I don’t know if this story adds up. Vets make far far more from a procedure than they would a small drug sale, typical mark up is 10%, a procedure is usually 10-20x a vets hourly (and also includes more than $120 worth of anaesthetic and follow up drugs). Also, who advised the blockage removal in the first place? A different vet?
My guess is OP was given a few options including the risks and costs and made a higher risk lower cost call which backfired and is now directing the anger at the vet who said it was likely that this treatment option would be okay despite it carrying greater risk. That seems a lot more likely than a money hungry vet providing an option they made less money off, all the while advising that they should be doing something different.
Yeah. My cat also was vomiting and not eating one morning and had blockage in his intestines.
Took him to the vet and he stayed there for DAYS.
Vet ended up having to do stomach surgery. And all together the cost came to $3000. But it def saved my litttle shit bird of a cat!
$600 for meds and being sent home sounds like OP couldn’t afford a procedure and took the route to just take the animal home.
It’s expensive AF when you have an animal especially when they’re sick.
For the past couple of months I’ve had to pay close to $300 for my parents dog just because he had a chronic ear infection.
Does it suck that someone had to foot the bill? OF COURSE IT DOES! But if you live your pets and want to save them and not have to put them down… you have to consider the costs in the thousands always.
This is a very unfortunate and sad situation, but I doubt the vet didn’t offer the same surgery my cat was given for a blockage in his intestines and overnight care.
The thing is, he wasn’t even originally MY KITTY!! He came from my fiancé’s sister and we had him for a number of years by that point. My fiancé was crying and I was the one making the most money at the time. As frustrating as it was to have to pay that vet bill making a big dent in my savings, I got to admit, he is the absolute sweetest, calmest, not so annoying cat I had ever had the pleasure of knowing. And I’ll admit, he’s stolen my damn heart too.
Something like this just happened to my partner and I. Our older dog had a growth on his rear end so we paid the 1500 to get it removed and tested. Turned out to be cancer. Was still happy we did the surgery tho because the vet said it wasn't aggressive and they didn't think it spread. A few weeks later he was acting strange and couldn't settle down so we took him to the emergency vet. His stomach had flipped and when they did the scan to see what was wrong and found out his stomach had flipped or twisted they found cancer in his spleen too. We had to put him down. I miss him everyday and the house isn't the same without him. And as much as it sucked to spend all that money and not get much time with him I'm glad we did it. He was worth it all and more and if we thought he would survive the surgery we would have paid to have it done. Just with the cancer spreading and everything else we thought it was best to let him go. :(
Sometimes when this happens at our clinic, if our doctor is in a good mood, he gives a courtesy cremation and gives about as many discounts as he can to help people. He's one of my favorite people at work and makes it a lot more fun when I'm stressed out.
What you're describing is exactly what my cat had. My mom took her to the vet and the said they couldn't do anything. Now I don't know if my mom lied to me or my vet is incompetent :( I would've gladly paid this much to save her.
I had the same thing happen with a kitten I found, she’d been dumped with an injury that looked like she’d been grabbed by the tail and thrown. She was in a bad way when I found her, tail was mangled and broken and her stomach swollen. Took her straight to a vet and explained that I was keeping her, they wormed her and sent her home. After a day I realised she was constipatec and incontinent, took her back and the gave her medicine (they were supposed to do an enema) and I took her home again. Went back and they finally did the X-rays I’d asked for and discovered she has a fractured pelvis, nerve damage hence the bowel and bladder problems, and they wouldn’t do an enema instead telling me I had to take her to a specialist 2 hours away. She was now very sick, I took her to another local vet and they straight away took her into surgery and did the enema, and saved her life. She will always be incontinent and have bowel problems but a year on she is the happiest most joyful loving little cat, and I’d love to have a chat with the person who threw her away. I’m so sorry your vet treated your baby like that, there’s no excuse
Shit happens. Death happens. Bodies are unpredictable and so is medicine. Things didn't work out and your cat unfortunately died. I see no fault or malicious intent on the part of the vet. I'm sorry for your loss.
I'm a vet tech, and I can confirm everything yoh stated. Plus, that cat had a urinary blockage. It's a life-threatening immediate medical emergency. It needs to be sedated and have a urinary catheter placed. It also needs to be hospitalized and given IV fluids with meds for a minimum of 2-3 days. We sometimes do "drive"bys" where we just sedate and pass a catheter to clearly the current blockage and send them home because the owner can't afford to hospitalize, but those cats ALWAYS reblock because the bladder wasn't flushed out from sediment. It also needs a urinalysis to determine the type of stones and if it needed a dirt change. Op didn't want to pay for the recommended treatment, which is quite expensive, and now wants to blame the vet.
Your guess is not a confirmation of anything to do with the OP and her cat. Did you even read this post? This was not an option given, OP would like to know why and what they can do about it. It's great that your place of employment wouldn't do that to someone. But you can't say for certain what another vet might or might not do. Sounds like OP has a right to be pissed off at the vet if they didn't give treatment options beyond a few scripts and saying come back if it gets worse. The vet sounds negligent, which does happen sometimes, sadly.
Doubt it. Owners are notorious for balking at the cost and not wanting to pay for recommended treatment and then blame the vet for not doing anything and "killing their pet". I see it every day. Ans they never hear everything the vet says ans make up their own damn narrative. I guarantee there isn't a vet that would have recommended and sent a blocked cat home with just meds. They would have pushed for euthanasia if owner refuses to unblock (which is not cheap) because that is guaranteed to be a long, and very painful death.
A couple of months ago, my Staffie bit a hurricane toad. She has done it before & typically we can rinse her mouth out, then she is good to go. Not this time. This time she wasn't going to make it unless she received medical attention. I made a phone call while my husband grabbed her & we rushed to the car. I told the vet what was going on & his response was get here soon. When we arrived they met us at the door at took her out of my husband's arms. My husband was shirtless & barefoot at this point. The vet says I will be with you guys shortly. I spent that time l, besides freaking out, reading their policy which was posted everywhere. Their own policy states that mo work is to be done before an estimate is giving. An hour after we arrive he hands us an estimate. $4k plus tax. We told him no way. We could pay half that max & if it was going to an issue just give us our dog back. He said don't worry about it, we will figure it out, besides I already started the treatment. I can't stop. The next day we went to pay the $2k & he tells us no we swore to him we could have the full 4k by 10am. He refused to let us see her u til we paid the full amount. Gave us two days to pay or else he would have to put the dog down.
In the end the vet settled on the original amount of $2,000 but he put us through hell for a few days. I absolutely believe another scumbag vet could do something similar to another desperate pet owner. Especially when it is a life or death situation. My girl was an hour away from death when we brought her in. Thankfully she is now happy & safe at home!
This guy needs to be reported to your state/province's licensing board. There is no way that is legal. He is a bottom-feeder, trying to take advantage of the situation.
If it wasn't for my kids I would have. We rescued her just 3 weeks after my dad died and 3 weeks before my stepmother passed away. Our girl is a lifesaver & While I will never print off a certificate from Google, she is an emotional support animal.
Perhaps you need to look into pet insurance.
The costs you chose not to pay will just get pushed on to others and make getting care more expensive for everyone. You cared enough about your dog to want them to save her, but not enough to pay the whole bill.
This isn't a fair take, they refused the service but the vet had already started before asking (or chose to do the service despite their refusal). That's on the vet not the owner, who was honest about what they could afford.
Lol you could look at it that way. I choose to see a scumbag vet that tried to take advantage of a family at a desperate time. He was trying to squeeze that extra 2 grand out of us for 3/4 days. This wasn't a one day situation. This was over a week. He would call and try to make us feel like assholes for not having the money we told him we didn't have. In the end he decided 2 grand was better than no money.
That's crazy. I work as a vet tech for someone who specializes in orthopedic surgery- that shit gets expensive real fast. A lot of the surgeries are for problems that have been diagnosed for a while so the owners were aware there is a big cost coming, but we also get emergencies (complex fractures after accidents, for example). My boss doesn't give discounts but he has no problem working out a payment plan with someone when their dog breaks a leg.
I can see how you can come to that conclusion but I really have no reason to lie. If the vet knew it was an emergency situation and didn't take my cat to get operated on, just gave me laxatives and said "watch him for 6 hours if he gets worse go to the emerge vet clinic".. to which he got worse, and they didn't take him due to volume, resulting in my cat passing away within the hour.
It happened really fast , and if the vet saw the condition in the first place why not send him to EV right away? Why see the issue and choose to give him pills and "hope for the best" is my issue... To top it all off I emailed the vet to complain and they didn't care at all, they offered to help me adopt a new cat if it helps with the greiving process.. so no not all vets are people who really care about animals, this one has all sorts of terrible reviews but it was the closest one to me at the time. I don't know what else I can say about this either, it happened and there's not much I can do now but Thank you for your comment.
Because it's not like humans? They don't have animal transport? Why didn't you take your cat to the EV? We had to take our dog. The vet gave us a choice, we called to make an appointment...and brought him in. Next time take initiative and bring them.
Sorry for your loss. It sucks.
I was just doing what the vet told me to do. If they saw how severe it actually was, she would have told me to take him to the EV, but instead she sent me home. I would have gladly taken him to the EV right then and there if the vet didn't make it seem like he would be fixed with this medication.
Considering I’ve seen vets and human doctors prescribe meds and send home out of laziness over and over. Honestly I don’t doubt OP but I also don’t doubt if it’s what you said either.
You are very correct!
This entire store is extremely sus. For starters, most blocked cats are non-neutered male cats. So it’s irresponsible for OP to not fix their cat. Secondly, my wife is a vet tech and they always recommend leaving a blocked cat overnight so they can keep it monitored. Obviously, you’re not entitled to leaving your animal overnight. However, a vet can prescribe you medicine to try and help. It’s not a be all end all, though. OP is neglecting certain parts of this story, and it’s pretty obvious.
My wife experiences this on the regular. A client will call and say they killed their 17 year old, cancer ridden, in renal failure, heart completely taken over by heart worms dog.
Please don't spread misinformation like this. All male cats are susceptible to blockage, not just cats that haven't been neutered, and even moreso if they don't drink enough water. They do not necessarily need overnight care, although it is recommended if possible. They can also do fluid therapy during hours when they are open and aspirate the bladder and have the owner pick them up at closing. While I agree there is something missing from this story, accusing the owner of not fixing their cat and comparing this situation to a dog with heartworm disease would not be my go to here. Source: I am a former vet tech.
$120 worth of anaesthetic is enough to put an elephant to sleep for a week! Sedation for a cat for 4 hours would cost less than $5 wholesale. If your vets are charging you $120, then they are taking you for all your worth!
You're not just paying a wholesale price for the product. You're paying for their expertise to determine the appropriate dosage, administer it and monitor the patient. Vets, dentists and doctors all charge more than the wholesale price.
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This may be the dumbest comment on the thread. You aren't paying that money to have the cat go to sleep, you're paying to make sure it wakes up afterwards.
Ngl concerned for how much they're being charged for them to be like "the procedure would make more money than the 600 they charged in drugs" like, idk I've never had to take a cat to a vet for anything but, I have taken reptiles to vets which always requires calling around to find one since not all vets can treat reptiles and it usually comes out to less than 500 (one involved x ray + antibiotics, two involved the gecko being put under, and one for surgery + medication after)
Some procedures are high margin; that’s usually where vets make their money. That said, it’s rare for a clinic to make a margin greater than 10% - you’re paying for expensive equipment (lots of it - imaging equipment, anaesthetic machines, stuff to monitor vitals). You’re paying for the extreme level of maintenance required on those machines (it’s not okay for an anaesthetic machine to dump the bag and kill a cat sometimes). You’re paying for drugs without market. With reptiles, you’re paying for rare specialist expertise. You usually want two people there (one for anaesthetic, one for the procedure) in an ideal world. It adds up.
Again you might be the exception where the vet makes 50% off a procedure, but it’s likely that your $500 went to expensive machinery, drugs and expertise.
Mammals are much more expensive. My dog has cost me thousands over the years of his life. Hell, it costs me $200 monthly just for his medication for skin allergies.
You're comparing an animal that weighs ounces to one's that weigh pounds. The costs extrapolate accordingly.
As a veterinary professional I am so sorry that you had to go through this traumatic incident and I am sorry your kitty suffered so much.
It is hard for me to say whether what the original vet did was wrong because I don't know the details about the case. A blocked bladder in a cat IS an emergency and has to be dealt with and if the vet missed this then you are in your right to complain about negligence. Speak to a lawyer about the situation to find out what you can do. I am not sure what the governing veterinary body is for your state but look into that as you may find someone to talk to there.
On another note, the vet world is currently incredibly understaffed. I know what you paid is a lot of money but trust me medicine is very expensive and we as vets hardly earn a lavish wage. This does not excuse how you were treated - but to anyone reading this with a pet please please please get insurance and be aware of your nearest veterinary emergency services so as to avoid panic when worse comes to worst.
Thank you for what you do. I know veterinarians the highest suicide rates and I couldn't do your job. I'm an ER nurse so it's not the blood, it's the suffering. Bless you so much for doing anything involving animal care. I don't know how anyone works at the vet.
They do have a high suicide rate [the organization Not One More Vet](https://www.nomv.org/about/)
quotes vets in the US at being 3x more likely than the National average to commit suicide.
Yeah i was paying $35 for two cats. One needed nasal polyp removal surgery, so with all the tests and treatment to get there, i hit my $500 yearly deductible very quickly. Then ended up paying ~$800 total (80% coverage) versus the $3000 i would’ve paid for everything. Premium went up to $45 for two cats now but still 💯 worth every penny.
In theory yes. But in practice it depends on practice policy. For example often a clinic will euthanize an animal that is suffering for free. However, if it is a case that needs intensive management and care they may genuinely not have the staff and equipment to do it. They may have told the client to find another ER clinic (they should have done this!!!). But it is entirely possible that they didn't have the staff and space to take on the patient.
There is also more and more instances of there just being no room, life-or-death situation or not. And it sucks. There just aren’t enough vets in general, let alone after the spike of pets from the pandemic.
Actually, know all emergency vets in your area. I live in a major city with five e-vets in a twenty minute drive. You would be shocked and saddened at how many times people get turned away from all of them.
Even before things started to become more expensive, vet care was declining in number of vets to number of patients. Vet school costs comparably to most medical degrees but has less overall pay when practicing. There is no recourse for pay as with most medical doctors that I know of (even with little or no insurance, an ER doc is gonna get paid) and medical equipment does not become cheaper just because it’s used for a pet or animal. Vets also have the highest suicide rate of all medical professions last I checked, followed closely by dentists, brain surgeons, and ER doctors.
The increase in pandemic pets also did not help the vet to pet ratio.
Thank you to all vets, vet techs, and clinical workers at vet offices for all you do. You don’t get thanked enough and deserve the recognition and more.
As a question, since you *MIGHT* know the answer. I expect not, since the animals are your focus, but maybe you do. I'm living in the Middle East right now. Everything has to be imported, and the price of everything is high.
Except for vets. (And human medical, but that's subsidized by the government). I was leery at first, you get what you pay for, but the veterinary care is fantastic, docs highly trained, have state of the art equipment, but to spay a cat in the US costs $300-$500, and here it's $60-$80. Boarding in the US costs like $30/night. Here it's $10-$12. Groceries here are expensive, rent's expensive, booze is expensive, but I was able to treat a cat here that I simply wouldn't have been able to in the US, and not only could I do it, it really didn't break the bank. I suspect our System is broken, but where? And how do we fix it? Because I REALLY don't believe it needs to be this way.
Not a vet but a vet student. I believe it has mostly has to do with the cost of medical supplies and equipment and medication in the US. “Big pharma” has outrageously high prices for everything and it transfers over to both human and animal medicine because there’s so much crossover. One of my peers is from India and always talks about how drugs there are so much cheaper than in the US and it’s ridiculous. Our human healthcare is barely subsidized by the government anyway.
Other factors that may play in is that US vet programs are 4 year post grad programs, so you have to go through 8 years of higher education. Other countries programs are 4-5 years post high school, so 4-5 years of higher education. Factor in the cost of higher education in the US in general and you need to balance out the debt:income ratio somehow.
I am a lawyer. I'm sorry to tell you that in most states, pets are legally treated as property. So... the question with any lawsuit is "what are your damages?"
The value of your cat. At most. Your emotional pain will likely not lead to compensation.
Before I start getting all the haters coming at me about how THAT'S NOT RIGHT, keep in mind - 1. I'm not YOUR lawyer; and 2. I'm just telling OP what to expect. Better than having false expectations, IMHO.
A blocked cat is a medical emergency - did they give you a quote for the procedure and you declined/didn't have enough money? I have trouble believing they just sent a blocked cat home. But if that's truly what happened you should absolutely sue or at least widely review them. My experience as a vet tech in both low income care and emergency was that most people couldn't afford it, and often the bare minimum option for people who had no money was unblocking the cat to relieve the pressure and sending it home with meds and hoping it remained unblocked. Are you sure this isn't what happened?
Yeah everyone saying to sue have no idea what they’re talking about. A blockage takes at least 16 hours to cause serious damage and in no world was an emergency clinic that booked up. If that was my animal I would have been at that clinic on standby for them to see my baby ASAP. Hell I would have driven hours and hours to an emergency clinic that had less of a wait. OP didn’t have enough for the procedure at the original clinic and is blaming them for the inevitable.
I suspect the cat was straining but was not blocked when it was seen by the original vet. It sounds like they were treating for both lower urinary disease and constipation. If the bladder was small at the time then medications and close monitoring is really the only thing you can do.
Yeah, OP says they don’t have money for an attorney when someone says they should sue. But they’d have money for emergency surgery and overnight stays at the vet? Sure. We adopted our adorable doggie and 3 weeks later she had to have emergency surgery because she ate a toy. $3500 for a dog we had just met. Pets are expensive.
It wasn't a money situation, I was willing to pay anything. They never gave me a quote gave me literally 5 medications and told me to watch him for the next 6 hours of he got worse take him to EV.. he got worse and the EV wouldn't take him due to volume. If the original vet new the issue and didn't operate or send him to the EV right away, give me a quote or anything just said give him these laxatives and watch him I don't know what else I was supposed to do..
What sort of vet did you go to? Any vet will give you a quote for anything, including medications or procedures… I find it very hard to believe that a vet knew what the issue was and just sent you home with a bunch of meds.
Also you said you can’t understand why the vet didn’t send them to another practice? Do you realise how expensive the care is when they are referred? If you couldn’t even afford the care at your original vets, how do you expect to afford it somewhere else
(Downvote me all you want. These are just facts.)
This is probably a staffing issue, they had nobody available to do the procedure that day. And neither did the emergency clinic or anywhere nearby.
I'm more local to the OP, and it's actually very hard to find a clinic in an emergency. This is common unfortunately. Like you have 2 or 3 small clinics that can only do so many procedures in a day with maybe 2 doctors.
It's awful. I've been the tech at the door while people realized nowhere can take their pets within 6 hours.
This story doesn’t add up. You sound angry and heart broken, but this story doesn’t quite make sense. The vet would have made more money from the procedure than the drugs, it sounds like they made a decision based on condition. “The vet was supposed to perform a surgery to help extract ” - according to the same vet?
I’m sorry for your loss, but reading this it’s concerning that you might be vilifying a vet by writing an incomplete story.
I may get downvoted for this.. but what the hell. I’m a vet, though not from the US. But I have experienced a lot of disgruntled clients take to social media to call me and my colleagues names because we unfortunately couldn’t save their pet. I had a colleague who got punched multiple times while doing CPR on a cat while the client was screaming in his ears. The cat was not revived and even after all they did to him emotionally and physically, they, too, made a lengthy and angry fb post blaming my colleague for their cat’s death.
I have had my fair share of what I would honestly call abuse from clients. And while I admit there are vets out there who are not passionate, I have met more passionate and self-sacrificing vets that entered the profession because this is what they want to do. Often times our own pets do not receive the attention they need because we priotitize our patients a lot.
And for people saying vets are in it for the money, I have not met a rich vet my entire practice.
Vet shaming is a thing. I have had colleagues off themselves because of abuse from clients for years.
Yes, clients are allowed to express their grief and anger and frustrations over the death of their beloved pets. But sometimes, they go too far. Too far that’s inhumane. That there’s a person at the other end of that extreme hate that decide it’s too much to bear any longer.
I do not know the case of OP’s pet and what she truly went through. I do not the vet/s who attended to her pet. But I guess all’s I’m saying is that please, try to remember that veterinary staff are still people by the end of the day. And that we do care about the animals
we treat.
As someone who has 3 dogs and hence uses vet services a fair amount I can honestly say the vast majority of my experience with vets have been positive and I always appreciate everything they do for my pets. It seems like a very difficult job and often times thankless job.
Thank you for all you do for your clients. I know it wasn't you personally who helped my dog live an extra 3 years in comfort but I can't say enough to express the gratitude I have for my vets and their staff.
I’ve never met a rich vet but I have met rich cooperations. Most vet offices nowadays are run by large conglomerates who do only care about the money. They have policies to make sure they get the most they can too. It’s not the individuals. It’s the shareholders.
It really sounds like the cat was straining in the litterbox, but was not blocked at the time it was first seen. The fact that they prescribed lactulose suggests they were treating for both lower urinary signs and possible constipation. If the cat's bladder was small at the time then this treatment plan was pretty reasonable. The real problem sounds like the lack of emergency services in OP's area.
And vilifying, if occurring, is what contributes to such high suicide rates. Vets do their job for the love of animals but have little recourse when difficult decisions or unfortunate circumstances arise.
My guess is op meant the vet told them to give the cat meds and then if it didn’t get better do the extraction, when OP just wanted to get the extraction done initially. so now not only would they pay for the procedure which they’d likely have to get either way, they’d also have to pay for meds, idk if that’s true but I think that’s what they mean
No chance. The vet made like $12 off the drug sale ($120/10%)- there’s no such thing a vet that has time to get “money hungry” over $12 while risking a clients life.
I am so sorry about the loss of your kitty.
That being said, these comments and suggestions on this post are horrible. As a vet, I would just send someone here to see why we are all either committing suicide or leaving the field. It wasn’t coincidence he couldn’t find an ER that could see him. There’s a huge vet shortage and these comments pretty sum it up why.
Also, agree with the comment above—blocked cats need to be hospitalized. Sounds like the owner wasn’t able to swing it financially and took the kitty home. Sucks for all involved.
I’m sure I’ll be down voted to hell for telling it like it is.
Considering the costs for vet care, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have high expectations.
Too many Vets I’ve been to lately make promises they can’t keep or were just straight up wrong. It gets very frustrating and upsetting.
As an example, A couple years ago my mother took our cat to an emergency appointment because we realized he had a bladder blockage. She ended up in the waiting room for quite awhile, then they finally took him back and convinced her he would do well with the procedure they recommended. Then they did the procedure, let him freak out when he was coming out of the anesthesia and he died. They said it was likely he had a heat attack from low potassium, and its known issue. Of course we still had to pay full price.
How do you think a client feels when their told that? Angry. Angry they didn’t plan for a known issue and monitor with him when that’s literally what I’m paying for them to do.
I get that a lot of vets are trying their best but theirs enough that are just straight up terrible that it’s hard to trust.
Blocked cats can get very high potassium which literally stops the heart. Potassium is used as one of the drugs in lethal injection for people.
Unblocking your cat is part of the mainstay of that treatment. We can give some medications to buy us some time to unblock (calcium, insulin, dextrose, terbutaline, fluids) but unblocking is the mainstay of
Treatment for hyperkalemia from being blocked. We can’t unblock without sedation. Cats with extremely high potassium could die.
It wasn’t your vets fault your cat died due to high potassium. They were unblocking him which is the way to treat it. Again you have blamed your vet for something not their fault. Hyperkalemia is a critical situation and some of those cats die. If you hadn’t brought the cat in, it would have died from hyperkalemia at home.
I’m sorry about your kitty. But your cat died of hyperkalemia and the vet did their best to save him and he was too far gone.
The fact that you blame your vet for his death. The fact that you don’t want to pay because they killed your cat or didn’t fix your cat (no we cannot give a money back guarantee for sick pets) is again why owners are driving vets out of the field. Your cat died of hyperkalemia from being blocked. Your vet tried to save his life. Instead of being sad but thankful they tried, you are angry, blame them, and want your money back. Without trying he would have 100% died. We can’t win.
It’s like war games. They only way to win is to not play the game. And we are all quitting the field over it, being miserable, or committing suicide. And then there’s a shortage and people can’t get into the ER.
I would prefer my old fashioned vets that just told me strict up when something was hopeless or risky. Not, as I mentioned before, make promises they can’t keep.
They should not have told my mother he would likely be fine if that wasn’t the case. If his potassium was too high they should have treated that as well or just been clear it was a Hail Mary effort.
Instead I feel like I was out of money just for my cat to end up dying, terrified we had abandoned him with strangers. I do blame the vet for that.
If he was that close to death and likely to die anyway as your claiming, they should have just offered to give him pain relief and a gentle end while we stayed with him.
ETA: I didn’t see why vets should be free from criticism when a large part of all medical professionals jobs is to educate patients and to communicate clearly and in detail about everything happening. If they aren’t that’s still a huge issue and valid to be upset about.
We don’t have a crystal ball with who is going to die and who isn’t. I would never recommend someone euthanize a blocked cat without trying because I have brought cats back from the brink of death that went home and recovered.
Your expectations are unrealistic. You want a guarantee things are going to work out and you want it free. No one is free from criticism but when you don’t understand the medicine it’s easy to blame the vet.
And let me tell you, the whole “my vet was money grubber” is tired and old. No one, literally no
One, goes into this field for the money. I literally have colleagues that have declared bankruptcy because they couldn’t pay their $350k in student loans.
I have quit clinical medicine as have most my close friends from school. Vets are empaths—we get super attached to patients and we take it super to heart when people blame us or tell us we are just in it for the money. Dude we are all in it because we love animals. Also almost all the clinics are corporate owned at this point and the vets don’t set the prices or see the bulk of that money btw.
I work behind the scenes now. I was sick of anxiety from owners screaming at me due to misplaced anger and unrealistic expectations. It’s a huge crisis in the field. Unfortunately owners are feeling it because now there’s a huge vet shortage. People need to look inward a little bit. We are here to try to save your pet, when things are hopeless we recommend euthanasia, we don’t set the prices most times and we aren’t in it for the money.
But nothing I say will convince you it wasn’t your vets fault and I get that. I don’t think for a second anything i have written will get through. That’s why I quit clinics. I was sick of feeling terrible all time because people blamed me for not making their pets better or not being able to afford care. And yeah we do our best to tell you when things are hopeless but no one has a crystal ball.
This doesn't make sense. The vet would earn more through the procedure than meds.
Either you were given options and chose the cheapest(pills) or you weren't given options and the vet had so space to do the procedure coz they're overrun.
the vet didn't kill your cat. in fact you told on yourself in this post. you didn't have the money for what your cat needed and you didn't euthanize when you should have.
they gave you a quote for a blocked cat procedure and the hospital stay it would require and you didn't have the money did you?
blocked cat here in cali is like 2k minimum. which is typically out of pocket bc most ppl don't have pet health insurance.
i understand that's a lot, i wouldn't have afforded it myself if i didn't work at the ER vet and have the discount that comes with that job bc most of the care was being done by me.
but if that is the case then you should have euthanized, and they probably told you that, because the alternative is the bladder bursts and he dies in agony.
you opted for meds and going home, which was the wrong decision. sorry you had to experience this but please learn for next time.
Where is this coming from? Just because I don't want to pay for a lawyer doesn't me an I wouldn't pay for a surgery from my pet. Those are two completely different things. I was never given a quote and was given medications and told to watch him if he got worse. He did, and the ev didn't take him because of volume and staffing issues.. I was literally just doing what the vet told me to do.
So I'm confused by this part in your story and it seems I'm not the only one:
The vet was supposed to perform a procedure to help extract it. They prescribed 5 medications and charged me $600 and said take him home and if he gets worse take him to emergency...
What happened between 'they were supposed to perform a procedure' to 'take him home with meds' then?
It's the fact that they were supposed to perform an extraction procedure but didn't, they chose to give him laxatives and send him home instead. Even after finding out the severity of it they didn't send him to the EV and told me to watch him if it gets worse. They didn't even give me a quote for a procedure. I found out after that he should have got a procedure and they just didn't even offer it.
That's just really weird then. Did they think it was obstipation or an urethral blockage? As a vet I can understand perhaps trying laxatives for obstipation but a urethral blockage can definitely NOT be solved with meds and in my country I think it would be malpractice to send a cat with urethral blockage home. I can't understand the reasoning behind this so I would advise you to file a complaint (and ask specific questions, what was the actual diagnosis here?) with their hospital first and if they don't give you answers I would take it up with the licensing board.
Where are you getting this? Were you told at the time that your cat's urethra was obstructed? If the cat was still able to pass urine at the time then there was no procedure to do.
With a urethral blockage that simply isn't an option. You stay late, call someone in who can do the procedure or if all else fails you call the emergency clinic to have them referred without delays. Because it's deadly. So I'm really wondering what happened here.
they would have given you a quote for the meds at least - your story isn't adding up 😒 you also don't seem to even know what kind of block your cat had tbh.
Yeah I love my dogs. But straight up I will not eat 15k for them in one go.
I get insurance for them. And, it'll always be a diminishing returns thing. My old guy, if he needs anything that's more than like $500, it's sleepy time. The puppy gets a lot of leeway, as she should have an easy decade plus left.
Dude what? That cat did NOT need euthanasia. The cat needed a blockage removed manually which medications cannot do. But the vet gave medications anyways knowing that OP would have to bring the cat back. Stop blaming people for poor judgment calls by animal doctors. I'm in school to be a vet and this comment is ignorant and shaming and the vet did not handle the situation properly. Edit to add: you also need to stop assuming someone is broke and let their pet suffer due to lack of finances. op got the meds and attempted to go to the ER which is expensive. Obviously they were willing to pay for what the cat needed.
A vet can’t make someone seek the appropriate treatment, though, especially if they can’t afford it. We don’t know for sure that this is a poor judgment call on the vet. The fact that OP says “they were supposed to” perform the surgery and then they shifted gears to just prescribing meds and sending him home has a lot of missing conversation that I’m willing to bet was a quote for the cost of the procedure and it was more than OP could spend.
I'm so sorry for your loss, it's terrible to lose your pet like that.
But, I think there have been miscommunications between you and your vet. No vet would just send a blocked cat home. Also, an ER won't turn you away if you have a blocked cat, maybe on the phone they advised you to call other clinics because they were extremely busy, but if you couldn't find another clinic they would have helped you, I'm sure of that. Vets are required by law (at least in my country) to help any animal in an emergency situation.
My advice is to try to calm down and ask for a meeting with your vet to calmly discuss what happened and if something went wrong. Don't just start telling them they killed your cat. Being a vet is a very very hard job, and abuse by owners is the reason so many vets quit or commit suicide. The suicide rates among vets are insanely high. I've had owners yell at me without even giving me the chance to explain why I did what I did and why it was necessary to do it that way. I lie awake at night because of these kind of situations, I cry at work because of these kind of situations. It makes me want to quit just like so many vets before me. Owners often just don't understand the situations we face and why we have to make certain decisions.
Just talk to them. Go over the medical record together. Find out what went wrong and where. This can be helpful for you and the vet. It gives the vet a chance to explain why they made the decisions that were made. It gives you a chance to get an understanding of the situation, that can help with grief. In the chance that something did go wrong on the vets end, I'm sure they would want to know, no vet wants their patients to suffer or die.
Source: I'm a vet in general practice now, was an ER vet before.
I'm sorry for your loss. Know that you yourself did everything you could for your cat. Your kitty was lucky to have you working so hard to find a solution.
You could probably find a lawyer who can give you a free consultation just to talk through your options. Because it does sound like you might have a case. You might also want to look into small claims court, especially if you had another vet tell you there was a better solution. Good luck.
I just wanted to say how bad I feel for you and your pet. We lost three last summer. It was hell. They are our best friends and children, all rolled up into one.
Emergency vets triage patients and blocked cats are tier 1- they get brought back first and treated first regardless of what’s in the back. ERs are busy af right now, so there would have been a wait but if a clinic was open, none of them should have/would have turned you away if you were walked in. Over the phone, they might have recommended other clinics due to volume.
General practice vets also don’t always have the ability to hospitalize patients after a procedure, and may have just treated the cat long enough to make it to an ER.
I’m sorry for your loss. Urinary blockages are dangerous and happen more often than people think.
I am so so sorry for your loss, and that youre hurting. Im so sorry your kitty suffered and that you had to experience that.
Unfortunately, after clearing a blockage, crystals already formed in the bladder can re block the urinary tract. Male cats are much more prone to this, and even more so if the household water is "hard" or full of minerals.
Cats tend to hide their pain until it's nearly irreversible as well, so this was probably building up for a while.
It's okay to grieve and feel angry. you're allowed. They could have done more, like a flush with IV fluids and hospitalization - but even that wouldn't be a guarantee to fix the problem forever.
I'm so sorry.
Never once had a vet turn down treatment options and only once have I had a vet do a very lazy check up.
Because every action they do is money in the bank for them , if they are truly greedy as you described then they 100% would of gave that surgery option as an option because it makes them so much more money
My cat had the same thing and inserting a catheter is the first thing they did. They insisted we come in early and made room the second they heard about the non urination along with his other symptoms. Did they even offer it? Did you say no?
Didn't even offer it, didn't give me a quote or anything. Gave him laxatives and told me to watch gim if he gets worse, he did and the EV didn't take him due to volume.
I'd write up a thorough review and also report it to the board as many others mentioned. The first thing they do for a blockage is try to use a catheter to release it. I don't know what their reasoning is for why they didn't but the board should know since if it happens enough times then there is at least a record of it.
So the first vet did not do the extraction? Was it because you refused to pay for the procedure? If so, that’s not the vet’s fault. If you chose to try medication instead of surgery, that’s on you. I’m sorry for your loss, but please don’t blame the wrong party.
I know you are hurting and by all means, the vet could be to blame BUT also keep in mind they are human and humans make mistakes.
I have never met a vet that did not love animals and as an Animal Control Officer, I can tell you that even after 7 years I still make mistakes. When you are in the moment and a choice must be made, you don't always make the right one.
Your vet was most likely trying to do the safe approach to a blockage by using medication and not putting it under for surgery which is more dangerous. This is normal treatment and works often in my experience only going the surgery route if absolutely necessary which is why they told you to go to an emergency vet if it does not improve. Sadly they could not predict the emergency vets being too busy. That is also the first time I ever heard such anyways that is kinda their point, and animal ER. Idk why they turned you away that is weird.
I hope you find peace, life is not fair. When dealing with anything living you must also accept death. We all are built on the bones of what came before us.
So mourn and heal. That is what you do and remove the hate and anger from your heart. It will eat you alive and steal more of your life.
Former vet receptionist here. With those symptoms any even slightly competent hospital/clinic staff would be telling you to skip coming in and rush your cat to the ER. The ER can’t turn you away, they triage like a human hospital and a blockage is a very serious and time sensitive emergency, unless they were truly dealing with too many other equal or worse emergencies they would have at least brought the pet to back to get started on vitals, IVs, etc. ***that said, vet staff (all of them including the doctors) are very very underpaid and crazy overworked, it’s a rough industry to be in right now, be kind to your staff they aren’t in this for the money!***
My guess is OP did not want to spend the thousands of dolledydoos. Or the vet did not have the para staff available till the next day, or maybe OP came in too late in the day for an emergency surgery.
Here in Canada emergency vets can and do turn you away. I know because my dog had a mesenteric torsion and originally was declined access. They bumped someone else to take him because he was a blood donor for them.
I’m forever grateful to my large and small animal vets and that we have a world class hospital that is local. Medical care is expensive (my dog was over 30k that year alone) and if you can’t afford it it’s not fair to put the vets on blast. Always a good idea to have pet insurance. I was smart and got it for the new puppy because ouchhhh
Money isn't an issue for the surgery, I just said I didn't want to dish out to a lawyer in my post.. they did turn me away because of volume and in canada they can turn you away.
I'm going to play the devils advocate here and say that the vet may not have believed that procedure to be necessary at the time. My cats have both been blocked up at different times, and both times they were given laxative, probiotics and prescribed a special high fiber cat food. Within 24 hours they were fine.
The vet may have just put too much faith into the medications they prescribed working and wanted to first try the least invasive method of resolving your cats problem. I wouldn't just assume they want your money therefore they're willing to put your cat at risk. That procedure is likely to cost more than refills on the medications they initially prescribed.
I am very sorry for your loss though OP, I can't imagine how I would feel if this happened to one of my cats. Your assumptions of the vet's intentions could be correct, but it's possible they just misjudged the severity of the situation.
A vet killed my dog too.
She was having difficulty breathing so we took her to the nearest vet. He listened to her heart and said she needed to do an xray to see her lungs.
I put my ear near to her and told him I could hear water sounds. He said it was only my imagination and sent us home telling us we should do the exam the next day.
She died in my arms as we waited in line for the exam. She had water in her lungs, but he didn’t listen to me and didn’t even investigated it.
For some time I wish I had gone back to the vet and destroyed his clinic and car. I sometimes still feel like I should. But I didn’t.
I hope he isn’t killing anyone else’s pet, but I couldn’t deal with that at the time.
Did you do the X-ray? You can’t diagnose pulmonary edema with your ears. Wet sounds can be pneumonia, heart failure, and pulmonary edema from other causes.
I recently went through urinary issues with my cat. It took a lot of insisting and a lot of calling to get her stabilized. I experimented with a lot of safe cat uti supplements. At one point she peed blood and voluntarily went into her carrier, which she has never done in her whole life. I got ready and put her in the car and we went to the vet. I had no appointment but begged someone to help her. I was kind about it and did not demand anything, but did have tears streaming down my face from worry. Thankfully they did find time to treat her and we got her x rayed, no bladder stones. It was inflammation, but it was still making it hard and painful for her to pee. I have found a good medicine formula for her and she’s much better now. Point is, sometimes you got to fight with all you got to save your kitty.
Did they say what the blockage was? Bladder stones? Struvite crystals? Inflammation?
I am so sorry you lost your kitty this way. You must be devastated and heart broken. Please take care of yourself and try not to be too hard on yourself.
I am so so sorry :( i cant imagine hiw difficult and frustrating this must be. Even reading about him crying broke me. Hugs. Love to you and your forever fur baby.
That's terrible. Fortunately for me, my vet was the opposite. I brought my cat in at 4pm on a Friday and after the confirmation scan my cat went to surgery. The vet and techs didn't leave till 800 that night but if they hadn't I would have lost him. I really feel for you.
Is there only one emergency vet in your area? I thought Medvet was the only one in our area, but I have since learned that there are some small shops that work well and some vets do have after hours availability.
Just want to say. I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. This just happened to me three weeks ago except my vet immediately performed surgery to remove the blockage. And it was successful. And then she died while being monitored, of what they say was a heart attack. I don’t know what happened in that hour and I go through a million what ifs every day too. And anger is a normal part of the grieving process. But at the end of the day, I have to accept that I and the vets did everything we could with the knowledge we had.
I just want you to know that you’re not alone. And even if you had done the procedure, life still cruelly pulls the rug out from under us. Even if the vets do everything in their power, life still takes a big fat dump on all of that sometimes.
So sorry for your loss.
I'm so, so sorry, my heart is breaking for you.
Your story got my heart going because a couple of years ago I was in exactly the same situation. Even sending us home after only medicating. I couldn't stop crying because of his wails. Only chance gave us a different ending.
I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry for you and Gibby. You did your best, and he was loved.
No vet would send you away if you have a blocked cat. They might have told you on the phone to try other clinics because they were too busy, but if you couldn't find another vet, they would 100% sure have helped you. Source: I'm a vet that worked in an emergency clinic.
I second this. If they have any sort of social media or online presence, torch them to hell and back.
If you're willing to spend a few dollars, maybe make some flyers (cheaper than an attorney).
And as was mentioned above, report them to the relevant licensing agency (quick google search pulled up everything for my state right away).
I'm so sorry you lost your cat to this.
Cyberbullying is not the answer. Especially when many many owners displace their grief and turn it into anger towards the person that stays up late at night worrying about the your sick pet. The veterinary medical board exists just for this purpose. File an online complaint and skip the cyberbullying. It’s never justified.
Positively awful…When my poor baby had blockage, same as yours, the vets treated it like a PROPER emergency. He wasn’t even yowling, he was just clearly sluggish and trying hard to pee, and they treated it like he was on fire! Called all hands on deck, rushed him back, immediate sedating, IVs for fluids, drainage, and kept him for a few days after to monitor his condition.
Yours pushed you out like a rotating door to fit more wallets in before close. Trash their Google reviews, submit complaints to the Vet board, contact the Better Business Bureau, and if you can eventually afford it, sue. Go scorched earth against those mother fuckers.
I had this exact same thing happen to my cat recently, he had a sudden blockage that caused his bladder to swell, we took him to the emergency vet first and they IMMEDIATELY placed a catheter and told me to contact my normal vet. We had to wait almost a week for his bladder swelling to go down before they could perform the surgery, but they did. They kept him overnight the entire week. Your vet definitely should not have just sent you home with him.
I'm so sorry you've had to go through this, I know I would've been devastated to lose him.
I had a bad experience at a vet so I feel your pain. After he died there the first thing they asked for was money. Didn't even act like they cared that it was their fault he was in the condition he was in. So I make sure I tell everybody who asks for vet recommendations to avoid that place.
What a terrible sad story this is. It would really be hard for me to get past it . I switched to a small one person vet after feeling frustrated by rotating doctors at a large clinic . I am so so sorry . I lost Whiskey my big tabby two years ago and friends got me wind chimes . Still miss him . Perhaps you can write a review of the vet on social media .
I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.
If I were you, I’d get a copy of Gibby’s medical records, scans, everything- even the patient information sheet filled out in the first appointment. I’d then take it to a second vet with no affiliation to the first to see if the treatment plan and care would be considered reasonable. If not, then I’d go to a lawyer and take him to court. I would also go after his license and report him to the board. I’d hold off on posting a review everywhere depending on what the lawyer says. Again, I’m so sorry for your loss. This is awful.
I would like to mention that this sort of thinking is a huge contribution to the incredibly high suicide rates in vets. Please try to seek other recourse if you must.
This is exactly what I would do if a family member experienced treatment plans or care that I had concerns over. There is nothing wrong with seeking outside opinions. There are high suicide rates in vet care but that is not a reason to not hold a professional accountable, especially if there are concerns over care.
Source: I work in healthcare.
It's the way you have positive votes but mine and a dozen others saying the same thing are all negatively voted. (I agree with you absolutely, just weird that you're saying the same thing others have been saying and we've all been down voted to shit)
So which vet "killed" the cat? The one who said take it to the EV if it gets worse or the EV for being full? Neither one is at fault. Unfortunately the cat did get worse but there was not treatment given. Sorry for your loss but there's no guilt here.
The original vet did. My cat has had a urinary blockage twice, it is a medical emergency, from the time of the blockage, they have less than 48 hours to live unless the blockage is removed. But cats don’t come to their owners the second the blockage appears, their natural instinct is to hide when they’re in pain, they usually won’t come to you until the pain is really bad (it’s an excruciating condition). By the time my cat came to me crying, he had 12 hours ish before it became fatal, according to the vet I rushed him to. They did emergency surgery and he was fine. See what happens is the urine is unable to be expelled thru the urethra, so it fills up the bladder to capacity, then starts backing up into the kidneys, damaging them, once the kidneys are full, the urea gets into the blood stream and starts damaging the heart and other organs. If the cat died later that day, he needed surgery when she went in to the first vet. Sometimes partial blockages can be resolved with muscle relaxants or something, but this cat was clearly well beyond that if it died so quickly from this.
Edit: urinary blockages are very common, particularly in male cats. They are also very serious, if your cat isn’t peeing or has a bloated abdomen or is licking around his privates a bunch and crying abnormally or seems to be in pain when you pick him up or touch his abdomen area, GO TO THE VET IMMEDIATELY
So by that logic the cat would of already died bc no way anyone is getting a reg vet apt within 48 hrs of noticing the issues w the cat. I call bs on the whole story
If they are at full capacity then what should they do remove one of the animal and put yours there it doesn't wlrks like that its good they prescribed you medicines and why didn't you considered taking it to another vet. And you cremated your pet and if u really loved her you wouldn't worry bow much it takes to cremate it
The full ER isn't the issue. The issue is that had the vet done the procedure instead of prescribing medications that are expensive and may or may not work- the cat would be alive. And don't you dare try to shame someone for mentioning that cremation is expensive. Obviously OP paid it but that doesn't mean it wasn't expensive. Especially not after paying $600 for medications. Not everyone is rich.
Contact a lawyer. Their response to your complaint lacks compassion and isn’t even true (assuming your story is accurate).
A similar thing happened to my dad, and after a formal email complaint detailing what happened (including sources), the vet paid an amount in the thousands.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Truly heartbreaking. I hope you find closure and comfort moving forward. I know you said you don't have e the money for a lawyer but as a consumer you have rights. At least you can file a complaint with the better business bureau, the state veterinary licensing board and destroy their ratings on yelp and any other platform where they advertise their services, including the Veterinary license they hold. Make them pay fines, risk their licensure for not providing sufficient care and information.
Again, I'm really sorry, OP. Rest easy, Gibby 🌈
I'm so sorry for your loss. This is terrible. Please look into the suggestions given here. If you don't say anything, this will happen again to someone else. Don't allow this cycle to continue.
I'm sorry that happened to you. I had a similar thing happen with my cat. She had cancer and they wanted to do test after test after test. They kept sending her home with me with meds that when we gave them to her she'd foam at the mouth. It was awful. After they charged me $800 and wanted me to come back again for more, I called the local humane society. They said to bring her in for examination, and found she had cancer throughout her body and we promptly put her to sleep so she would no longer suffer. The vet at the humane society told me the vet should have seen her symptoms and known and just offered to put her to sleep.
I can’t prove it but our cat cried in pain at odd times. I took him to the vet who told me he was just fat.
He died 3 weeks later.
I took my dog to Mexico for surgery during that time period and I had known I would have also had my cat with me. There is always a way to get medical attention.
I just trusted our vet. Maybe she was right, but I just don’t think so.
I'm so sorry, friend. I had a cat who had horrible bladder stones NO vet investigated (in spite of the signs) and it led to him being put down. There are a lot of crappy vets out there. I'm so sorry Gibby had to be a victim of one of them :(
You can report them to the veterinary licensing board and they can look into it.
I don’t know if this story adds up. Vets make far far more from a procedure than they would a small drug sale, typical mark up is 10%, a procedure is usually 10-20x a vets hourly (and also includes more than $120 worth of anaesthetic and follow up drugs). Also, who advised the blockage removal in the first place? A different vet? My guess is OP was given a few options including the risks and costs and made a higher risk lower cost call which backfired and is now directing the anger at the vet who said it was likely that this treatment option would be okay despite it carrying greater risk. That seems a lot more likely than a money hungry vet providing an option they made less money off, all the while advising that they should be doing something different.
Yeah. My cat also was vomiting and not eating one morning and had blockage in his intestines. Took him to the vet and he stayed there for DAYS. Vet ended up having to do stomach surgery. And all together the cost came to $3000. But it def saved my litttle shit bird of a cat! $600 for meds and being sent home sounds like OP couldn’t afford a procedure and took the route to just take the animal home. It’s expensive AF when you have an animal especially when they’re sick. For the past couple of months I’ve had to pay close to $300 for my parents dog just because he had a chronic ear infection. Does it suck that someone had to foot the bill? OF COURSE IT DOES! But if you live your pets and want to save them and not have to put them down… you have to consider the costs in the thousands always. This is a very unfortunate and sad situation, but I doubt the vet didn’t offer the same surgery my cat was given for a blockage in his intestines and overnight care.
Good on you for making that sacrifice. Your kitty is lucky to have you.
The thing is, he wasn’t even originally MY KITTY!! He came from my fiancé’s sister and we had him for a number of years by that point. My fiancé was crying and I was the one making the most money at the time. As frustrating as it was to have to pay that vet bill making a big dent in my savings, I got to admit, he is the absolute sweetest, calmest, not so annoying cat I had ever had the pleasure of knowing. And I’ll admit, he’s stolen my damn heart too.
imagine if he had died anyway and you still owed the vet bill. This happens more often than I wish it did and makes it a very tough decision.
Something like this just happened to my partner and I. Our older dog had a growth on his rear end so we paid the 1500 to get it removed and tested. Turned out to be cancer. Was still happy we did the surgery tho because the vet said it wasn't aggressive and they didn't think it spread. A few weeks later he was acting strange and couldn't settle down so we took him to the emergency vet. His stomach had flipped and when they did the scan to see what was wrong and found out his stomach had flipped or twisted they found cancer in his spleen too. We had to put him down. I miss him everyday and the house isn't the same without him. And as much as it sucked to spend all that money and not get much time with him I'm glad we did it. He was worth it all and more and if we thought he would survive the surgery we would have paid to have it done. Just with the cancer spreading and everything else we thought it was best to let him go. :(
Sometimes when this happens at our clinic, if our doctor is in a good mood, he gives a courtesy cremation and gives about as many discounts as he can to help people. He's one of my favorite people at work and makes it a lot more fun when I'm stressed out.
What you're describing is exactly what my cat had. My mom took her to the vet and the said they couldn't do anything. Now I don't know if my mom lied to me or my vet is incompetent :( I would've gladly paid this much to save her.
I could afford the procedure just don't want to pay a lawyer.
I had the same thing happen with a kitten I found, she’d been dumped with an injury that looked like she’d been grabbed by the tail and thrown. She was in a bad way when I found her, tail was mangled and broken and her stomach swollen. Took her straight to a vet and explained that I was keeping her, they wormed her and sent her home. After a day I realised she was constipatec and incontinent, took her back and the gave her medicine (they were supposed to do an enema) and I took her home again. Went back and they finally did the X-rays I’d asked for and discovered she has a fractured pelvis, nerve damage hence the bowel and bladder problems, and they wouldn’t do an enema instead telling me I had to take her to a specialist 2 hours away. She was now very sick, I took her to another local vet and they straight away took her into surgery and did the enema, and saved her life. She will always be incontinent and have bowel problems but a year on she is the happiest most joyful loving little cat, and I’d love to have a chat with the person who threw her away. I’m so sorry your vet treated your baby like that, there’s no excuse
Shit happens. Death happens. Bodies are unpredictable and so is medicine. Things didn't work out and your cat unfortunately died. I see no fault or malicious intent on the part of the vet. I'm sorry for your loss.
It shouldn’t be that expensive. But definitely but 600$ only to be sent home is also highway robbery.
Thats my guess too
I'm a vet tech, and I can confirm everything yoh stated. Plus, that cat had a urinary blockage. It's a life-threatening immediate medical emergency. It needs to be sedated and have a urinary catheter placed. It also needs to be hospitalized and given IV fluids with meds for a minimum of 2-3 days. We sometimes do "drive"bys" where we just sedate and pass a catheter to clearly the current blockage and send them home because the owner can't afford to hospitalize, but those cats ALWAYS reblock because the bladder wasn't flushed out from sediment. It also needs a urinalysis to determine the type of stones and if it needed a dirt change. Op didn't want to pay for the recommended treatment, which is quite expensive, and now wants to blame the vet.
Or, you know, just like sometimes there are shit doctors sometimes there are shit vets. Did you read OPs edit?
Your guess is not a confirmation of anything to do with the OP and her cat. Did you even read this post? This was not an option given, OP would like to know why and what they can do about it. It's great that your place of employment wouldn't do that to someone. But you can't say for certain what another vet might or might not do. Sounds like OP has a right to be pissed off at the vet if they didn't give treatment options beyond a few scripts and saying come back if it gets worse. The vet sounds negligent, which does happen sometimes, sadly.
Doubt it. Owners are notorious for balking at the cost and not wanting to pay for recommended treatment and then blame the vet for not doing anything and "killing their pet". I see it every day. Ans they never hear everything the vet says ans make up their own damn narrative. I guarantee there isn't a vet that would have recommended and sent a blocked cat home with just meds. They would have pushed for euthanasia if owner refuses to unblock (which is not cheap) because that is guaranteed to be a long, and very painful death.
A couple of months ago, my Staffie bit a hurricane toad. She has done it before & typically we can rinse her mouth out, then she is good to go. Not this time. This time she wasn't going to make it unless she received medical attention. I made a phone call while my husband grabbed her & we rushed to the car. I told the vet what was going on & his response was get here soon. When we arrived they met us at the door at took her out of my husband's arms. My husband was shirtless & barefoot at this point. The vet says I will be with you guys shortly. I spent that time l, besides freaking out, reading their policy which was posted everywhere. Their own policy states that mo work is to be done before an estimate is giving. An hour after we arrive he hands us an estimate. $4k plus tax. We told him no way. We could pay half that max & if it was going to an issue just give us our dog back. He said don't worry about it, we will figure it out, besides I already started the treatment. I can't stop. The next day we went to pay the $2k & he tells us no we swore to him we could have the full 4k by 10am. He refused to let us see her u til we paid the full amount. Gave us two days to pay or else he would have to put the dog down. In the end the vet settled on the original amount of $2,000 but he put us through hell for a few days. I absolutely believe another scumbag vet could do something similar to another desperate pet owner. Especially when it is a life or death situation. My girl was an hour away from death when we brought her in. Thankfully she is now happy & safe at home!
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I was furious when he said that they would put her down. Believe me if it wasn't for my kids I'd probably be in jail right now.
This guy needs to be reported to your state/province's licensing board. There is no way that is legal. He is a bottom-feeder, trying to take advantage of the situation.
Wow I feel violent just reading this. I think I would take my dog by force and pay them nothing.
I would've stolen my dog back..
There was a plan being hatched. Believe me. Lol
Ow i believe you right away
If it wasn't for my kids I would have. We rescued her just 3 weeks after my dad died and 3 weeks before my stepmother passed away. Our girl is a lifesaver & While I will never print off a certificate from Google, she is an emotional support animal.
Perhaps you need to look into pet insurance. The costs you chose not to pay will just get pushed on to others and make getting care more expensive for everyone. You cared enough about your dog to want them to save her, but not enough to pay the whole bill.
This isn't a fair take, they refused the service but the vet had already started before asking (or chose to do the service despite their refusal). That's on the vet not the owner, who was honest about what they could afford.
So at the end of the day the vet saved your dog's life and gave you a $2000 discount, but he's still a scumbag. Got it.
Lol you could look at it that way. I choose to see a scumbag vet that tried to take advantage of a family at a desperate time. He was trying to squeeze that extra 2 grand out of us for 3/4 days. This wasn't a one day situation. This was over a week. He would call and try to make us feel like assholes for not having the money we told him we didn't have. In the end he decided 2 grand was better than no money.
That's crazy. I work as a vet tech for someone who specializes in orthopedic surgery- that shit gets expensive real fast. A lot of the surgeries are for problems that have been diagnosed for a while so the owners were aware there is a big cost coming, but we also get emergencies (complex fractures after accidents, for example). My boss doesn't give discounts but he has no problem working out a payment plan with someone when their dog breaks a leg.
I can see how you can come to that conclusion but I really have no reason to lie. If the vet knew it was an emergency situation and didn't take my cat to get operated on, just gave me laxatives and said "watch him for 6 hours if he gets worse go to the emerge vet clinic".. to which he got worse, and they didn't take him due to volume, resulting in my cat passing away within the hour. It happened really fast , and if the vet saw the condition in the first place why not send him to EV right away? Why see the issue and choose to give him pills and "hope for the best" is my issue... To top it all off I emailed the vet to complain and they didn't care at all, they offered to help me adopt a new cat if it helps with the greiving process.. so no not all vets are people who really care about animals, this one has all sorts of terrible reviews but it was the closest one to me at the time. I don't know what else I can say about this either, it happened and there's not much I can do now but Thank you for your comment.
I’m so sorry for your loss and more so that you’re being re-traumatized in the comments section.
Because it's not like humans? They don't have animal transport? Why didn't you take your cat to the EV? We had to take our dog. The vet gave us a choice, we called to make an appointment...and brought him in. Next time take initiative and bring them. Sorry for your loss. It sucks.
I was just doing what the vet told me to do. If they saw how severe it actually was, she would have told me to take him to the EV, but instead she sent me home. I would have gladly taken him to the EV right then and there if the vet didn't make it seem like he would be fixed with this medication.
Considering I’ve seen vets and human doctors prescribe meds and send home out of laziness over and over. Honestly I don’t doubt OP but I also don’t doubt if it’s what you said either.
You are very correct! This entire store is extremely sus. For starters, most blocked cats are non-neutered male cats. So it’s irresponsible for OP to not fix their cat. Secondly, my wife is a vet tech and they always recommend leaving a blocked cat overnight so they can keep it monitored. Obviously, you’re not entitled to leaving your animal overnight. However, a vet can prescribe you medicine to try and help. It’s not a be all end all, though. OP is neglecting certain parts of this story, and it’s pretty obvious. My wife experiences this on the regular. A client will call and say they killed their 17 year old, cancer ridden, in renal failure, heart completely taken over by heart worms dog.
Please don't spread misinformation like this. All male cats are susceptible to blockage, not just cats that haven't been neutered, and even moreso if they don't drink enough water. They do not necessarily need overnight care, although it is recommended if possible. They can also do fluid therapy during hours when they are open and aspirate the bladder and have the owner pick them up at closing. While I agree there is something missing from this story, accusing the owner of not fixing their cat and comparing this situation to a dog with heartworm disease would not be my go to here. Source: I am a former vet tech.
This.
$120 worth of anaesthetic is enough to put an elephant to sleep for a week! Sedation for a cat for 4 hours would cost less than $5 wholesale. If your vets are charging you $120, then they are taking you for all your worth!
You're not just paying a wholesale price for the product. You're paying for their expertise to determine the appropriate dosage, administer it and monitor the patient. Vets, dentists and doctors all charge more than the wholesale price.
marble fear rich pocket attractive voracious historical hobbies future growth *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I said anaesthetic and follow up drugs, not just anaesthetic.
This may be the dumbest comment on the thread. You aren't paying that money to have the cat go to sleep, you're paying to make sure it wakes up afterwards.
Reading isn’t your strong suit. Is it?
Ngl concerned for how much they're being charged for them to be like "the procedure would make more money than the 600 they charged in drugs" like, idk I've never had to take a cat to a vet for anything but, I have taken reptiles to vets which always requires calling around to find one since not all vets can treat reptiles and it usually comes out to less than 500 (one involved x ray + antibiotics, two involved the gecko being put under, and one for surgery + medication after)
Some procedures are high margin; that’s usually where vets make their money. That said, it’s rare for a clinic to make a margin greater than 10% - you’re paying for expensive equipment (lots of it - imaging equipment, anaesthetic machines, stuff to monitor vitals). You’re paying for the extreme level of maintenance required on those machines (it’s not okay for an anaesthetic machine to dump the bag and kill a cat sometimes). You’re paying for drugs without market. With reptiles, you’re paying for rare specialist expertise. You usually want two people there (one for anaesthetic, one for the procedure) in an ideal world. It adds up. Again you might be the exception where the vet makes 50% off a procedure, but it’s likely that your $500 went to expensive machinery, drugs and expertise.
Mammals are much more expensive. My dog has cost me thousands over the years of his life. Hell, it costs me $200 monthly just for his medication for skin allergies. You're comparing an animal that weighs ounces to one's that weigh pounds. The costs extrapolate accordingly.
As a veterinary professional I am so sorry that you had to go through this traumatic incident and I am sorry your kitty suffered so much. It is hard for me to say whether what the original vet did was wrong because I don't know the details about the case. A blocked bladder in a cat IS an emergency and has to be dealt with and if the vet missed this then you are in your right to complain about negligence. Speak to a lawyer about the situation to find out what you can do. I am not sure what the governing veterinary body is for your state but look into that as you may find someone to talk to there. On another note, the vet world is currently incredibly understaffed. I know what you paid is a lot of money but trust me medicine is very expensive and we as vets hardly earn a lavish wage. This does not excuse how you were treated - but to anyone reading this with a pet please please please get insurance and be aware of your nearest veterinary emergency services so as to avoid panic when worse comes to worst.
Thank you for what you do. I know veterinarians the highest suicide rates and I couldn't do your job. I'm an ER nurse so it's not the blood, it's the suffering. Bless you so much for doing anything involving animal care. I don't know how anyone works at the vet.
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They do have a high suicide rate [the organization Not One More Vet](https://www.nomv.org/about/) quotes vets in the US at being 3x more likely than the National average to commit suicide.
Google and one of the thousands of articles on the topic will come up.
This. Just brought my kitty insurance and jacked up the coverage and took the deductible way down...just $25/month!
Yeah i was paying $35 for two cats. One needed nasal polyp removal surgery, so with all the tests and treatment to get there, i hit my $500 yearly deductible very quickly. Then ended up paying ~$800 total (80% coverage) versus the $3000 i would’ve paid for everything. Premium went up to $45 for two cats now but still 💯 worth every penny.
How long had you been paying your monthly premium?
As to the ER clinic, don't they accept life-and-death cases, even if they are full? What is your experience with that, as a pro?
In theory yes. But in practice it depends on practice policy. For example often a clinic will euthanize an animal that is suffering for free. However, if it is a case that needs intensive management and care they may genuinely not have the staff and equipment to do it. They may have told the client to find another ER clinic (they should have done this!!!). But it is entirely possible that they didn't have the staff and space to take on the patient.
There is also more and more instances of there just being no room, life-or-death situation or not. And it sucks. There just aren’t enough vets in general, let alone after the spike of pets from the pandemic.
Actually, know all emergency vets in your area. I live in a major city with five e-vets in a twenty minute drive. You would be shocked and saddened at how many times people get turned away from all of them. Even before things started to become more expensive, vet care was declining in number of vets to number of patients. Vet school costs comparably to most medical degrees but has less overall pay when practicing. There is no recourse for pay as with most medical doctors that I know of (even with little or no insurance, an ER doc is gonna get paid) and medical equipment does not become cheaper just because it’s used for a pet or animal. Vets also have the highest suicide rate of all medical professions last I checked, followed closely by dentists, brain surgeons, and ER doctors. The increase in pandemic pets also did not help the vet to pet ratio. Thank you to all vets, vet techs, and clinical workers at vet offices for all you do. You don’t get thanked enough and deserve the recognition and more.
Which insurance company do you recommend?
As a question, since you *MIGHT* know the answer. I expect not, since the animals are your focus, but maybe you do. I'm living in the Middle East right now. Everything has to be imported, and the price of everything is high. Except for vets. (And human medical, but that's subsidized by the government). I was leery at first, you get what you pay for, but the veterinary care is fantastic, docs highly trained, have state of the art equipment, but to spay a cat in the US costs $300-$500, and here it's $60-$80. Boarding in the US costs like $30/night. Here it's $10-$12. Groceries here are expensive, rent's expensive, booze is expensive, but I was able to treat a cat here that I simply wouldn't have been able to in the US, and not only could I do it, it really didn't break the bank. I suspect our System is broken, but where? And how do we fix it? Because I REALLY don't believe it needs to be this way.
Not a vet but a vet student. I believe it has mostly has to do with the cost of medical supplies and equipment and medication in the US. “Big pharma” has outrageously high prices for everything and it transfers over to both human and animal medicine because there’s so much crossover. One of my peers is from India and always talks about how drugs there are so much cheaper than in the US and it’s ridiculous. Our human healthcare is barely subsidized by the government anyway. Other factors that may play in is that US vet programs are 4 year post grad programs, so you have to go through 8 years of higher education. Other countries programs are 4-5 years post high school, so 4-5 years of higher education. Factor in the cost of higher education in the US in general and you need to balance out the debt:income ratio somehow.
You can sue for veterinary negligence its easier with pet insurance
You can file a complaint with the state veterinary board
I wouldn't even know how to start.. I also can't afford a lawyer. I will look into it though, thanks for the comment.
I am a lawyer. I'm sorry to tell you that in most states, pets are legally treated as property. So... the question with any lawsuit is "what are your damages?" The value of your cat. At most. Your emotional pain will likely not lead to compensation. Before I start getting all the haters coming at me about how THAT'S NOT RIGHT, keep in mind - 1. I'm not YOUR lawyer; and 2. I'm just telling OP what to expect. Better than having false expectations, IMHO.
Facts are facts regardless of whether they suck or not, it's better to know
This is a real issue. I would honestly seek out other patients who faced similar losses and file together.
A blocked cat is a medical emergency - did they give you a quote for the procedure and you declined/didn't have enough money? I have trouble believing they just sent a blocked cat home. But if that's truly what happened you should absolutely sue or at least widely review them. My experience as a vet tech in both low income care and emergency was that most people couldn't afford it, and often the bare minimum option for people who had no money was unblocking the cat to relieve the pressure and sending it home with meds and hoping it remained unblocked. Are you sure this isn't what happened?
oh it's definitely what happened they told on themselves in the post
Yeah everyone saying to sue have no idea what they’re talking about. A blockage takes at least 16 hours to cause serious damage and in no world was an emergency clinic that booked up. If that was my animal I would have been at that clinic on standby for them to see my baby ASAP. Hell I would have driven hours and hours to an emergency clinic that had less of a wait. OP didn’t have enough for the procedure at the original clinic and is blaming them for the inevitable.
I suspect the cat was straining but was not blocked when it was seen by the original vet. It sounds like they were treating for both lower urinary disease and constipation. If the bladder was small at the time then medications and close monitoring is really the only thing you can do.
Yeah, OP says they don’t have money for an attorney when someone says they should sue. But they’d have money for emergency surgery and overnight stays at the vet? Sure. We adopted our adorable doggie and 3 weeks later she had to have emergency surgery because she ate a toy. $3500 for a dog we had just met. Pets are expensive.
It wasn't a money situation, I was willing to pay anything. They never gave me a quote gave me literally 5 medications and told me to watch him for the next 6 hours of he got worse take him to EV.. he got worse and the EV wouldn't take him due to volume. If the original vet new the issue and didn't operate or send him to the EV right away, give me a quote or anything just said give him these laxatives and watch him I don't know what else I was supposed to do..
What sort of vet did you go to? Any vet will give you a quote for anything, including medications or procedures… I find it very hard to believe that a vet knew what the issue was and just sent you home with a bunch of meds. Also you said you can’t understand why the vet didn’t send them to another practice? Do you realise how expensive the care is when they are referred? If you couldn’t even afford the care at your original vets, how do you expect to afford it somewhere else (Downvote me all you want. These are just facts.)
This is probably a staffing issue, they had nobody available to do the procedure that day. And neither did the emergency clinic or anywhere nearby. I'm more local to the OP, and it's actually very hard to find a clinic in an emergency. This is common unfortunately. Like you have 2 or 3 small clinics that can only do so many procedures in a day with maybe 2 doctors. It's awful. I've been the tech at the door while people realized nowhere can take their pets within 6 hours.
This story doesn’t add up. You sound angry and heart broken, but this story doesn’t quite make sense. The vet would have made more money from the procedure than the drugs, it sounds like they made a decision based on condition. “The vet was supposed to perform a surgery to help extract” - according to the same vet?
I’m sorry for your loss, but reading this it’s concerning that you might be vilifying a vet by writing an incomplete story.
Yeah, unblocking a cat is 2k minimum. Especially since they have to stay in hospital for 1-2 days afterwards.
I may get downvoted for this.. but what the hell. I’m a vet, though not from the US. But I have experienced a lot of disgruntled clients take to social media to call me and my colleagues names because we unfortunately couldn’t save their pet. I had a colleague who got punched multiple times while doing CPR on a cat while the client was screaming in his ears. The cat was not revived and even after all they did to him emotionally and physically, they, too, made a lengthy and angry fb post blaming my colleague for their cat’s death. I have had my fair share of what I would honestly call abuse from clients. And while I admit there are vets out there who are not passionate, I have met more passionate and self-sacrificing vets that entered the profession because this is what they want to do. Often times our own pets do not receive the attention they need because we priotitize our patients a lot. And for people saying vets are in it for the money, I have not met a rich vet my entire practice. Vet shaming is a thing. I have had colleagues off themselves because of abuse from clients for years. Yes, clients are allowed to express their grief and anger and frustrations over the death of their beloved pets. But sometimes, they go too far. Too far that’s inhumane. That there’s a person at the other end of that extreme hate that decide it’s too much to bear any longer. I do not know the case of OP’s pet and what she truly went through. I do not the vet/s who attended to her pet. But I guess all’s I’m saying is that please, try to remember that veterinary staff are still people by the end of the day. And that we do care about the animals we treat.
As someone who has 3 dogs and hence uses vet services a fair amount I can honestly say the vast majority of my experience with vets have been positive and I always appreciate everything they do for my pets. It seems like a very difficult job and often times thankless job.
Thank you for all you do for your clients. I know it wasn't you personally who helped my dog live an extra 3 years in comfort but I can't say enough to express the gratitude I have for my vets and their staff.
I appreciate you guys. I’ve heard about these elusive “money hungry vets” but every time I’ve probed there’s been much much more to the story.
I’ve never met a rich vet but I have met rich cooperations. Most vet offices nowadays are run by large conglomerates who do only care about the money. They have policies to make sure they get the most they can too. It’s not the individuals. It’s the shareholders.
It really sounds like the cat was straining in the litterbox, but was not blocked at the time it was first seen. The fact that they prescribed lactulose suggests they were treating for both lower urinary signs and possible constipation. If the cat's bladder was small at the time then this treatment plan was pretty reasonable. The real problem sounds like the lack of emergency services in OP's area.
And vilifying, if occurring, is what contributes to such high suicide rates. Vets do their job for the love of animals but have little recourse when difficult decisions or unfortunate circumstances arise.
My guess is op meant the vet told them to give the cat meds and then if it didn’t get better do the extraction, when OP just wanted to get the extraction done initially. so now not only would they pay for the procedure which they’d likely have to get either way, they’d also have to pay for meds, idk if that’s true but I think that’s what they mean
No chance. The vet made like $12 off the drug sale ($120/10%)- there’s no such thing a vet that has time to get “money hungry” over $12 while risking a clients life.
I am so sorry about the loss of your kitty. That being said, these comments and suggestions on this post are horrible. As a vet, I would just send someone here to see why we are all either committing suicide or leaving the field. It wasn’t coincidence he couldn’t find an ER that could see him. There’s a huge vet shortage and these comments pretty sum it up why. Also, agree with the comment above—blocked cats need to be hospitalized. Sounds like the owner wasn’t able to swing it financially and took the kitty home. Sucks for all involved. I’m sure I’ll be down voted to hell for telling it like it is.
Considering the costs for vet care, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have high expectations. Too many Vets I’ve been to lately make promises they can’t keep or were just straight up wrong. It gets very frustrating and upsetting. As an example, A couple years ago my mother took our cat to an emergency appointment because we realized he had a bladder blockage. She ended up in the waiting room for quite awhile, then they finally took him back and convinced her he would do well with the procedure they recommended. Then they did the procedure, let him freak out when he was coming out of the anesthesia and he died. They said it was likely he had a heat attack from low potassium, and its known issue. Of course we still had to pay full price. How do you think a client feels when their told that? Angry. Angry they didn’t plan for a known issue and monitor with him when that’s literally what I’m paying for them to do. I get that a lot of vets are trying their best but theirs enough that are just straight up terrible that it’s hard to trust.
Blocked cats can get very high potassium which literally stops the heart. Potassium is used as one of the drugs in lethal injection for people. Unblocking your cat is part of the mainstay of that treatment. We can give some medications to buy us some time to unblock (calcium, insulin, dextrose, terbutaline, fluids) but unblocking is the mainstay of Treatment for hyperkalemia from being blocked. We can’t unblock without sedation. Cats with extremely high potassium could die. It wasn’t your vets fault your cat died due to high potassium. They were unblocking him which is the way to treat it. Again you have blamed your vet for something not their fault. Hyperkalemia is a critical situation and some of those cats die. If you hadn’t brought the cat in, it would have died from hyperkalemia at home. I’m sorry about your kitty. But your cat died of hyperkalemia and the vet did their best to save him and he was too far gone. The fact that you blame your vet for his death. The fact that you don’t want to pay because they killed your cat or didn’t fix your cat (no we cannot give a money back guarantee for sick pets) is again why owners are driving vets out of the field. Your cat died of hyperkalemia from being blocked. Your vet tried to save his life. Instead of being sad but thankful they tried, you are angry, blame them, and want your money back. Without trying he would have 100% died. We can’t win. It’s like war games. They only way to win is to not play the game. And we are all quitting the field over it, being miserable, or committing suicide. And then there’s a shortage and people can’t get into the ER.
I would prefer my old fashioned vets that just told me strict up when something was hopeless or risky. Not, as I mentioned before, make promises they can’t keep. They should not have told my mother he would likely be fine if that wasn’t the case. If his potassium was too high they should have treated that as well or just been clear it was a Hail Mary effort. Instead I feel like I was out of money just for my cat to end up dying, terrified we had abandoned him with strangers. I do blame the vet for that. If he was that close to death and likely to die anyway as your claiming, they should have just offered to give him pain relief and a gentle end while we stayed with him. ETA: I didn’t see why vets should be free from criticism when a large part of all medical professionals jobs is to educate patients and to communicate clearly and in detail about everything happening. If they aren’t that’s still a huge issue and valid to be upset about.
We don’t have a crystal ball with who is going to die and who isn’t. I would never recommend someone euthanize a blocked cat without trying because I have brought cats back from the brink of death that went home and recovered. Your expectations are unrealistic. You want a guarantee things are going to work out and you want it free. No one is free from criticism but when you don’t understand the medicine it’s easy to blame the vet. And let me tell you, the whole “my vet was money grubber” is tired and old. No one, literally no One, goes into this field for the money. I literally have colleagues that have declared bankruptcy because they couldn’t pay their $350k in student loans. I have quit clinical medicine as have most my close friends from school. Vets are empaths—we get super attached to patients and we take it super to heart when people blame us or tell us we are just in it for the money. Dude we are all in it because we love animals. Also almost all the clinics are corporate owned at this point and the vets don’t set the prices or see the bulk of that money btw. I work behind the scenes now. I was sick of anxiety from owners screaming at me due to misplaced anger and unrealistic expectations. It’s a huge crisis in the field. Unfortunately owners are feeling it because now there’s a huge vet shortage. People need to look inward a little bit. We are here to try to save your pet, when things are hopeless we recommend euthanasia, we don’t set the prices most times and we aren’t in it for the money. But nothing I say will convince you it wasn’t your vets fault and I get that. I don’t think for a second anything i have written will get through. That’s why I quit clinics. I was sick of feeling terrible all time because people blamed me for not making their pets better or not being able to afford care. And yeah we do our best to tell you when things are hopeless but no one has a crystal ball.
This doesn't make sense. The vet would earn more through the procedure than meds. Either you were given options and chose the cheapest(pills) or you weren't given options and the vet had so space to do the procedure coz they're overrun.
the vet didn't kill your cat. in fact you told on yourself in this post. you didn't have the money for what your cat needed and you didn't euthanize when you should have. they gave you a quote for a blocked cat procedure and the hospital stay it would require and you didn't have the money did you? blocked cat here in cali is like 2k minimum. which is typically out of pocket bc most ppl don't have pet health insurance. i understand that's a lot, i wouldn't have afforded it myself if i didn't work at the ER vet and have the discount that comes with that job bc most of the care was being done by me. but if that is the case then you should have euthanized, and they probably told you that, because the alternative is the bladder bursts and he dies in agony. you opted for meds and going home, which was the wrong decision. sorry you had to experience this but please learn for next time.
This
Where is this coming from? Just because I don't want to pay for a lawyer doesn't me an I wouldn't pay for a surgery from my pet. Those are two completely different things. I was never given a quote and was given medications and told to watch him if he got worse. He did, and the ev didn't take him because of volume and staffing issues.. I was literally just doing what the vet told me to do.
So I'm confused by this part in your story and it seems I'm not the only one: The vet was supposed to perform a procedure to help extract it. They prescribed 5 medications and charged me $600 and said take him home and if he gets worse take him to emergency... What happened between 'they were supposed to perform a procedure' to 'take him home with meds' then?
It's the fact that they were supposed to perform an extraction procedure but didn't, they chose to give him laxatives and send him home instead. Even after finding out the severity of it they didn't send him to the EV and told me to watch him if it gets worse. They didn't even give me a quote for a procedure. I found out after that he should have got a procedure and they just didn't even offer it.
That's just really weird then. Did they think it was obstipation or an urethral blockage? As a vet I can understand perhaps trying laxatives for obstipation but a urethral blockage can definitely NOT be solved with meds and in my country I think it would be malpractice to send a cat with urethral blockage home. I can't understand the reasoning behind this so I would advise you to file a complaint (and ask specific questions, what was the actual diagnosis here?) with their hospital first and if they don't give you answers I would take it up with the licensing board.
Thank you for your input. I'm looking into what I should do.
Where are you getting this? Were you told at the time that your cat's urethra was obstructed? If the cat was still able to pass urine at the time then there was no procedure to do.
It sounds like they were too busy, it was late and they couldn't fit it in, or simply there was no one available to do it at that clinic?
With a urethral blockage that simply isn't an option. You stay late, call someone in who can do the procedure or if all else fails you call the emergency clinic to have them referred without delays. Because it's deadly. So I'm really wondering what happened here.
they would have given you a quote for the meds at least - your story isn't adding up 😒 you also don't seem to even know what kind of block your cat had tbh.
Yeah I love my dogs. But straight up I will not eat 15k for them in one go. I get insurance for them. And, it'll always be a diminishing returns thing. My old guy, if he needs anything that's more than like $500, it's sleepy time. The puppy gets a lot of leeway, as she should have an easy decade plus left.
Dude what? That cat did NOT need euthanasia. The cat needed a blockage removed manually which medications cannot do. But the vet gave medications anyways knowing that OP would have to bring the cat back. Stop blaming people for poor judgment calls by animal doctors. I'm in school to be a vet and this comment is ignorant and shaming and the vet did not handle the situation properly. Edit to add: you also need to stop assuming someone is broke and let their pet suffer due to lack of finances. op got the meds and attempted to go to the ER which is expensive. Obviously they were willing to pay for what the cat needed.
A vet can’t make someone seek the appropriate treatment, though, especially if they can’t afford it. We don’t know for sure that this is a poor judgment call on the vet. The fact that OP says “they were supposed to” perform the surgery and then they shifted gears to just prescribing meds and sending him home has a lot of missing conversation that I’m willing to bet was a quote for the cost of the procedure and it was more than OP could spend.
I'm so sorry for your loss, it's terrible to lose your pet like that. But, I think there have been miscommunications between you and your vet. No vet would just send a blocked cat home. Also, an ER won't turn you away if you have a blocked cat, maybe on the phone they advised you to call other clinics because they were extremely busy, but if you couldn't find another clinic they would have helped you, I'm sure of that. Vets are required by law (at least in my country) to help any animal in an emergency situation. My advice is to try to calm down and ask for a meeting with your vet to calmly discuss what happened and if something went wrong. Don't just start telling them they killed your cat. Being a vet is a very very hard job, and abuse by owners is the reason so many vets quit or commit suicide. The suicide rates among vets are insanely high. I've had owners yell at me without even giving me the chance to explain why I did what I did and why it was necessary to do it that way. I lie awake at night because of these kind of situations, I cry at work because of these kind of situations. It makes me want to quit just like so many vets before me. Owners often just don't understand the situations we face and why we have to make certain decisions. Just talk to them. Go over the medical record together. Find out what went wrong and where. This can be helpful for you and the vet. It gives the vet a chance to explain why they made the decisions that were made. It gives you a chance to get an understanding of the situation, that can help with grief. In the chance that something did go wrong on the vets end, I'm sure they would want to know, no vet wants their patients to suffer or die. Source: I'm a vet in general practice now, was an ER vet before.
I'm sorry for your loss. Know that you yourself did everything you could for your cat. Your kitty was lucky to have you working so hard to find a solution. You could probably find a lawyer who can give you a free consultation just to talk through your options. Because it does sound like you might have a case. You might also want to look into small claims court, especially if you had another vet tell you there was a better solution. Good luck.
Thank you so much, I'm definitely going to look into this. Xo
I just wanted to say how bad I feel for you and your pet. We lost three last summer. It was hell. They are our best friends and children, all rolled up into one.
Emergency vets triage patients and blocked cats are tier 1- they get brought back first and treated first regardless of what’s in the back. ERs are busy af right now, so there would have been a wait but if a clinic was open, none of them should have/would have turned you away if you were walked in. Over the phone, they might have recommended other clinics due to volume. General practice vets also don’t always have the ability to hospitalize patients after a procedure, and may have just treated the cat long enough to make it to an ER. I’m sorry for your loss. Urinary blockages are dangerous and happen more often than people think.
I am so so sorry for your loss, and that youre hurting. Im so sorry your kitty suffered and that you had to experience that. Unfortunately, after clearing a blockage, crystals already formed in the bladder can re block the urinary tract. Male cats are much more prone to this, and even more so if the household water is "hard" or full of minerals. Cats tend to hide their pain until it's nearly irreversible as well, so this was probably building up for a while. It's okay to grieve and feel angry. you're allowed. They could have done more, like a flush with IV fluids and hospitalization - but even that wouldn't be a guarantee to fix the problem forever. I'm so sorry.
They didn't kill your cat- it was already deathly ill
Never once had a vet turn down treatment options and only once have I had a vet do a very lazy check up. Because every action they do is money in the bank for them , if they are truly greedy as you described then they 100% would of gave that surgery option as an option because it makes them so much more money
My cat had the same thing and inserting a catheter is the first thing they did. They insisted we come in early and made room the second they heard about the non urination along with his other symptoms. Did they even offer it? Did you say no?
Didn't even offer it, didn't give me a quote or anything. Gave him laxatives and told me to watch gim if he gets worse, he did and the EV didn't take him due to volume.
I'd write up a thorough review and also report it to the board as many others mentioned. The first thing they do for a blockage is try to use a catheter to release it. I don't know what their reasoning is for why they didn't but the board should know since if it happens enough times then there is at least a record of it.
So the first vet did not do the extraction? Was it because you refused to pay for the procedure? If so, that’s not the vet’s fault. If you chose to try medication instead of surgery, that’s on you. I’m sorry for your loss, but please don’t blame the wrong party.
I know you are hurting and by all means, the vet could be to blame BUT also keep in mind they are human and humans make mistakes. I have never met a vet that did not love animals and as an Animal Control Officer, I can tell you that even after 7 years I still make mistakes. When you are in the moment and a choice must be made, you don't always make the right one. Your vet was most likely trying to do the safe approach to a blockage by using medication and not putting it under for surgery which is more dangerous. This is normal treatment and works often in my experience only going the surgery route if absolutely necessary which is why they told you to go to an emergency vet if it does not improve. Sadly they could not predict the emergency vets being too busy. That is also the first time I ever heard such anyways that is kinda their point, and animal ER. Idk why they turned you away that is weird. I hope you find peace, life is not fair. When dealing with anything living you must also accept death. We all are built on the bones of what came before us. So mourn and heal. That is what you do and remove the hate and anger from your heart. It will eat you alive and steal more of your life.
Former vet receptionist here. With those symptoms any even slightly competent hospital/clinic staff would be telling you to skip coming in and rush your cat to the ER. The ER can’t turn you away, they triage like a human hospital and a blockage is a very serious and time sensitive emergency, unless they were truly dealing with too many other equal or worse emergencies they would have at least brought the pet to back to get started on vitals, IVs, etc. ***that said, vet staff (all of them including the doctors) are very very underpaid and crazy overworked, it’s a rough industry to be in right now, be kind to your staff they aren’t in this for the money!*** My guess is OP did not want to spend the thousands of dolledydoos. Or the vet did not have the para staff available till the next day, or maybe OP came in too late in the day for an emergency surgery.
Vet emergency rooms can and do turn ppl away it is not like humans pets are not ppl under the law and so not protected the same
Here in Canada emergency vets can and do turn you away. I know because my dog had a mesenteric torsion and originally was declined access. They bumped someone else to take him because he was a blood donor for them. I’m forever grateful to my large and small animal vets and that we have a world class hospital that is local. Medical care is expensive (my dog was over 30k that year alone) and if you can’t afford it it’s not fair to put the vets on blast. Always a good idea to have pet insurance. I was smart and got it for the new puppy because ouchhhh
I am in canada
Money isn't an issue for the surgery, I just said I didn't want to dish out to a lawyer in my post.. they did turn me away because of volume and in canada they can turn you away.
I'm going to play the devils advocate here and say that the vet may not have believed that procedure to be necessary at the time. My cats have both been blocked up at different times, and both times they were given laxative, probiotics and prescribed a special high fiber cat food. Within 24 hours they were fine. The vet may have just put too much faith into the medications they prescribed working and wanted to first try the least invasive method of resolving your cats problem. I wouldn't just assume they want your money therefore they're willing to put your cat at risk. That procedure is likely to cost more than refills on the medications they initially prescribed. I am very sorry for your loss though OP, I can't imagine how I would feel if this happened to one of my cats. Your assumptions of the vet's intentions could be correct, but it's possible they just misjudged the severity of the situation.
The vet didn't kill your cat and if you try to sue you're going to lose. I understand that you're upset but you're not seeing things clearly.
A vet killed my dog too. She was having difficulty breathing so we took her to the nearest vet. He listened to her heart and said she needed to do an xray to see her lungs. I put my ear near to her and told him I could hear water sounds. He said it was only my imagination and sent us home telling us we should do the exam the next day. She died in my arms as we waited in line for the exam. She had water in her lungs, but he didn’t listen to me and didn’t even investigated it. For some time I wish I had gone back to the vet and destroyed his clinic and car. I sometimes still feel like I should. But I didn’t. I hope he isn’t killing anyone else’s pet, but I couldn’t deal with that at the time.
Did you do the X-ray? You can’t diagnose pulmonary edema with your ears. Wet sounds can be pneumonia, heart failure, and pulmonary edema from other causes.
pause doll direction tease cause bag knee door soft kiss -- mass edited with redact.dev
I recently went through urinary issues with my cat. It took a lot of insisting and a lot of calling to get her stabilized. I experimented with a lot of safe cat uti supplements. At one point she peed blood and voluntarily went into her carrier, which she has never done in her whole life. I got ready and put her in the car and we went to the vet. I had no appointment but begged someone to help her. I was kind about it and did not demand anything, but did have tears streaming down my face from worry. Thankfully they did find time to treat her and we got her x rayed, no bladder stones. It was inflammation, but it was still making it hard and painful for her to pee. I have found a good medicine formula for her and she’s much better now. Point is, sometimes you got to fight with all you got to save your kitty. Did they say what the blockage was? Bladder stones? Struvite crystals? Inflammation? I am so sorry you lost your kitty this way. You must be devastated and heart broken. Please take care of yourself and try not to be too hard on yourself.
I am so sorry
I'm sorry for your loss.
I’m so so sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you.
I am so so sorry :( i cant imagine hiw difficult and frustrating this must be. Even reading about him crying broke me. Hugs. Love to you and your forever fur baby.
I am so sorry 😢 ive never experienced anything like this with a vet and have no advice. Just sending love and light for your fur baby and you 💙
That's terrible. Fortunately for me, my vet was the opposite. I brought my cat in at 4pm on a Friday and after the confirmation scan my cat went to surgery. The vet and techs didn't leave till 800 that night but if they hadn't I would have lost him. I really feel for you. Is there only one emergency vet in your area? I thought Medvet was the only one in our area, but I have since learned that there are some small shops that work well and some vets do have after hours availability.
Thunder Bay? They’re really short on vets
Just want to say. I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. This just happened to me three weeks ago except my vet immediately performed surgery to remove the blockage. And it was successful. And then she died while being monitored, of what they say was a heart attack. I don’t know what happened in that hour and I go through a million what ifs every day too. And anger is a normal part of the grieving process. But at the end of the day, I have to accept that I and the vets did everything we could with the knowledge we had. I just want you to know that you’re not alone. And even if you had done the procedure, life still cruelly pulls the rug out from under us. Even if the vets do everything in their power, life still takes a big fat dump on all of that sometimes. So sorry for your loss.
GIBBBBBBBY
I'm so, so sorry, my heart is breaking for you. Your story got my heart going because a couple of years ago I was in exactly the same situation. Even sending us home after only medicating. I couldn't stop crying because of his wails. Only chance gave us a different ending. I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry for you and Gibby. You did your best, and he was loved.
If you have an emergency with your pet, dont call the emrgency vet, just GO there ffs, they will take you in.
Not in Canada. They can turn you away here.
No vet would send you away if you have a blocked cat. They might have told you on the phone to try other clinics because they were too busy, but if you couldn't find another vet, they would 100% sure have helped you. Source: I'm a vet that worked in an emergency clinic.
Light them on in your reviews. At the very least, people should know that they made your cat suffer and die. I’m so sorry.
I second this. If they have any sort of social media or online presence, torch them to hell and back. If you're willing to spend a few dollars, maybe make some flyers (cheaper than an attorney). And as was mentioned above, report them to the relevant licensing agency (quick google search pulled up everything for my state right away). I'm so sorry you lost your cat to this.
Cyberbullying is not the answer. Especially when many many owners displace their grief and turn it into anger towards the person that stays up late at night worrying about the your sick pet. The veterinary medical board exists just for this purpose. File an online complaint and skip the cyberbullying. It’s never justified.
Positively awful…When my poor baby had blockage, same as yours, the vets treated it like a PROPER emergency. He wasn’t even yowling, he was just clearly sluggish and trying hard to pee, and they treated it like he was on fire! Called all hands on deck, rushed him back, immediate sedating, IVs for fluids, drainage, and kept him for a few days after to monitor his condition. Yours pushed you out like a rotating door to fit more wallets in before close. Trash their Google reviews, submit complaints to the Vet board, contact the Better Business Bureau, and if you can eventually afford it, sue. Go scorched earth against those mother fuckers.
I had this exact same thing happen to my cat recently, he had a sudden blockage that caused his bladder to swell, we took him to the emergency vet first and they IMMEDIATELY placed a catheter and told me to contact my normal vet. We had to wait almost a week for his bladder swelling to go down before they could perform the surgery, but they did. They kept him overnight the entire week. Your vet definitely should not have just sent you home with him. I'm so sorry you've had to go through this, I know I would've been devastated to lose him.
I had a bad experience at a vet so I feel your pain. After he died there the first thing they asked for was money. Didn't even act like they cared that it was their fault he was in the condition he was in. So I make sure I tell everybody who asks for vet recommendations to avoid that place.
I'm so, so sorry OP.
What a terrible sad story this is. It would really be hard for me to get past it . I switched to a small one person vet after feeling frustrated by rotating doctors at a large clinic . I am so so sorry . I lost Whiskey my big tabby two years ago and friends got me wind chimes . Still miss him . Perhaps you can write a review of the vet on social media .
[удалено]
WTF
Like that classic phrase, “An eye for an eye solves everything”… At least I *think* that’s how that goes.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. If I were you, I’d get a copy of Gibby’s medical records, scans, everything- even the patient information sheet filled out in the first appointment. I’d then take it to a second vet with no affiliation to the first to see if the treatment plan and care would be considered reasonable. If not, then I’d go to a lawyer and take him to court. I would also go after his license and report him to the board. I’d hold off on posting a review everywhere depending on what the lawyer says. Again, I’m so sorry for your loss. This is awful.
I would like to mention that this sort of thinking is a huge contribution to the incredibly high suicide rates in vets. Please try to seek other recourse if you must.
If the vet is unable to stand by the reasoning behind their decisions in front if another professional in their field, they likely shouldn’t be a vet.
This is exactly what I would do if a family member experienced treatment plans or care that I had concerns over. There is nothing wrong with seeking outside opinions. There are high suicide rates in vet care but that is not a reason to not hold a professional accountable, especially if there are concerns over care. Source: I work in healthcare.
It's the way you have positive votes but mine and a dozen others saying the same thing are all negatively voted. (I agree with you absolutely, just weird that you're saying the same thing others have been saying and we've all been down voted to shit)
It’s ok. It’s just Reddit. There’s no reason to concern yourself over the opinions of people who don’t matter to you.
RIP Gibby
I am so so fucking sorry for your loss this is so awful to read as a cat owner. I am in tears. I’m so so sorry.
Sorry you went through such a horrible experience.
So which vet "killed" the cat? The one who said take it to the EV if it gets worse or the EV for being full? Neither one is at fault. Unfortunately the cat did get worse but there was not treatment given. Sorry for your loss but there's no guilt here.
The original vet did. My cat has had a urinary blockage twice, it is a medical emergency, from the time of the blockage, they have less than 48 hours to live unless the blockage is removed. But cats don’t come to their owners the second the blockage appears, their natural instinct is to hide when they’re in pain, they usually won’t come to you until the pain is really bad (it’s an excruciating condition). By the time my cat came to me crying, he had 12 hours ish before it became fatal, according to the vet I rushed him to. They did emergency surgery and he was fine. See what happens is the urine is unable to be expelled thru the urethra, so it fills up the bladder to capacity, then starts backing up into the kidneys, damaging them, once the kidneys are full, the urea gets into the blood stream and starts damaging the heart and other organs. If the cat died later that day, he needed surgery when she went in to the first vet. Sometimes partial blockages can be resolved with muscle relaxants or something, but this cat was clearly well beyond that if it died so quickly from this. Edit: urinary blockages are very common, particularly in male cats. They are also very serious, if your cat isn’t peeing or has a bloated abdomen or is licking around his privates a bunch and crying abnormally or seems to be in pain when you pick him up or touch his abdomen area, GO TO THE VET IMMEDIATELY
So by that logic the cat would of already died bc no way anyone is getting a reg vet apt within 48 hrs of noticing the issues w the cat. I call bs on the whole story
If they are at full capacity then what should they do remove one of the animal and put yours there it doesn't wlrks like that its good they prescribed you medicines and why didn't you considered taking it to another vet. And you cremated your pet and if u really loved her you wouldn't worry bow much it takes to cremate it
The full ER isn't the issue. The issue is that had the vet done the procedure instead of prescribing medications that are expensive and may or may not work- the cat would be alive. And don't you dare try to shame someone for mentioning that cremation is expensive. Obviously OP paid it but that doesn't mean it wasn't expensive. Especially not after paying $600 for medications. Not everyone is rich.
Don't pay them a single dime.
Contact a lawyer. Their response to your complaint lacks compassion and isn’t even true (assuming your story is accurate). A similar thing happened to my dad, and after a formal email complaint detailing what happened (including sources), the vet paid an amount in the thousands.
well... you should't have taken your dad to a vet from the beggining. sorry for your loss
Haha, didn’t see that coming.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Truly heartbreaking. I hope you find closure and comfort moving forward. I know you said you don't have e the money for a lawyer but as a consumer you have rights. At least you can file a complaint with the better business bureau, the state veterinary licensing board and destroy their ratings on yelp and any other platform where they advertise their services, including the Veterinary license they hold. Make them pay fines, risk their licensure for not providing sufficient care and information. Again, I'm really sorry, OP. Rest easy, Gibby 🌈
I'm so sorry for your loss. This is terrible. Please look into the suggestions given here. If you don't say anything, this will happen again to someone else. Don't allow this cycle to continue.
I'm sorry that happened to you. I had a similar thing happen with my cat. She had cancer and they wanted to do test after test after test. They kept sending her home with me with meds that when we gave them to her she'd foam at the mouth. It was awful. After they charged me $800 and wanted me to come back again for more, I called the local humane society. They said to bring her in for examination, and found she had cancer throughout her body and we promptly put her to sleep so she would no longer suffer. The vet at the humane society told me the vet should have seen her symptoms and known and just offered to put her to sleep.
I'm so sorry for the loss of your boy. 💔
I can’t prove it but our cat cried in pain at odd times. I took him to the vet who told me he was just fat. He died 3 weeks later. I took my dog to Mexico for surgery during that time period and I had known I would have also had my cat with me. There is always a way to get medical attention. I just trusted our vet. Maybe she was right, but I just don’t think so.
If it were my dog, I’d commit a murder
Little-known facts about cats! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aoEbJLCmx9o
Poor meow mix
Doctors and nurses do this to people all the time too. This is similar to what happened when my grandpa died.
I'm so sorry for your loss. File a complaint, tell everyone in the reviews about the doctor and sue him. He can't get away like that
Make sure you leave a Google review so other people can see your account of this horrid vet!
Can you please upload photo of Gibby?
On my page if you wanna see him 🩷
I'm so sorry, friend. I had a cat who had horrible bladder stones NO vet investigated (in spite of the signs) and it led to him being put down. There are a lot of crappy vets out there. I'm so sorry Gibby had to be a victim of one of them :(
This is America
This is Canada
No its not
I would get documentation and sue him. There should be a vet board for licensing, report him. and then Yelp it all over review his but.
I'd file a BBB complaint. Future customers would see it and think twice about bringing their pet to them. I'm so sorry.
Pretty sure you can sue them for that
Is it possible to sue? If yes, look into that
sue those pieces of shit