What the buggery bollocks to do!

[Tiredtrout]

First things first, not a begging thread, this is an ideas thread.

My lovely girl cat has a habit of wandering for days at a time, this time she has been gone for about 6 days which is the top of her usual limit when I found her on a neighbours doorstep this morning. I noticed that her coat was looking a bit scruffy then saw the tip of her tail is missing. I managed to get her in the house, gave her water and food and backed off. She is not a cat for cuddles.

On closer inspection I can't tell if the bone is showing or not, there's a sticky bit stuck to a clump of fur. She is insured. I don't have the funds to cover it, my car failed it's mot this month which I had to cover, I had my dm funeral and I've had a fair bit of travel costs with supporting my dad. I have about £50 to cover to the end of the month.

My vets won't treat her unless I pay first then claim back. Another vet won't treat unless I cover the excess £75 plus 20 percent (should have read the small print). But they say my vet has a legal obligation to treat her if she's suffering.

I can't borrow money from anyone I thought my vet who I'd been with for 8 years would treat her but they've recently changed ownership. Could anyone that knows about cat first aid have a look at her pic and tell me what I should do other than sell a kidney and then bitch about my vet to anyone that would listen

Why don't you take her to the PDSA?

I forgot them just having a look

I don't qualify for help as I'm not housing or council tax benefit, I've already called the cat protection league, our local office is closed

Are you in London?

I'm in Berkshire, she seems ok in herself still desperate to go out, she's not touching the wound and it's not bleeding

I was considering cleaning it when dh gets home, it can be a two person job to do anything with her, to see if that helps

Do you or DH/a friend have a cc, Tired ? Most vets will take those now.

I'm the one with a credit card which is maxed out due to the past few shit months I've had. My friends and family aren't in a position to help and stupidly I thought insuring her would stop us being in this mess

You could ring your credit card company and get them to increase your limit by £100.

I tried that last month for travel costs and it was refused. Sorry I'm not coming up with much

Ring your vet and explain the situation to them, IME they may give you time to pay / wait for the insurance. Far better than leave an animal suffering

I'd already spoken to the vet and they refused without payment, I know I have to do something I just don't know what. I have tried my vet, another vet, cat protection league, pdsa can't help as I don't claim benefits. Is there anything I can do to clean it up and try and work out what's happened. My vet used to treat then claim back but since the change of ownership they dont

Ring a lot more vets - see what their policy is.

Pay day loan?

I have looked at her tail and had a bit of a google frenzy, it looks like she has devolved the tip of her tail somehow. I'm going to call my vets again in the morning and the insurance company too. If my vets still refuse to help tomorrow I will phone around the others. So cross with them, we've used them for 8 years, we've always paid and the previous owner always put the animals first

My vets say I have to pay the consultation fee, won't see her without it. I'm waiting for a call back from the RSPCA

try wrapping cat tight in a bigish towel (all paws in and tail out) and bathe/dunk tail with warm salty water and gently clean if you can.
please dont get a pay day loan, mega bad idea, if you aint got the cash now you will have even less when you need to repay it

I tried explaining to my vets exactly what caused my bad month financially and explained about her insurance. I left two messages with the RSPCA who didn't call back. I won't get a pay day loan as that would be ridiculous. Vet wouldn't give any advice on how to keep Sid healthy in the mean time. I'm just so pissed off at being in this state, I thought having insurance was to prevent your animal suffering like this

I would have thought this would be exactly the sort of situation where a pay day loan could be considered. After all you said this month had been exceptional, so next month you should be able to pay back the loan, and if anything is worth getting a loan for it's to stop your cat suffering/dying from infection. (Disclaimer:I have no idea if that's likely - but blood poisoning is always possible with injuries - also I don't know how much he seems to be suffering as you haven't said).

Have you spoken to other vet practices? Even a bit further afield? You don't have to go to the same vet and other vets might have different policies regarding insurance.

Speaking as a vet, your vets do have an obligation to provide emergency treatment to prevent suffering. It may be worth asking if a nurse can have a look at the tail to see whether it is something that needs treating before you pay to see a vet? There may be a small charge to see a nurse but much less than a full consultation.

PDSA - can they possibly possibly make an exception in your very difficult circumstances, given that they can call your own vet to get proof that your story is true re: them refusing emergency treatment?

PDSA - failing that, do you have a friend who claims benefits who can take her and pretend she is theirs? Make a donation or something later to compensate the PDSA, I think the deception is justified if you really cannot get help for your cat any other way.

Your vet - can you get the insurance company to contact them to explain what treatment they will pay for, i.e. yes of course we will cover the cost of initial consultation? This may reassure the vet that they will get paid, which might help persuade them to at least look at her.

Your vet - this is one for later, but after everything is sorted it needs a big fat complaint about them failing to provide help to a suffering animal. In the meantime, point out to them how many of your local friends will be leaving their practice when they learn how this is being dealt with - they will be losing a lot of business. And I wonder how much they might be liable to pay you in compensation if delaying care on their part were to lead to complications for the cat? You can be sure that your insurance company would screw back out of them anything that they ended up having to pay. Make 'em understand that it will cost them more NOT to treat your cat straight away.

Your vet - another suggestion of dubious moral integrity, but it wins with me given the circumstances... Surgeries don't give you the bill until you leave, do they? So if you took her to see them then they would check her out, figure out what was wrong, stop it getting any worse, THEN ask you for money. When you get to the asking for money part, that could be the part where you explain that you'll be paying £x now followed by £x per week to pay off the balance, OR they bill your insurance company.

Thank god for the NHS, I believe it is like this for humans in the USA!

Took her to a different practice today as I was paid, he confirmed that her bone is exposed, she is booked in for surgery in Monday. All 3 of my accident prone stupid animals have been transferred to another practice now

Good. In my view, how a practice treats you and your animals in one difficult time is very revealing about how they might behave in another circumstance.