Took cat aged 1 to vets for neutering and he comes back with an eye injury

[middleeasternpromise]

Apparently these things can happen, although not in their huge detailed terms and conditions - and now I need to pay a further £80 for eye drops. Is it unreasonable to expect some sharing of costs here?

What happened? I would expect them to be hugely apologetic and covering all treatment costs for it. How on earth did they let your cat get injured?

No! You don't pay for the eye drops. Get them told! I'd also want to know exactly what happened.

Is it a corneal abrasion from when he was under anaesthetic? As a human you sign consent for that before an operation so for an animal I believe that it would be the same case, therefore they’re not liable for the costs

You have every right to be angry (so would I if it was my cat), but it’s the risk you take when you bring them in for surgery

This happened to mine. He scratched it when he came round.
i had to pay for drops, not £80 though!
also his eye check up was free

Fucking hell. Almost as bad as when my dog when in for treatment and ended up ingesting poison when he was unsupervised. I later found out that they’d not only claimed on my insurance for the treatment which I thought should have been free, they charged for the cost of treating him for the poison! Do not pay them for the eyedrops or the op! Threaten them with legal action, cheeky bastards

Don't they put lubricant in prior to them going under?

My eldest got an eye abscess from the mask used during his neutering op.

All treatment was FOC though.

Why are the drops so expensive?!

First they said maybe he had an eye injury when he came in. He absolutely did not. Then they said this can happen and describe similar to what MaloneMeadow said up thread. They use lubricant but it can happen then they said he might have scratched his own eye in the kennel. I would have been less furious if there had been some sort of apology but it was excuse after excuse and moving quickly to the prescribing of antibiotic drops and a solution to clean the eye regularly. When I asked how this was my cost when it happened there she became really defensive and said no vet would deliberately harm an animal. I corrected her said at no point had I accused anyone of deliberate harm (but now she's got me wondering why she would even say that?) then we went back and forth about medication - of course I am going to want an injury treated and apparently that's 80 pounds for two items. I didn't pay them on principle I will take my boy to a different vet they won't profit from him.

It doesn’t matter whether it was done on purpose. It happened while he was in their care. That’s what THEIR insurance is for. If your dog was injured while in the care of the dog walker, or the groomer, or the boarding kennels, then they are responsible for treating the injury. It sounds like the vets are either covering something up, or don’t even have a clue what’s really happened. The fact they’re trying to change their story, plus blaming you doesn’t look good on them, does it? I’m glad you didn’t pay them

The drops aren't expensive at all.

No you shouldn't pay. Did they offer a package where any complications are covered at no extra cost?

I would ask to see the anesthetic form used by the nurse monitoring the anesthetic and check that lubricant was applied approximately,or speak directly to the nurse to check.the form will also show how he was on recovery,whether he woke up nicely or not.was there a reason he scratched his own eye of that's what happened?did he not have enough analgesia etc?speak to the nurse or vet who was actually there to find out more and there should be anesthetic form documenting it all.

This happened to one of mine, when l had him neutered. He had quite a nasty scratch, on his eyelid and on his cornea. I paid for the eye drops because l was so stressed, l had recently lost a young cat at the vets whilst having a spay repair. I just wanted to get him hone.

I totally understand that and I nearly did the same, I just didn't appreciate the way the whole thing was handled. So sorry about your other cat though and I completely understand why you would do whatever is requested for your pet.

Nope, after all the maybe this maybe that discussion, the vet went straight to telling me anything they do will be an extra cost (knowing that I had already paid for his procedure) I think its the money focus aspect of things that I find so distasteful. I guess this is what it would be like if we didn't have an NHS !!

I don't know - I did read an article some time ago that said some medications vets prescribe and charge for can be bought in a regular pharmacy but I wasn't ready for this one so had not done any research. I will now.

@middleeasternpromise that's not great. My cat is currently having complications following teeth removal and it's all covered. My previous cat also had problems post op. And I paid for all the further treatment. It turned out I shouldn't have had to pay. So the vet was reimbursing the insurance company.

Happened to my cat too during her op. The drops were £22 I think. Just a month or so ago.

I work in a vets and it does sound like it’s possibly from lack of lubrication while under anaesthetic. While it’s true that these things can unfortunately happen, 80 pounds does seem quite excessive for drops, what did they want him to have?

For example, Chloramphenicol is about 5 pounds in the chemist but can be 4 times that from the vets

I'd quit that vet. They don't sound responsible. an animal castration is a very routine thing for vets. If there was a risk of the eye injury then they need to have told you this before you gave consent for the surgery. Otherwise it's just bizarre the poor creature would come out with an injury at the opposite end of his body! The could put a cone collar or protective bootees on the cats if there is a scratching risk when they come round from surgery.
Find a new one, I would be giving them a bad review too.

You do realise that with literally any procedure under GA there’s a risk of corneal abrasion? If/when you next have surgery ask the anaesthetist. There are ways to mitigate against it but mistakes still can and do happen, whether you’re a human, cat or any animal

If you tell a pharmacy you are buying for an animal they will refuse the sale.

True