RE: Insurance: This was a very unusual circumstance. In 30 yrs, this is the first time I have ever heard of home owner’s insurance covering veterinary expenses.
To make it a bit clearer, these people lost their entire house in a tornado. One horse got impaled with a piece of wood and in an equine hospital (that is not going to be be a cheap one either!!). Of her other 4 equines, they are farmed out in pairs to friends. The other cat is ok. The 4 dogs are being boarded. The family is living in a hotel.
THAT is why the insurance company is picking up the tab.
Update on the kitty: She had a couple of hours of surgery yesterday to fix her bladder tear and her abdominal wall hernia. She is no where out of the woods but should make it, with more intensive care: feeding tube, urinary catheter (THAT is a trick in a female cat!), a blood transfusion, a synthetic protein called Hetastarch (oh, her albumin dropped to 1.4) and well as continuing her fluids, antibioitcs and pain meds.
Daventry: I am so sorry for your experience at your ER. That really sucks. I have to admit I have worked at some that you must pay the exam fee up front, etc. Just like you describe. Many of those are share holder owned though and the share holders, which are the other vets in the area!, want to be sure they get their return on their investment. Admitedly, your vet may not be one of the share holders. (And I have had shareholder vets gripe me/us out over “our” policies and fees. When they are the ones that set them!! Go figure.) I am fortunately we are privately owned, and by a veterinarian whose forte is NOT business management
And we have a lot of lattitude when we feel it is warrented.
I don’t know the economic demographics of your area but if the exam fee is an indicator, you are in a higher cost of living than we are in Oklahoma. For that matter, MOST of the country/canada has a higher cost of living that us!
Our overnight ICU hospitalization (15 hr = overnight) is $90. IVC and starting fluids is about $100. Additional bags are $25 each. 2 xrays are about $150. Not knowing what lab work they were doing…our “routine” CBC/Chem/Lytes is about $150. I am sure these are more up there. What else was in the estimate? There had to be other things?
And I am very sorry to hear about the diagnosis. Has the type been defined and any treatment discussed? I don’t do oncology so I am pretty ignorant in that area; I refer to people who do oncology for that part.
mvp: If you understand the blood work results based on your vet’s explanation, no reason to ask for more detail. But when we are repeating your vet’s blood work I would not be surprised when an owner asks for an explanation. I do alot of mini-physiology with owners.
Medicine is expensive. I am sorry. I am not in control of the costs of the drugs, the electric/water bills, the techs’ salaries, cost of continuing education (required for license renewal), required license fees, property taxes, etc. As others have said, ER/CC units have more, and different, equipement. I don’t have the luxery of sending blood work out; I have to be able to do it in my hospital, now. We have 2 patient monitors; the newest one was $36K. We have high end ultrasound and digital xray that interface with one another. (My boss cringed when he put in the digital xray and said he had never bought a piece of equipment that cost more than his (one story ranch) house!!) 4 anesthesia machines. ALOT of stuff that your vet usually doesn’t have.
And yes, it does have to be paid for by the owners. That is unfortunate fact of life in our economic structure.
And yes, some folks do go to vet school to be “adequate” vets. Some don’t want to do the stuff I do. Likewise, I don’t want to the stuff they do. No one goes to school to be a crappy vet though!! But just like riders/trainers, there are all ranges of skill, quality, and fee structures.
For all of you who have had crappy experiences at ER’s, I sincerely apologize and do feel your pain. I have had owners get mad at me and ones that don’t like me too. So we aren’t all perfect. 