Two stars because they were open when my cat had a urinary obstruction at night on a long weekend, thus saving his life. The major complaint that I have is the cost.
This happened once before, and i... Read More
Two stars because they were open when my cat had a urinary obstruction at night on a long weekend, thus saving his life. The major complaint that I have is the cost.
This happened once before, and it was resolved by a vet for under $1000 (catheter flushing, urine analysis, sedation, etc). This clinic's estimate was $1800-$3000, and it cost $2800. After the flushing, they thought he had a bladder stone (which it ended up that he didn't have one or it broke up with the bladder flushing). If he did, surgery would bump the bill up to $4500-$5000. At that point, the owner is put in a very difficult position. Thankfully, I have the money, but if I didn't I would have had to put the animal down for something very treatable. Many people wouldn't have the ability or willingness to just drop $1500 unexpectedly on the first night as a deposit to save the cat. For a medical emergency like this, there is no time to shop around unfortunately.
The surgery at $2000 seemed steep but understandable. The Catheter // obstruction clearing at $2800 doesn't make sense to me. The itemized bill had things like multiple line items of over $100 each to check blood pressure, on top of the multiple line items for the vet's professional monitoring each day. So basically the vet's general fee is a separate fee from each and every thing they actually do, which all come at additional cost.
These costs are becoming simply out of line. I understand doing due diligence, but at some point this is going to result in a lot of animals needlessly dying when their owners can't afford or do not want to pay for this extravagantly priced care. Read Less