Advice about crazy vet’s bill

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DCat was kept in overnight at our vet’s last night (we had a 5pm appt).
I posted previously about her using the kitchen sink as a litter tray, about a week or so ago, and then the last 4 days she’s vomited all her food up after eating so we took her in.

They phoned just now to say they did some blood tests and scanned her tummy, the bloods were normal but her intestine looks inflamed so they want to do another scan at lunchtime to see if there’s any change. She’s not vomited since we took her in.

At the end of the call the receptionist said we are looking at a bill for around £1500 so far. Is this normal?

We have no insurance for them (we have 2 rescues) as we had trouble receiving a payout with our previous cat - he died at 13yo and every little claim was a quibble or not covered.

I absolutely adore both of our cats but financially if it goes any higher we just physically couldn’t pay it. What are you meant to do in that situation - go and pick them up??? Does this sound like a normal bill for her being there overnight? We have very little vet experience so would really appreciate any advice.

You need to manage your vet interactions. Always ask for the lowest intervention first. Avoid overnight stays as far as possible. Is it too late to say no to the second scan? If the first one showed only inflammation why repeat it?When pets are sick my vet gives an injection that’s anti nausea and pain killer. I normally go and get this after 48hrs vomiting. Wait a couple of days and go from there. This could be a massive bill for a simple virus or infection.

I agree that vets will suggest every test and medical intervention going on very elderly pets unless the owner says PTS. It’s very different if pet is young, but an old pet that would die without significant intervention should be let go.

This is why you were meant to have insurance. My elderly cat goes for blood tests every few months and they cost me £400! I get about £350 back from the insurance. Not helpful for you but hopefully for anybody else reading that hasn’t insured their pet!

Sounds about right. If you can’t afford pet insurance, you can’t afford the pet.

My cat needed its tail amputated, general anaesthetic and overnight emergency stay. I was £2600. Had insurance but it didn’t cover everything

I know some have said its normal but that seems absolutely crazy amount to me

My cat had a blocked bladder last year and needed emeregancy surgery and had to stay in hospital for around 3 days. Including his medicine to take home his bill was only £1000

My vet explained to me a while ago that they are both professionally and morally obliged to give you all the options available.

She loves me as an owner because we discuss what each entails, what the results or effects would be, and where relevant the likelihood of a problem being resolved. We also take into consideration the impact on the cat's happiness or distress then I suggest what I feel is most appropriate - she will tell me if she disagrees and why but of course always does what I decide in the end.

She also loves the fact that she doesn't have to beat around the bush when it's bad news; some owners are in such denial about the practicalities of a poor or terminal diagnosis and end up going for more and more extreme treatments when she's tried to tell them the chances are so slim and the distress it would cause the pet is significant, that it would be kinder to the pet to PTS.

Tobias is a classic case of this. When he first went in for his gut issue we took bloods and faeces for testing. Although it was very unlikely that either FIV or FELV could be causing the issues I asked for those to be checked for in addition just in case as we already had the blood sample taken - and of course we found out about the FIV. Of course this significantly changed our options for tests for the gut issue which she explained the reason for in detail.

As we can't really consider surgery now unless life saving, we had to look at all the potential diagnoses, which includes cancer, and what other tests may confirm what the problem is. She did suggest a further scan by the specialist to look for progression, but I don't see the point in that as all it would do would be to lengthen or shorten any prognosis, and indicate whether it was likely to be cancerous if the increase was rapid. If it IS cancer, then of course she told me the possible treatments etc but looked so relieved when I said I wouldn't consider chemo if it is - then said she was in complete agreement but HAD to give me the option.

Of course some pet practices do push for the most expensive (read "profitable" in some cases) treatments, but though mine is now part of the Medivet group they don't ever do that. My vet even knows that I'm short of money in general, so things she recommends that aren't covered by insurance like supplements she always tells me if it's available on somewhere like Amazon & which are the best brands to go for rather than offering them to buy from the clinic as the best option; saved me about £40 on Tobias's B12 supplements getting them from Amazon so far!

I agree with this. I can’t imagine how poorly a dog would feel going through chemo. Plus the stress of the frequent vets visits.

Animal chemo isn't the same as human chemo - I know several dogs who have gone through it and you honestly wouldn't have had a clue if the owners hadn't told me.

Animal friends are cheap for a reason 🤷‍♀️ getting them to pay out is almost impossible.

Sorry but you need to get insurance. Being ripped off previously just means your last insurer wasn’t a good one. It doesn’t mean you therefore shouldn’t bother with insurance.

Ask the rescue where you got your cat about what insurer they recommend. I’ve got 2 rescues and we are with Animal Friends insurance. They have paid out a few times when my cats needed treatment. One bill was £800, and I only had to pay £99 excess with no quibble at all.

Have also had other similar bills and it’s been no problem.

@GirliefriendlikespuppiesWow not the case for us with Animal Friends at all, they have always paid out with no quibble at all.

I’m so sorry for what you’re going through.

Our 10 year old cat was in the vets this year with kidney issues. After £1500 of treatment we decided to let her go and euthanise as it seemed cruel after a while because it started to seem there were multiple issues they couldnt pin down and she be in there for a while. I’m still not over it to be honest.

We always have a rule when our animals get senior to weigh up the quality of life vs treatment plans. It doesn’t get easier to say goodbye though.

It’s so tough but it’s quality of life vs more intervention. 13 is an amazing age, treasure her final few days and many hugs to you.

I disagree, OP, that this is a “crazy“ vet bill. It’s a lot of money but that doesn’t make it crazy, irregular or extortionate.

Veterinary practices really are expensive. They are only profitable, as I understand it, if they are run at full capacity. That places a huge demands on the staff and you have to bear in mind that no shows cost them money. In addition, they have to stock quite a large inventory of medicines and appliances, even though there are overnight delivery services.

When do you think back to the limited medicines and resources available, say, to James Herriot, veterinary surgery today is almost unrecognisable. What can be done now for a rabbit used to be cutting-edge for humans not so long ago. That comes at a price. Not so long ago, a vet took a sample from my animal, took it upstairs and had a look at it, wasn’t happy with what he saw, emailed it off to be analysed overnight- overnight!- and I had the answer of the next day. I valued that but there’s no way that cost just a few guineas. And yes, I was insured because I learnt the hard way from the one time that I delayed in getting an animal insured.

It’s the same with dentistry. Treatment costs money and the treatment available and the IT and other technological resources are staggeringly expensive.

Just because something is expensive, doesn’t mean to say that the price is unreasonable. Bear in mind that we have very little grip on the reality of the cost of services that we get from the NHS.

I disagree, OP, that this is a “crazy“ vet bill. It’s a lot of money but that doesn’t make it crazy, irregular or extortionate.

There's a reason there are currently major, ongoing investigations into the price of vet treatment - and it's not because people are being charged perfectly reasonable amounts of money @HoppityBun.

She is home… they saw on the scan that she has a small blockage in her intestine. They have scanned again and found that it has moved, which is a good thing, but is still there. So they have sent her home with some meds to break it up (they are guessing it’s a furball).

She hasn’t actually vomited now in well over 24h so we are just feeding her small amounts at a time and hopefully it’ll work its way out.

@PoliteSquid I’m so sorry your cat is poorly. I have been there in the past with our elderly previous cat and it just hurts.

That's good news OP.

FWIW I don't agree with those posters saying £1500 is reasonable - there's a good reason why there are ongoing investigations into the cost of vet care, after all.

If you can, I would move to a smaller independent practise (ideally a farm or rural vets) - they won't charge through the nose and are often better at dealing with basic issues than the big corporations. Ours don't even charge us extra for OOH or emergency care, we just pay a flat rate regardless.

That seems a lot to me. My cat got hit by a car. Was being treated for a serious leg injury every other day for two weeks before they decided to amputate. Total cost was £2700 (Fortunately insurance covered the majority). There were no overnight stays involved. Don’t know whether that makes the difference.

I'm really sorry ,we would do the same if it's any consolation xxx

OP sounds normal, we pay roughly 300 just for a wash out and antibiotics for an infected bite.

That's extortion. We would pay less than £50 for that, including the consult fee.

I've learnt how to do it myself now after 4 trips to the vet in 5 weeks! Managed to avoid needing antibiotics.

The antibiotics were 70, a quick flush out with a syringe was 70 , consultation was 35.

Or at least save monthly for any potential vet bills.

Jesus. We wouldn't pay for the wash out (included in the consult fee of £21) - we'd just pay for the antibiotics which were about £25ish last time).