Vet Clinic Prices (Re: Urgent Purrs for Cara Please....)

Holy ***.....

Major purrs for you and your bank account.....

Yeah times like this really really sucks, but from someone who works
in the field, here's my 2 cents on the cost of veterinary care. This
is long, but please be patient.

If it were at my hospital or at the emergency clinic where I pick up
shifts, Cara would need the following:

Emergency exam
X-rays (possibly pre-op AND post-op) to see how far down the stick is
Endoscopy (to get a better view of the stick...is it just lying
there? Is it embedded in the tissue? is there any bleeding?)
Pre-op Bloodwork, which is CBC, Blood Chemistries, Electrolytes,
Packed Cell Volume, etc
IV Catheter and fluids
The surgical procedure itself, which will include any injections she
needs(Pain meds, Antibiotics, Anti-Inflammatory),
anesthesia(Sevoflurane is better but more expensive), the surgical
pack, any equipment, suture material and other items. Time and
difficulty of the surgery will also be a factor.
And then there's the post-operative care, Daily Doctor Exam, Daily IV
Fluid Therapy, Daily Housing, Daily Intensive Nursing Care, any
monitoring bloodwork they will want to run, in this case probably
Oxygen therapy, any in house medications and then there's the
medications to go home.

It all adds up..........

In southern California, where I work is expensive, but the emergency
clinic is even more expensive. Then again we're a day practice and
the e-clinic has TOP OF THE LINE equipment. (Man, they have some NICE
toys, you ought to see their CBC machine. Sweeeeeet...... Oh and
Digital X-ray as opposed to Film X-ray is WAY better, but more
expensive) Hell, at our place we have LASER SURGERY. Using a laser
cauterizes the blood vessels and nerve endings so there's less
inflammation and a LOT less pain and bruising. The animal recovers
much MUCH quicker and is in LESS pain.

We had a labradoodle that had swallowed a rock and the quote we gave
the owner included most of the above

You'd be surprised how it all adds up. The final bill was about $2000
USD, and this did NOT include overnight care at the local emergency
clinic. My hospital closes at 6 pm and we send most of our
hospitalized cases to the e-clinic for monitoring. The e-clinic
closes at 8 am and they come back to us.

I deal with a lot of angst in my field because I make up the estimates
and tell the owners, and I have to deal with "Why on earth is it so
expensive?"

But one thing I do know is that we never NEVER try to pad the bill
just because someone has insurance. That is just fcuking stupid. And
I don't know why a clinic would, but with all the *** in this world,
it would and wouldn't surprise me.

"Why is a cat spay at your clinic over $300 when at the local spay
neuter clinic I can get it done for $75?"

Uh, because at THAT place there is usually sub-par equipment and
instruments, cheap suture material(usually surgical steel which is
painful for the pet to recover and a bitch to remove. Try having
surgical STEEL stitches inside YOUR body for the REST OF YOUR LIFE),
no one to assist the doctor and monitor the patient while under
anesthesia, no preanesthetic drugs so the patient has a rough
induction and probably a rough recovery, NO pain medication given to
the patient before OR after the procedure and once they're done, they
get put into a cage and hardly anyone is around to check on them.

Also I deal with a lot of crap from people, even though I have NO
control over the prices. C'mon, I enter in the things we need into
the computer and whatever number pops up is what it is.

Bear in mind also the other things that affect the cost of things in a
business. Insurance, Worker's Comp, Rent, Utilities, Drugs and
Inventory and of course, Labor.

And most place will not take payment plans. Do you know how many
times doctors have been screwed over by this? And by people they know
personally? Why do you think we take deposits? Even for emergencies
we take deposits. I know it sucks, but once we dropped everything to
try to save a dog that came in and went into cardiac arrest. The
owner told us to do whatever we could to save the dog. We tried for
an hour, but it didn't work. Then after all of that, the owner said
he had no money........

My clinic doesn't accept checks anymore. I personally worked on a
dental where a dog had a suspicious looking molar. We didn't find it
until we were in the middle of the dental, and we called the owner and
got the approval to shoot dental x-rays and extract it if necessary.
The dental x-rays showed the tooth was abscessing so we took it out.
Everything was great, and I personally spoke with the owner afterwards
who thanked us profusely and the dog went home. And about a week
later we find out that the owner had canceled the check.

Now with pet insurance, honestly it's a toss up in my opinion. I've
seen cases where it has helped and I've seen cases where clients have
been screwed. But in this case, this is an EMERGENCY situation and
they should cover it regardless of who the hell took care of it.
Arthritis I've seen people get screwed on because some insurance
companies will call it a 'pre-existing condition' But not in this
case. And if they don't, I would sure as hell fight for it.

I have insurance for Mischief and Imp, even though I get an employee
discount. Why? Because every little bit helps and what if its an
emergency and I have to take her to the e-clinic where I DON'T have a
discount?

The prices really really suck, and I know it does. And it totally
hurts me too when I have to tell an owner that it will be hundreds of
dollars to take care of their pet. And then again it also pisses me
off when the person WON'T spend the money to save their pet.

I'm really sorry that this happened, Helen, I really am. Especially
since this is on top of Barney the ferret. Mass removals, especially
internal ones are very tough surgeries, and since he's a ferret, he's
an exotic so that makes it more expensive.

Be as polite as you can with the insurance company and if that doesn't
work, raise hell.

Major purrs for you, Cara and Barney and I hope everything works out.

Kristi
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