| Charlotte, what you say is quite correct, and if my situation had been different then I certainly would have taken much more advice before proceeding with major surgery for my dog.But when you come home to find you much loved pet collapsed on the hall floor, vomiting and barely concious, I'm afraid all logical reasoning goes out of the window.The day in question was a sunday.We got home at about 8pm to find the dog barely alive.I phoned the vet surgery, got the number for their emergency service and rang them.They said I should take the dog to their surgery in Victoria.How the hell am I supposed to do that ? The do weighs approx 35 kilos and unable to stand."ring the animal ambulance"was the reply."do you have the number"i asked"no"was the reply.Thanks for nothing.I eventually managed to get the dog, still alive, just to the emergency clinic.He was badly distended with urine retention.The vet catheterised him and drew off nearly 2 ltrs of fluid.They then gave him a sedative to allow them to x-ray him.The perforated bowel was clearly visible and they told me he needed immediate surgery but they would not be able to do that until the morning.As the dog was no longer in retention and had been given a painkiller, he had really perked up and was behaving almost normally so the vet suggested we take him home for the night and bring him back before 7am.He was very insistent that we were no later than 7 am.I realised later that they had said that so I didn't have time to speak to our vet first.We got back to Victoria just after 6 on monday and they took the dog straight through for surgery.I was told to ring at 10am to see how he was.I rang at 10.10 and they said he had not yet gone into surgery, but was about to go in now.I was told to call back after 2pm.I rang at 2:15pm to be told he was still in surgery and the vet would call me when the surgery was finished.The vet called at 4:25pm and told me surgery was over and everything went well.He was out of the anaesthetic and had been given some chicken.It was such a relief to hear that, I forgot to ask why it had taken so long.He continued to make progress and I was told he would stay in overnight, and I should call in the morning to see if he could come home.I then rang our vet to let them know what had happened, but he already knew, the surgery had already phoned them.I was going to ring back on tuesday, but I got a call on monday night to say he could come home tomorrow and if I wanted to pick him up, I MUST be there between 7-8am.I asked how much the bill came to and I was told the invoice hadn't been raised yet, but the surgery had been more involvec than at first thought so could be upto 50% more than the estimate.Before I left home on tuesday, I called them to find out how much I owed them and was told in total, it was £4012 plus some change.I almost fell over.They said they would give me a full breakdown when I got there.On arrival, I was handed an 11 page invoice, most of which I didn't understand, but I could make out a total of 13 catheters at £42 each.I also noticed a total of 7 theatre packs had been used, why ? When I queried the bill, they bought out the vet that I saw the first night.The one that gave me the estimate of costs.He started getting very agitated and raising his voice said something like"you people are all the same.You want the treatment, but you don't want to pay for it"Before getting into an argument, I decided to pay and check it out with my vet first.When I offered a card in payment, I was told the bill was £4127.I said,"I was told the bill was £4012.The reply was "yes it was, but he's had some chicken and rice.I was also told not to forget, the total amount was inclusive of £630 for treatment the first night we went in as an emergency.Now With the best will in the world, how on earth does one x-ray, one injection, a catheter and 15 minutes of the vets time come to that amount.I didn't push the point, I just wanted to get the dog home which I did.Unfortunately, the next morning, I had to take my dog back to my vet as an emergency as the stitches had burst.The veterinary nurse made a very astute observation and proclaimed,"Eerr, his dicks hanging off".My own vet took the stitches out and carried on his aftercare and made no charge whatsover for which I was thoroughly gratefull. |