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.

Exactly this,

Oh, come on. Those of us who have despairing vet friends know that big American hedge-fund-type companies are buying up UK veterinary practices and squeezing pet owners for every penny they can. Nestle and other big companies are in on the act.

https://www.nestle.com/media/news/nestle-purina-petcare-independent-vetcare-group-international-partnership

You sought advice knowing the potential of the raisins , no vet knows how a dog will react so will offer this every single time they get this phone call .
It would be negligent not to , the drug used to make the dog vomit is very expensive , plus the time and care involved .
You chose to follow the advice given , had you not and the dog was poisoned your bill would have been considerably larger and you may have not had a dog at the end of it , £150.00 is very reasonable for this.

They probably gave your cat unnecessary tests because insurance pays. They may as well give the animals the whole works, test for everything under the sun. If you had have been uninsured they would only have conducted the necessary tests.

Yup, thinks its about $6k for a standard birth?

As stated above, a lot of it is meds (separate debate on those costs of course). One guy in America was bitten by a rattlesnake and posted his invoice online - $150k for a week in hospital. Half of which was drugs.

Insurance or not you the owner decides which tests to do.

I am a farmer. I vet came to my house, delivered 2 lambs, revived them (they were stuck a long time), gave them 2 injections each and heart massage. Got them latched on, came back that evening to check back, called again the next morning and have the ewe a dose of hormones to help her milk Total cost £46. Vets are truly amazing people. Small animal care has become a huge commercial business with money, not animal care at it's heart. Insurance has, unfortunately been the driver of these costs.

Be grateful for the NHS. Good modern medical (and veterinary) care costs a lot. I'm old and hard of heart, and faced with a large bill for an elderly animal, my default would be to PTS. And I have an ageing but much loved dog who has had congenital musculo-skeletal issues since she was nine months old. Her middle name is Vet Bill. But now she's nearly 10, and technically geriatric in veterinary terms, if a serious new condition appeared, I would probably cut short the agony. The grief is going to be the same, whether sooner or later.

Wowzer!!!!

I hope you don’t end up having to pay that!

Last week my gerbil hurt the end of her tail and I was quoted £180 just to have her looked at, with a possible extra £150 for some antibiotics.

Thankfully the gerbil was fine as there was no way I would have £330 just for that.

I think this is the right attitude to have. It has always come down to quality of life when I’ve had to make that decision, especially with older pets. Some cases I’ve chosen the expensive procedure with a high probability of a good quality of life. Other times I’ve declined the cheap procedure if there wasn’t a likelihood of a quality of life.

PetPlan pay without quibble.

@bellewilson The vets really should have told you when you were nearing your insurance limit. That’s the first thing my vet checks with you.

I had a £5k limit for my 17 year old cat because premiums were getting silly and I could pay a bit more if needed. they kept me informed of all costs and treatments above this limit

@Reluctantadult sorry I don’t think you'll get insurance for your dog. Most new policies only go up to 10 year max which is why I had to stay with my expensive insurance but cut the limit

If you repeatedly told them you couldn’t go I’ve the 4000 insurance limit then there’s no way you should pay them the extra money. Don’t pay them!

I was going to say similar. Healthcare is expensive. Don’t let the Tories finish off the NHS.

The most shocking figure on this thread is that a vet only gets paid £37.71 an hour! I’m a GP in humans and can charge £600 a day for locum work, and £100 an hour at the weekend. This is not a stealth boast, it’s just to illustrate that vets are very much not overpaid. (Or maybe GPs are overpaid?)

You're definitely not overpaid!
Sounds like most vets are underpaid..

PetPlan pay without quibble.

Erm, no they don't! Before my cat was insured I took her to the vet because she had something stuck between two teeth and I couldn't get it. Since then I'd insured her. An annual check-up picked up that she needed two teeth extracted, and PetPlan refused to pay out because of her previous medical history. I asked how getting a piece of straw stuck in her gum could cause her to lose teeth elsewhere in her mouth, but apparently it could be a thing and they won't cover anything to do with her teeth or gums. Buggers.

People have the attitude where they think vets should be cheap because it’s helping animals and it’s some sort of charity!
I often have the impression that pet owners feel they are doing something heroic by having a pet, something akin to saving an endangered species.
It's a hobby though isnt it- something you do for your own entertainment & amusement.

Pets seem to be considered the "standard norm" in society but for me there's no way I could afford a pet and haven't really ever felt the main drive to do so, tbh. I like cats and enjoy bonding with other people's cats and I'd love to go to a cat cafe sometime but I am not in a position to have one of my own and like you say, OP, you just don't really know what the costs can end up being, even with pet insurance. I'm sorry you are having to deal with all this and over hard decisions.

PetPlan pay without quibble.

agree they don’t. My vet used to accept them and didn’t make you pay upfront but now they dont

i can see why vets don’t want to be a collection agency if insurance don’t pay out

Sadly pets are a luxury not a right. Everyone should be thinking very carefully about how much they might have to be prepared to spend on a poorly animal and research the costs well. If you can’t afford the extortionate insurance, don’t get the animal in the first place. The only thing I can suggest is asking the vet if they have a payment plan in place.

I get that. What I wonder about is the extreme lengths vets will sometimes go to and if it's always in the best interests of the animal.

In the past I'd be presented with options and the pros and cons of each would be discussed - so elderly cat with thyroid problems, we went with daily medication rather than the surgical option that might not have worked or a third option that would have involved him having to go elsewhere for treatment and being kept there for up to two weeks. Even if we'd had the money for the third option I think the stress would have killed him while he happily took the tablets everyday and they cost £30/mth.

Now when we go to the vet they seem to jump to the expensive option straightaway, and I need to push for alternatives and the discussion of pros and cons. I don't want to keep my cats alive at any cost, I want them to have a decent quality of life and to do what's best for them (within what is affordable to us).

Pets are a luxury, not a right, and vet bills should not be minimised because vets are animal lovers. Vets are professionals and should be recompensed properly. My (brilliant) vet who knows when to refer to an expert, and when not to, uses specialists who have stayed aloof from the commercialisation of veterinary medicine. But it's a tiny rural practice, and I am sure she turns out to deliver calves for her farmer DP on a regular basis too.

Can you not communicate that to the vet, @EilonwyWithRedGoldHair , maybe say how much you're prepared to pay?.

tbh if my cat needed care that was expensive and beyond my insurance policy, I would have to have it put to sleep.