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Does my vet care more about money than animals?

bunniesgalore

Alpha Buck
My vet recently announced I'd have to pay all bills upfront-including insurance. With Milly having very naughty teeth and bladder sludge problems it's a lot of money. Recently Milly had her teeth and x-rays and bladder massage done only for 2 days later Rupert to get poorly at 1.00pm on a Sunday. The vet felt him, gave him 1 injection gave me a syringe with another injection (pain relief) and told me to give him metacam (that I have for Milly) and waved us off. This cost £80
 
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We moved from an even more bloodthirsty vet that was a fairly large practice who all seemed to think farm animals were far more interesting than buns and puss cats.:?
 
As Sky-O said is there any chance you can move to a different practice? If that's not an option I would ask to speak to the practice manager as unless the vet owns the practice they have very little say in money matters and have to do as the manager says, although this vet does seem to be rather excessive. Most practices would be understanding of a case like yours and make an exception, or depending on your insurance, could they pay direct to your vet?
Really hope you can sort something out!
 
Does your insurance pay the vets direct? Is it just the excess they want upfront or the whole vet bill that the insurance would cover? I'm sorry your in this situation:cry:

If your in receipt of Disability benefits you might be eligible for PDSA, RSPCA, Blue Cross or Celia Hammond (not sure if Celia Hammond treat bunnies though so you would need to ring and check). I would give them all a ring and see who's nearest and who can help you.
 
That's awful :( ((hugs))

We have the same problem with one of the vets at our practice ..He said pts for Leo after his stroke but he only said we could try treatment after we said no.. He also kept April (hamster) alive when she was losing weight fast, was brain damaged and had a tumour half the size of her.. He just seems to want money too..

Unfortunately he is on today as our usual vet is not :( He's good with surgery, just not all the face to face stuff.. All he has to do with Poppy is give her a check over and vaccination. He is thorough with check ups, just when it comes to money and welfare of the animals it's not the welfare that's top priority :?
 
Single man practice-he owns it. Vet wants all of bill paid then money paid back to me from insurance.
 
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That's awful :( ((hugs))

We have the same problem with one of the vets at our practice ..He said pts for Leo after his stroke but he only said we could try treatment after we said no.. He also kept April (hamster) alive when she was losing weight fast, was brain damaged and had a tumour half the size of her.. He just seems to want money too..

Unfortunately he is on today as our usual vet is not :( He's good with surgery, just not all the face to face stuff.. All he has to do with Poppy is give her a check over and vaccination. He is thorough with check ups, just when it comes to money and welfare of the animals it's not the welfare that's top priority :?

God that's horrendous. If we struggle with vets and we're more 'with it' than most (in a tackling vets sense), then what happens to most people? It's terrifying.
 
Single man practice-he owns it. Vet wants all of bill paid then money paid back to me from insurance. But it takes a month or so and not little amounts for Milly-always £100 a time. Milly and Rupert bun are insured but Basil cat isn't as rescue cats are always too old to insure. He's very elderly now and gas a steroid injection every 3 weeks and odd things. I just can't believe a vet would pts animals in this situation. That's what upsets me-so presumably they really do pts animals just for financial reasons. I'm horrified.

Find another vet:( Give RSPCA, PDSA etc a ring first though and see who can help you. Having a good vet is the most important thing and if he is more worried about money then he's not the right one. My vets are fantastic, I use vets4pets which are a franchise but the staff are brilliant, I trust them 110%. If you had run up a big bill and were paying it off I could understand but to agree to PTS over insurance is terrible.

Sorry your going through this:wave:
 
God that's horrendous. If we struggle with vets and we're more 'with it' than most (in a tackling vets sense), then what happens to most people? It's terrifying.

That's exactly what I said to my bf. Imagine if he said that to someone who didn't know if they could have treatment and their pet was pts, because Leo has made a full recovery. Our usual vet knows that we know kind of what we're on about/looking for and she's great. But this guy just nods and ignores you :roll: No one can touch him though because he co-owns the practice! The other owner is fab and has rabbits of his own but the poo vet is more 'dogs and cats'.
 
The appointment on Tuesday seriously isn't to have them put to sleep is it? There is a way round this, I don't know what yet but you are insured it's only the bridging loan situation.

I always pay my vets and claim back, it's their policy but I use a credit card and then pay back the card when the money comes through - could you find some way like this of just bridging the gap?

I can't believe their attitude when you've been a regular there a while and the animals are insured, so they know they'll get paid. They are worse than disgusting to put you in this situation. :cry::cry:
 
Oh my gosh how awful :cry: I understand this is really hard for you but it'd be such a shame if you were to PTS because of money. I've been in this situation before after spay complications and we didn't have insurance that covered spay complications (i dont think many, if any, do to be honest!) and we really had to scrape up the money from god knows where to keep dee alive. I know it must be really hard but you've got to be realistic sadly :( It would be a real, real shame to have to PTS because of money problems. Would you put them up for fostering until the money comes through? Or could you even bear to rehome them, so they don't have to be PTS? I totally understand if not, but I don't want you to have to face that awful decision of PTS :(


ETA: also agree with the suggestions of getting in contact with PDSA etc, they should be able to help you hopefully!
((((((hugs)))))))
 
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What a horrible situation.
I have to pay my vet up-front and then claim insurance, but I have a feeling that if I were really stuck he would try to come to some arrangement with me.
Could the PDSA help or could you put on credit card and pay off when insurance money comes through?
 
I don't think PDSA help if insured. Also have limits to times used and they've already helped with Basil cat. I just need my vet to be humane-i'm not saying they won't be paid, just that I do excess and non insurance things but not insurance too. Milly's teeth aren't insured obviously so I already have to find a lot of money for that. She's had abscesses too-teeth linked again. I can't MAKE money though. I'm fighting against an injust world as usual. I never win-i need to stop being so naïve. I don't want them pts-my anger is that the vet would pts animals hat are loved and aired for and have insurance just because they won't wait for the insurance to pay them. Daft in a financial sense of course as no animals means no vets bills at all. How many animals HAVE been pts by vets for similar reasons?
 
I don't think PDSA help if insured. Also have limits to times used and they've already helped with Basil cat. I just need my vet to be humane-i'm not saying they won't be paid, just that I do excess and non insurance things but not insurance too. Milly's teeth aren't insured obviously so I already have to find a lot of money for that. She's had abscesses too-teeth linked again. I can't MAKE money though. I'm fighting against an injust world as usual. I never win-i need to stop being so naïve. I don't want them pts-my anger is that the vet would pts animals hat are loved and aired for and have insurance just because they won't wait for the insurance to pay them. Daft in a financial sense of course as no animals means no vets bills at all. How many animals HAVE been pts by vets for similar reasons?

Plenty of animals are put to sleep each day because their owners no longer want them or can afford them:( Its sad but its honest and it must be the horrible part of being a vet:(

Regarding PDSA...there's no limit with times used or if the bun is insured (they dont need to know they're insured). The limits are regarding the amount of animals which can be registered (3) and pedigrees (1). Your allowed to have 3 animals registered, 1 can be a pedigree. Even if you have three animals at the PDSA your still allowed to get help from the other animal charities.
 
Plenty of animals are put to sleep each day because their owners no longer want them or can afford them:( Its sad but its honest and it must be the horrible part of being a vet:(

Regarding PDSA...there's no limit with times used or if the bun is insured (they dont need to know they're insured). The limits are regarding the amount of animals which can be registered (3) and pedigrees (1). Your allowed to have 3 animals registered, 1 can be a pedigree. Even if you have three animals at the PDSA your still allowed to get help from the other animal charities.



That's really useful information - and certainly worth approaching PDSA then.
 
:( Our vet explicitly states that all accounts are to be settled up front unless they are over £500 in which case the insurer can pay the vet direct. I'm sure if we were in a sticky financial situation we could come to some sort of arrangement though, he's definitely in the "Cares more about the animals" category, the amount of times he hasn't charged us for consultations is a clear indicator of this.

It is quite sad that a vet would hold the view of pay up or pts :(
 
It's the change if policy that's got me. I wouldn't have animals if I knew I couldn't look after them. I can only do PDSA with them paying a contribution. I live in a small town with no PDSA or similar vet and no transport. When the PDSA has helped in the past I've had to fill in a form and they've made a contribution to costs. I never know what if any amount they'll pay as funds are limited.
 
It's the change if policy that's got me. I wouldn't have animals if I knew I couldn't look after them. I can only do PDSA with them paying a contribution. I live in a small town with no PDSA or similar vet and no transport. When the PDSA has helped in the past I've had to fill in a form and they've made a contribution to costs. I never know what if any amount they'll pay as funds are limited.

Sounds as though you are going to have to do some hard thinking, then, about your pets. How very sad that it has come to this.
 
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