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.

I'm glad you don't have any pets. Why wouldn't someone who loves their animals want the best for them. My cat broke his jaw and it cost thousands to repair but it was worth every penny and hardly something I could put him to sleep for.

I'm grateful for the improvements in diagnostics and treatment, the fact my vet could scan his heart meant I had an extra 6 good months with him as he could be treated.

Yes, I fed him the best food I could afford, why wouldn't I (not judging anyone who feeds Felix BTW!)?

He had his own bed (not clothing though, I would have lost a limb!), what's the problem with that?

I agree, these people are indulging themselves at the expense of the animal and to the benefit of the pet industry, they go into a sort of trance where the animal is fetishized and treated like a deity.

Many animals live perfectly happy lives if they are deaf or blind and arthritis is treatable with pain meds so how is that 'indulging the pet industry'?

Have you got anything in writing re going direct claim to insurance, max limit etc