Help! Injured cat and no pet insurance!

susiemorreale

Hi,
I don't have pet insurance ( I know I should have some!) and my cat has been injured and the vet is saying it will cost £650 to fix his broken hip! I have explained to the vet that I don't have that at the moment and asked if they could sort out a payment plan. They said no. I don't have a credit card and no one to go to to borrow the cash etc. Does anyone know any organization that could help. I am working - so not on any benefits, but still don't have that cash available. I notice most only help if your on benefits! Any advise please!
Thanks

picklepick

oh no sorry to hear about your kitty. even if you dont have benefits its still going to be worth ringing the charitites to see if any of them can help. Also call your local RSPCA and see if they might be able to help, even if its just discounted treatment.

hope you find help

dieselhead

I think unless you are on benefits you will struggle. Is there anyway that you could get an overdraft, or an extension on your overdraft, a fast loan?

How is your vet asking for payment, if its upon your cat leaving the surgery I would imagine that gives you a couple of days, to speak to your bank.

What is happening at the moment presumably the vet needs to move quickly?

Kavanne

PDSA? hth

Soubrette

Could you also phone around other vets and see if they would take a payment plan?

If you have absolutely no luck and no way to make any money then you could sign your cat over to the RSPCA, of course you will not get the cat back after treatment

Can't think of anything else I'm afraid

Good luck

Sou

jha

have a look at this thread - loads of ideas:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1499105

Have they given it some pain relief at least??:eek: I would be straight down the pawnbrokers if it was me

f1re_cr4cker

i would ring around all the other local vets myself to see if they could afford a payment plan

foreign_correspondent

I doubt if you can get help from the PDSA if you do not get any benefits. If it was my dog, I would sell, beg, borrow anything I could think of to get her seen to.

The TV and computer would go, as would anything else I own of value, or I would look into an overdraft, or get a credit card.

MrsTinks

If you can't afford the treatment then your best bet is to sign it over to either the RSPCA or the cats protection league...
Personally I would beg or borrow to keep my pets but if that isn't an option then you have to do what is the best for the cat. Do call round other local vets first though to see if you can get a better price or even get one to agree to a payment plan. If you can't then please don't put off signing over the cat as the longer it goes without treatment the worse for the cat. If you manage to pay for the treatment I would recommend insuring it ASAP...

£650 btw doesn't sound unreasonable depending on the area you're in. I paid near on £1500 for a dislocated hip, crushed paw and broken leg (with 4am emergency call out) and a couple of over night stays after 3 ops to save my cat... thankfully he was insured.

marshallka

We had two doulton figures when ours was run over as a kitten and had to have its leg pinned to his hip. It was only in the 100 pounds though but was going back 20 years. I am having the same problems now with my dog. I hope you find the money for it. Its a problem isn't it that you are only helped on benefit. In my parents day and age no-one had pet insurance but then again vets did not charge as much then.:mad:

Call themselves animal lovers, more like "money" lovers in my eyes some of them. Some of us had insurance and during this credit crunch HAD to cancel along with other insurance too just to keep the roofs over our heads. Its only the same as with kids etc. Sometimes its through no fault of our own and it due to circumstances beyond our control.

MrsTinks

Vets aren't in it for the money now either... They have very large overheads to cover including liability insurance, premises, equipment, staff, business rates and so on. One of my friends is a vet and I can assure you she's not earning a small fortune and their profit margins aren't are lush as people think. Yes their prices have gone up - but then so has the cost of the equipment they need and the staff they employ...
Unfortunately they have also seen a sharp increase in clients not paying their bills and it's often costly to try and pursue them for payment so unless you are a regular client and known to them they won't do "payment plans" - they have no way of enforcing a payment plan if the customer decides not to pay after all as they can't set up a legally binding credit agreement as they are not regulated. That means often if someone doesn't pay say a £650 bill it comes out of the VETS pocket... not some nameless organisation.
Whilst it may not be the owners fault they can't afford pet insurance it isn't the vets fault either...