTS by the rescues anyway.

I've seen lots of those "dog rescuer" shows where owners can't afford treatment, so they sign them over only for the dog to get PTS anyway.

Charities don't have an endless pot or money and dogs that require hugely expensive surgeries aren't the ones you see up for rehoming.

To add - in many cases it's arguably kinder to have a dog PTS than it is to put it through traumatic and expensive surgery that isn't even guaranteed to be successful.

My cat is recovering from a broken leg. Total invoices came to approximately £7500. We had insurance up to £15K per year. We've been reimbursed all but £100 excess.