Pittsburgh Emergency Vet?

[greg42]

It isn't necessarily the expense of PVSEC that burned me back then, it was the way they printed out an estimate and just handed it to you with no explanation or reasoning and the way they ignored the info from the other vet. Now in hindsight the more I've learned about chronic kidney disease in cats (you'll notice I post a lot on the Cats forum on C-D) the more I don't think that particular regular vet (not one I've ever used for my other still-living cat) was necessarily great either. But we knew then and I'm still sure now on that night she was just crashing from the kidney disease and our vet had suggested she get IV fluids probably for several hours (this was cut short by what they did and then our decision to take her home, although she did improve for a while). The PVSEC vet basically wanted to ignore that and treat her for cancer which may or may not have been present (the x-ray which we did consent to was negative). The expense can be an issue or not depending upon one's means, but there's a difference between it being expensive because of the 24/7 access and specialities which are necessary and being expensive because they're digging up treatment to charge you for that might not be necessary (chemo, etc.) Even if she did have cancer I don't think we would have put an old cat through chemo. But the whole thing smacks of drumming up extra stuff to make $$.

It is very true that PVSEC has some capabilities unique to the area. So does Northview though. The specialties don't necessarily overlap, but some things do. Maybe their procedures out front have improved in 3 years, I don't know. Maybe the vet we got that night just wasn't that competent.

My cat of 16 years has not needed the ER vet and still sees Dr Garber in Cranberry where she gets ongoing checkups related to hyperthyroid (every 6 months). Garber is good and nothing unnecessary happening in that place. Unfortunately the info I've seen in the office suggests he would refer to PVSEC, but with any luck we won't be put in that situation. And I'm sure if I expressed objections it wouldn't matter if we wanted to go somewhere else for emergency instead. I'm not inclined to go back to PVSEC. I know not everyone's experiences are bad and they must have more positive than negative experiences or they could never stay in business, but the first impression left a bad taste that lingers....

[groar]

yeah, you are under no obligation to use the emergency vet that your vet refers to. you can go wherever you like, and they all forward any medical records to your regular vet no matter who they are.