Vets demanding immediate payment

borkid

@ Lily Rose she needed pins putting in at the ankle joint and then connecting up. If not she would have had to have it amputated which we didn't want as we had the money to pay. It involved 5 nights in, 2 being over the weekend so staff needing to come in and feed check on her etc, xrays and all the medication including several follow ups and the vets home phone number so we could contact him if we were unsure. We could have cut it down by a couple of nights if we'd kept her inside and confined over the weekend but having 3 other cats which come and go as they please we thought it would be less stressful for all concerned. As it was we had to keep her inside for 3 months and in a dog crate to stop her jumping for about 6 weeks I think. We later learned that he was the local expert on small animal orthopeadics and other vets sent their clients to him for that type of surgery,so by chance we had the best in the area

His work was amazing and now unless you look carefully it's hardly noticable that she has a slight limp.

boots_babe

I agree with most other replies, it's not at all unusual for the vet to require immediate payment, nor should it be unexpected.

Sounds like you will have the funds available shortly luckily but please remember this for next time.

I know a few have mentioned insurance. For me it's a no-brainer. I know some people 'self-insure', and I'm lucky in that I could afford to pay any bills if needed. However, it's a lottery as to whether your pet will become ill or be in an accident.

One of my cats became ill last October, so just over a year ago now. After many test and referral to a specialist animal hospital in Liverpool, he was diagnosed with feline asthma.

That may sounds fair innocuous, but I think we've had over £15k in bills so far since this started, and as a lifelong condition it will continue.

Due to his age, we have to still pay 20% of the fees. But just mentioning this as a good case for NOT self-insuring or hoping for the best.

My monthly pet insurance fees would not come to £15k over the lifetime of a cat! So it's a small price to pay for peace of mind in case of the unexpected - that's what insurance is for after all.

sheramber

If a direct claim by the vet is important you should check with your vet who they will do a direct claim from.

My last 2 vets would only direct claim from Petplan as Petlan run training so the vets know exactly what they will and will not cover.

My current vet will direct claim from any insurance but if the bill is not paid within 30days there is an interest charge added to it.

lincroft1710

Small animal care has certainly progressed over the past few years. I'm sure that not so very long ago if your pet had a major accident or condition, there were only 2 options, 1. do nothing/temporary quick fix and hope for best 2. .....................

sheramber

I can remember when an MRI was not available for animals, blood tests were sent away rather than done in house.

Vets did their own out of hours cover and house calls were routine.

Anything other than a straightforward complaint meant travelling several miles to a university vet hospital.

Now we have all the bells and whistles available and advances are always being made.

We expect vets to be have up to date equipment and be have the knowledge to diagnose and treat our pets complicated conditions.

That all costs lots of money which we , the clients, have to pay for.

bouncydog1

Our vets have a sign up advising that payment is required at the time of treatment. The only animals this doesn't apply to is equine and farm livestock, where they send a bill.

However, they also have another discreet sign stating that arrangements to pay can be made - speak to your vet - and I do know that some people go in each week and pay a small amount.

Undervalued

bearcat16 wrote: »

Then they find out the bill is £5,000 and suddenly Rover's survival is not so critical after all. I read a comment from one person who had this experience say "that's way to expensive, how do they expect me to pay an exorbitant fee like that?" The problem is, medical care, even for animals, is just very expensive. £1,000 for an MRI scan, £4-5000 for complicated surgery.

So, naturally Vets are keen to get payment as fast as possible.

High vet bills are just a glimpse of the real cost of medical care. Imagine if we had to pay for human care in the same way, like they do in Anerica?! Thank goodness for the NHS.

Exactly!

I am not a vet but I know one quite well who is a specialist, teaches part time at one of the major vet schools and does consultancy work with several of the larger referral practices.

Getting to that level has involved ten or more years of dedicated study and the highest possible academic qualifications to even get into vet college in the first place. Is it not reasonable to expect to earn a decent salary in return?

I have also been involved in purchasing operating theatre microscopes and radiography equipment to use in other fields. I suspect few people have any idea of the staggering costs involved.

If you have run any type of professional practice you start to get an idea of why you need charge a couple of hundred pounds an hour or more to provide the service. Private dentistry compared to the NHS is another good example.

I appreciate that it is a lot of money when you are paying but owning a pet is a choice and not an obligation. If you opt to take it on then you need budget for the potential costs. This can be mainly or partly by means of insurance but then you need to fully understand what is and is not covered and have a clear idea of what you will do if outside the scope.

It is totally unreasonable to expect the vet to wait indeterminate amounts of time to get paid with the accompanying risks of bad debts. Do you think he can do the same with his staff and suppliers!

Blackpool_Saver

All this is why I don't get big pets, I couldn't afford the costs involved let alone vet fees

pinkteapot

I'm sorry you've learnt about this the hard way, OP. Agree with the others - our vet always expects payment at the end of the appointment, or when you pick your pet up. I thought that was perfectly normal...

Ours will only claim direct from a limited number of insurers, not including ours, so we have to pay the vet and then make a claim, meaning we're without the money for 4-6 weeks. We could opt to insure with someone who our vet can claim from, but we prefer our insurer.

Pet insurance policies are of varying quality, coming with various claim or annual limits. The main difference is between annual policies - where anything you claim for in one year becomes pre-existing and excluded the following year - and lifetime policies - which will continue to cover the same condition as long as you renew each year.

OP - you mentioned Animal Friends, I think? There were bad things about them on Watchdog a couple of years ago. The only trouble is, if you switch to a new insurer now then anything your dog's been treated for will be excluded from the cover. This would include any complications they can possibly link back to this op. That being said, if you only had an annual policy (not lifetime), I would suggest you move to a better insurer at your next renewal date.

As with any type of insurance, people who claim think it's worth it, people who don't, don't! The first year of insurance for our two-year-old cat cost about £120, and we had over £600 in claims. :eek:

Faith177

Biggest i have had was £2500 for my cat Sophie when she was about 6 months old and somehow managed to swallow a piece of plastic the size of the top of my thumb. Lifesaving surgery and a week in the hospital soon pushed the bill up. Luckily the vets claimed straight from the insurer

Second biggest was when she got a piece of thread caught round her tongue that went into her stomach and was choking her. Again she had lifesaving surgery and a week in the hospital came out at about £1500ish. Wasn't insured at the time (OH let it lapse :mad:) we had to pay in full when we picked her up

What annoyed me was my manager at work commenting that as she "was just a cat" she wasn't worth that amount of money and we should have had her put to sleep and saved the money for a holiday