Overcharged by vet: what would you do? (clean, teeth, diet)

[Lola4]

((Cinebar))

I can understand your anger and frustration. Your furkid is sick. The holidays are happening. The cost of treatment is HUGE. Lots going on for you.

Huge mark ups are the norm though. Most of us learn exactly the same way you did...more or less.

Calling and asking nicely may tug at their heart strings to discount your bill a bit. Can't hurt.

Not to stress you out further, but they CAN cash a post dated check. I would assume they would keep their word not to, but...

Hope your furkid is feeling better soon and your pocket book is replenished mysteriously somehow.

[Cinebar]

Originally Posted by Annie53

Cinebar, if it was me......I might call and ask if the charges were correct.....but I would be VERY nice about it.

Your vet may be unavailable in the future when there is a life and death emergency.......and I wouldn't burn any bridges.

Maybe, in the future, if you are in a similar situation with this vet, you could call and ask if they are going to be sending any meds, food, etc. home with your pet.....and then do a quick online check to see if you can get them cheaper elsewhere....and only buy what you are going to need in the meantime.

I wouldn't be upset about the vet not coming to the front to speak to you either......you have no idea what may be going on back there.....maybe the vet is telling someone their pet is not going to make it, maybe they were in the middle of a tricky procedure they couldn't walk away from....you just never know. If I really felt the need to speak to the vet himself, I would have asked if he could call me at home later.

Thanks, Annie. I think your suggestion about calling ahead is a great one. I think, in some cases, even if a person were to pay extra for overnight shipping, it might be well worth it. In this situation, I don't know if they knew a couple of days in advance what they were going to send home with him because they didn't know what was wrong with him.

I thought about buying some of these probiotics, in both the dog and cat formulas, to have on hand. It has a "best used by" date on it but I wonder if putting it in the freezer would keep it fresh.

She also sent home some liquid Pancur for him. She did a fecal the morning I took him in and there were no worms. I'll give it to him anyway, but I am going to see if I can get that on-line cheaper, too, to have on hand.

Also, it was an expensive lesson, but I am going to, from now on, make sure I have some basic supplies on hand - PeptoBismol, electrolytes, and probiotics - so that, hopefully, if something like this comes up, I can nip it in the bud before it becomes necessary for a vet's attention. There is always the possibility, that no matter how quickly I act, the animal may still need the vet, but it may be worth having the stuff on hand.

I'll be making up an on-line order this week for some goat stuff - wormers, etc. - and I will add some of this other stuff to the list as well.

And I won't "burn bridges." My animals can't afford to be turned away in an emergency situation because I threw a hissy fit over a bill. Besides, I don't throw hissy fits - it's really not my nature.

Originally Posted by zugor

I would call and ask about the cost but in a nice way. Most likely they will tell you the charges are correct but if enough people question the high costs of certain things then perhaps some vets will consider the issue.

I may do this tomorrow. Who know? Maybe the '2' ($28.99) was supposed to be a '1' ($18.99). Still a good markup but one that I could swallow a little easier.

Originally Posted by kansas sky

I like the idea of nicely calling to check on the price. Throwing a fit at this point won't do you any good at all.
I do think that the veterinarian should have spent more time with you, or at least had a credentialed tech familiar with the case go over everything with you. It sounds like you got most of your info. from receptionists and assistants? Who knows what was going on at the clinic, but this is less than ideal.

I actually didn't start this thread to complain about the lack of service. Everyone's right about my not knowing what emergency situations might have been taking place, but I would think that, over the space of five days and two phone calls each of those days (not counting Friday, when I picked him up), that I would have gotten the vet on the phone at least once - especially since I kept asking if there was a diagnosis and I just kept getting "well, I don't think we really know" from the assistants and whoever else I talked to on the phone.

It kind of morphed into a complaint about the service because I felt a little like I was being attacked - that I had just "dropped in" on the vet, etc. and I got a little defensive.

Originally Posted by foxywench

i woudl call and NICELY talk to them
the short and swet of it is your right, BUT this is a vet and your going to find EVERYTHING cheaper online ect..a 500% mark up is cheap compared to what many emergency vets charge...

id also be returning the food the vet sent him home with...perscription diets are JUNK, vets practices are sponsored by science diet, royal canin ect, they get paid every time they sell a bag of that junk ontop of the retail markup there already making...
read the ingredients on the bag, ist usually corn, bypdoducts and something resembling meat flavor...in 99.999$ of cases these perscription diets are jus tthe regular food in fancy bags and completly unnessicary...(you would have also paid about twice hat youd have paid online for it...)

Actually, it's canned food - Purina Veterinary Diet "EN Gastroenteric." I did check the ingredients and the first five are: water, chicken, rice, liver, and meat by-products. I'm supposed to give him one can, twice a day, and I'll tell you - he is a big dog and these two cans a day aren't cutting it. He definitely has his appetite back but I was told (by the receptionist ) that this was the only food he should have until the case of 12 is almost gone - and then I could start mixing in his regular food when we're down to the last couple of cans. But he's going nuts - trying to get into the bag of Diamond Lamb and Rice (their regular food), as well as the cat food, and begging when I'm cooking. Poor guy - I locked him in the bathroom to give him his measly can of food and while the other dogs ate but I'm thinking I may go ahead and let him have a little of the regular food this morning. It's a good quality food - no corn, soy, or wheat - so I would think a little to supplement him wouldn't hurt. It might also prevent him from scrounging up something he shouldn't have.

Thanks to all the suggestions and talking me down a little. Really, when I started this thread, I had just gotten around to looking up this probiotic product on-line and I was suffering from a little bit of sticker shock and maybe wanted to vent a little. I am not unfamiliar with the high cost of keeping animals healthy and I do the best I can (I currently have a 15-year-old dog, a 15-year-old cat, and an almost 14-year-old goat - all that I have had all their lives - as well as every age animal in between). I was just taken a little aback, I guess.

[Katie1]

Post dating a check is Illegal in WV! & Yes they can be cashed!

I Would NOT give him the reg food OR more the Idea is for his digestive system to get a break while hes Not starving!

[Hedgehog_Mom]

I think I would call the vet back and say that you must have missed hearing what the diagnosis was, you'd like to know so you can read up on it online and hopefully prevent it in the future, etc. There's not much point asking if the markup on the probiotics is correct.

This may seem heartless, but when I take my animals to the vet, I always ask how much the treatment is going to be. And if they're doing tests when the treatment will be the same no matter what the outcome of the test, I ask them to skip the tests, usually. Some vets are really great and others are determined to squeeze every cent they can out of you.

I think really high markups are the norm on some pet meds...I can get my dog's shots at the feed store for $6 or pay $40 (plus office visit charge of $25) to get the same shot given to my dog at the "discount" pet clinic. The difference is that I'm paying for them to administer the shot and the shot is given in the clinic, meaning that if the dog has a severe allergic reaction, they will be able to treat it. I can also call them later if the dog seems like she's in pain. So basically, the extra charge is for peace of mind, and not having to stick a needle in my pet myself. Being a naturally frugal person, I give the shots myself and I save the vet for real emergencies...but I always ask what it's going to cost before they start doing stuff.

[Cinebar]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog_Mom

I think really high markups are the norm on some pet meds...I can get my dog's shots at the feed store for $6 or pay $40 (plus office visit charge of $25) to get the same shot given to my dog at the "discount" pet clinic. The difference is that I'm paying for them to administer the shot and the shot is given in the clinic, meaning that if the dog has a severe allergic reaction, they will be able to treat it. I can also call them later if the dog seems like she's in pain. So basically, the extra charge is for peace of mind, and not having to stick a needle in my pet myself. Being a naturally frugal person, I give the shots myself and I save the vet for real emergencies...but I always ask what it's going to cost before they start doing stuff.

Next time you go to buy shots, before buying them from the feed store, check places like Jeffers and Valley Vet for prices. If you've only got one animal, it probably isn't worth the hassle to order on-line, but if you have more than one (or many, like I do), then it is well worth it.

Of course, rabies has to be done at the vet and I always have that done at the time of spaying or neutering.

I get all my shots, needles, syringes, flea treatment, etc. from one or the other of them. Jeffers has free shipping on orders over $25.00 (not hard for me to do); I can't remember if Valley Vet does or not.

[foxywench]

the EN is simply chicken and rice in canned food form, you could VERY eaisly make it at home with get this..chicken...and rice.
your diamond dry is better quality food than the en formular (used to work as a vet tech, the vets ive wored with refuse to sell the scrpit diets as youll pay tripple for the exact same thing in noamrl food...

you could go to tractor supply and pick up their chicken and rice canned food and its the same stuff for 99 cents a can lol.
vets are not doggy nutritionalists, howeer you have to do what feels right.
quite frankly as long as hes acting normal i WOULD go back to his normal food...if his tummy gets a little iffy again go back to chicken and rice (but dont feel you have to use the canned stuff simply boiling chicken and rice is enough, its what every vet ive ever worked for does fo patients with upset tummies (one vet i worked for would order from the chinese resturaunt rather than make it themselves, simply steamed chicken and white rice lol).

but i would stick to small meals frequently no matter what method you choose.
the good news is other than the byproducts and it being mostly water the en is one of the "better" veterinary diets.

[JanND]

You lost my sympathy when you attacked the first poster, katie1. I would just levae it alone, especially if it is just about probiotics, big deal. To not have your vet available, and the vet on call helped your animal, plus let you pay in two payments. You got lucky.

[Cinebar]

Originally Posted by foxywench

quite frankly as long as hes acting normal i WOULD go back to his normal food...if his tummy gets a little iffy again go back to chicken and rice

After he ate his morning can of the "EN," I let him "top off" with the Diamond L & R. I watched him to make sure he didn't gorge himself and he didn't - he ate maybe a cup of the dry.

the good news is other than the byproducts and it being mostly water the en is one of the "better" veterinary diets.

That food is the hardest canned pet food to get out of the can I have ever encountered!! I'm used to stuff that's pretty wet and that you can pretty much shake it out in one big "glop," but this "EN" is very dry and hard to scoop out. I tried letting it sit on the wood stove for a little while, hoping that it would be easier if it were warmed up. Helped a little but not much. LOL

[didee]

I have cooked many a chicken and rice meal for my dogs when they have been ill. It's not worth paying the premium for the canned food from the vet. Sometimes I start off with just rice and fat-free chicken broth, and then add the protein (chicken) once I know the tummy is improving. It keeps the dog hydrated.

Sorry your pup is ill and wishing it a speedy recovery.

[Cinebar]

Originally Posted by didee

Sorry your pup is ill and wishing it a speedy recovery.

Thank you. He seems to be feeling quite well now, for which I am grateful.