Cats come home injured, can't afford vets fees!

[Ohb0llocks]

DCat has just come home from being out, and will not weight bear on his front right leg ☹️ he also seems to have cut between his claw and skin on another foot, however this isn’t bothering him much.

Obviously I’m going to call the vets when they open in 15 min, but at the minute we haven’t a pot to piss in. New baby due in a few weeks, DP hasn’t been working as much due to weather (self employed outside job).

I’m in bits. We don’t live in an area where PDSA etc can help. What are the chances of the vets allowing a payment plan without a huge deposit? We can probably afford around £30 at the most.

And please please no one lecture me re insurance. Bloody stupid mistake on my part and I feel bad enough already.

I know loads of vets and none of them are owned by huge corporations.

It's usually an abcess from fighting in my experience, have a good look over the leg over the next couple of days and see if there is any swelling, a sterilised needle will break the abcess, clean it with cooled boiled water. I've treated my own cat's abcesses for years as if I took him to the vet each time I'd probably have spent a million pounds by now.

He’s on antibiotics and painkillers

Glad you got him seen and it wasn't too expensive. I think if you had waited the infection could have gotten worse and that would have been bad for both you and the cat. Hopefully the cat will be better soon.

Hayesking
Your experience is really interesting - so you didn't sign a consent form for your dog's overnight hospital admission? Vets can't keep your dog overnight without your consent no matter how much they insist it's the right thing, so it sounds as if you should have made a complaint if they withheld your pet without your consent.

And I don't know of a single referral centre that would insist on 3k up front. They may quote you that as an estimate for treatment (and it's not an unreasonable amount for an RTA depending on the injuries suffered) but payment is taken after services. Out of interest how much did you think private medical treatment for trauma might be? And who did you expect to pay for it?

You certainly seem to be very 'unlucky' in your experiences of vets.

Perhaps your experiences with equine vets are better because the vast majority of equine patients are insured - it certainly improves peace-of-mind over financial outlay when you know that you'll be recompensed for your services.

Vetinari - you sound as though you are not quite believing what I am saying. The vet that took the dog overnight didn't keep him against my will, I'm not stupid. My point was that when I found out hed been kept in a cage at the surgery and then treated in the morning I realised that he could have just as well been at home for free!! The overnight stay was totally uneccesary. This happened twice.

The consultant who demanded 3k up front or wouldn't treat and actually wouldn't accept two payments a month apart definitely happened, it was our shocking dinner party story for months. I reported him to the BVC as he was aggressive and unpleasant. He fixed our dog though after we had to borrow the money from parents. He has a very swish practice in the West of England.

Loads of people with horses aren't insured!

So you did consent to hospitalisation overnight? But didn't ask what this entailed e.g nurse checks, fluid therapy, pain relief? It's usually not quite the same as being at home.

The specialist is unusual but isn't required to offer you treatment without payment, and certainly isn't obliged to wait a month for a second payment.

Actually I do believe what you say bespecially as you've now given more details - it's interesting how the details shift from the vet insisting you leave your dog overnight as if you had no input into that situation, to you consenting to leave your dog hospitalised overnight. And from you being upset that the specialist wanted full payment for services to you being upset not to be able to pay in instalments over a month.

Your outrage is seeming more misplaced as you give more details. But don't let the reality get in the way of a good dinner party story eh?

Oh fgs. I bet you aren't a vet at all despite your user name. Wish I had bothered rising to your ridiculous keyboard warriory.

Well, if there's any doubt what some vets are like, it's more than clear from reading the above.

When my dog was hit by a car, the emergency hospital service wanted £3k up front before treatment too.

Oh fgs. I bet you aren't a vet at all despite your user name. Wish I had bothered rising to your ridiculous keyboard warriory

You'd be wrong.

Well, if there's any doubt what some vets are like, it's more than clear from reading the above.

If by that you mean 'resentful at being called money-grabbing bastards' because we can't always allow you to pay at a schedule that is convenient for you, you'd be right.

Providing access to veterinary care is the legal responsibility of the pet owner. Start a bank account, get a credit card, buy pet insurance. Do whatever you need but don't make it someone else's problem and then be upset that they're unwilling to take on your financial responsibility.