Rip Off Vet and Better Business Bureau

fureverywhere

fureverywhere

beloved friend who will always be with us in spiri
Location
Northern NJ, USA
Bastard vet tonight, they advertise as discount. Maybe twenty bucks less than average around here. I took poor Ninja. They kept us waiting maybe an hour. Then the Doc looked at him a good 5 minutes. Then he stepped out to itemize the bill. Draining and dressing a simple abscess bit over $800. Then I read Yelp reviews of the same situation. One woman's cat died. Either you pay the quoted price or he doesn't do ANYTHING.

I wrote to a vet tonight we have experience with...basically please whatever you can do.
 

That charge is just crazy, can't even believe something that outrageous! Hope Ninja is doing okay. I just had my dog in for neuter surgery, which included pre-surgery blood work, IV fluids given during anesthesia, laser surgery, pain meds, morphine, ear hair plucking, etc., cost $263.50.
 
Fur, do you have a veterinarian clinic there affiliated with your local Humane Society? We took my sister's cat there when she (the cat, not my sis) got that infection from a puncture -- they did surgery, drained all the infection, put in drains, etc., and it was about $250 for everything. Check out the local Humane Society. They have some income limitations, but since you're currently a lady of leisure, you might fit into the guidelines. Certainly worth a phone call.
 
Wow, Seabreeze and Butterfly, you have cheap Vets there. Most people I know who take a dog in for this or that pay $450 - $700. and those are just the ones I know personally. I'm sure a lot of them go into the thousands. $700 was a guy here visiting my brother and his dog went running around the place and ran into the propeller of an outboard boat motor. The cut wasn't that bad and I would have just put a butterfly bandage on it if it had been me. Just a few stitches and a shot, maybe some meds (I can't recall) and the bill was $700 or $750.
 
fureverywhere said:
Bastard vet tonight, they advertise as discount. Maybe twenty bucks less than average around here. I took poor Ninja. They kept us waiting maybe an hour. Then the Doc looked at him a good 5 minutes. Then he stepped out to itemize the bill. Draining and dressing a simple abscess bit over $800. Then I read Yelp reviews of the same situation. One woman's cat died. Either you pay the quoted price or he doesn't do ANYTHING.

I wrote to a vet tonight we have experience with...basically please whatever you can do.
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Oh Fur, I'm so sorry for you and Ninja. Whatever happened to vocation and compassion. It doesn't seem to exist anymore. It's all about money now. Our furbabies are the losers. :(
 
And this is the reason my wife and I can't afford a dog. We lost our Sassy, Shih Tzu, five years ago and wanted to get another soon after Sassy died. Her bills just about put us in poor house and took awhile to pay off. It's a damn shame, when us older folks would love a dog, that we wouldn't be able to absorb the outrages vet bills. Just saying.......:mad:
 
Pappy, why don't you and your wife investigate becoming a foster parent for your local animal shelter? That way you might have the benefit of having a pup in the house, you'd be doing a great thing for a dog and maybe the shelter handles bills and stuff. I'm not sure how that works but maybe that would give you some real satisfaction?
 
I would love to be a foster parent for our shelter... but my house is already filled up with permanent furkids.

We have a very large shelter.. the Animal Welfare League serving the greater Chicago area.. so you can imagine the horrible things that are seen there.. My hubby took one of our dogs there to be neutered and when he was dropping him off in the morning he said the Police were bringing dogs in on stretchers... It was like and Army MASH unit. The Vets serving there are top notched... and familiar with just about everything imaginable. Their prices are also reasonable. I believe the entire set of yearly shots is only $40... not bad..
 
Debby said:
Pappy, why don't you and your wife investigate becoming a foster parent for your local animal shelter? That way you might have the benefit of having a pup in the house, you'd be doing a great thing for a dog and maybe the shelter handles bills and stuff. I'm not sure how that works but maybe that would give you some real satisfaction?
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Debby... Good idea, only we still travel back to NYS each summer. Short term, maybe. Worth checking out. Thanks.
 
Pappy said:
Debby... Good idea, only we still travel back to NYS each summer. Short term, maybe. Worth checking out. Thanks.
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Many of the fosters are short term.. When we adopted our Angel.. she had been found abandoned shortly after giving birth. She was in foster care just until she could raise her pups and everyone was placed for adoption. Pups went to good homes.. and mom came to us.
 
Unbelievable...Yelp has complaints, the Yellow Pages has complaints...all the same doctor and all the same idea...pay for the full inflated treatment plan or he does nothing at all. I filed complaints with two state agencies plus the Better Business Bureau. There is also the board that licenses vets. I'm taking to our regular doctor in a little while...pfffffffffffft except someone left the door open and I have to find him again. Just throw me on the ice floe pleeeeeze

Afterwards...Yayyy, I should have gone to one of our regular vets to begin with...now I know. We found Ninja and got there for 5 o' clock appt. I explained what we went through yesterday and he was so very kind. He cleaned ears and diagnosed a hematoma NOT an infection. It won't kill him or anything bad. Eventually it will just reduce on it's own. They gave him a rabies shot and cortisone to make him more comfy. They cleaned his ears good and wiped down the sore area.

All told just the office visit is $70 with this vet. Plus the cleaning and diagnosis...it would have been around $200 all together. The vet came out and whispered to the nurse...he just charged $50 for the combined shots. G-d Bless ya know? He's getting 5 stars on Yelp absolutely!
 
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Oh dear! Even for a four-day, three-night stay at our vet for our diabetic cat was only $380. They were trying to get her blood sugar down.

Another cat, Tiggy, had a huge abcess in her cheek and that was only $65 to fix it.

Holy crap!!
 
fureverywhere said:
Bastard vet tonight, they advertise as discount. Maybe twenty bucks less than average around here. I took poor Ninja. They kept us waiting maybe an hour. Then the Doc looked at him a good 5 minutes. Then he stepped out to itemize the bill. Draining and dressing a simple abscess bit over $800. Then I read Yelp reviews of the same situation. One woman's cat died. Either you pay the quoted price or he doesn't do ANYTHING.

I wrote to a vet tonight we have experience with...basically please whatever you can do.
Click to expand...

FEW, I suspect you took Ninja to an Emergency Vet. Yes, that will always be more expensive, just goes without saying.

IF you have a Vet you use on a regular basis, scheduled checkups and routine shots, etc., it would be less, of course.

I have a Mobile Vet who comes regularly with a tech along. The only additional charge is the $35 that goes to the tech. But we have regular scheduled appointments, year in and year out. The Mobile Vet charges are about what I'd expect to pay in a brick-and-mortar veterinary office/clinic/hospital.

And no, it's never "cheap" to care for an animal. There are, however, agencies who will care for pets at reduced prices.
 
I just had my dog to the Vet this week for a sore paw.. The exam..... two X-rays....... and two pain prescriptions cost $175.. I don't think that was very bad... but still.. if you don't have that money.. it would be prohibitive.

I understand huge vet bills. This same dog has some sort of neurological condition... probably polyneuropathy along with epilepsy.... To get NO definitive diagnosis.. we have spent over $4,000 on tests... CT scans... MRI..... lumbar puncture.... etc.. plus his daily medications.. So no.. it's not cheap to care for a pet.
 
I'm very grateful. The important thing is stick to a vet you know. One who gets to know your critters. This vet we went to is a second choice, close and good for emergencies. The other vet is good for every day care. The rip off vet was from online. The good news is as I type this Ninja was on my lap. He forgave me for two days of stress. Reported the rip off doc and my boy will be fine.
 
You're right, Fur. I've been seeing the same vet for about 30 years or so and I just LOVE her. She's a wonderful diagnostician and an all around great vet. She gets to know my doggies, and me. I trust her judgment. AND, grim but important, she knows when to tell me it is time to let go.

I also have an emergency clinic (recommended by my regular vet) that I've used when necessary. They're more expensive, of course, but sometimes (rarely, thank God) you can't wait.
 
I am so sorry that you are being treated that way. Vets charge huge prices. when I got my little dog, 6 weeks old, crippled from injuries by the breeder, I paid $300 to the breeder just to keep them from killing him, took him to the vet and paid them $500 dollars for the first nite's stay just to keep him from dying. he barely survived. Vet said the dog would not have lived thru that nite if I hadn't brought him in. It took every penny I had and I was broke for months afterwards. But somehow I had to do it to save him. I did not have the money to pay for repair of his injuries so he is crippled but he is so sweet and gets along pretty good on 3 legs. He has four legs but one leg was pretty much crushed and vets want thousands of dollars to amputate it so that was never done. He just walks without using it. Been walking that way for 9 years now. Some times he walks on just his two front legs because his back legs hurt.
 
I'm sorry about your pup Yaya. You do want to do everything you can, but most people aren't in a position to spend zillions. At least we're blessed that our creatures can learn to accommodate themselves sometimes. Our Callie ideally should have knee replacement. $6000 plus months of daily rehabilitation. We have steep staircases and he's solidly over fifty pounds. I don't know, I guess we would have had to hoist him up to the second floor through the window.

But even crowd sourcing and charities we couldn't come up with that kind of money. But he's a young guy and rippling good health otherwise. He limps a bit sometimes, but we just try to get him to take stairs slow and not launch himself off the back porch. Lifting him onto the bed is daily weight training. But we do all we can for our fur babies.
 
It's like vets hold their services and your pet hostage, and where is the senior discount? Hmmmm? When Izzy was seven months old, he was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes. Each eyes was $4,000., and after they did the second eye, they tell us that the first surgery didn't work, so it had to be repeated. That was three surgeries, plus meds, which brought the cost to over $13,000. We couldn't afford it, but we had just lost a cocker spaniel that had been blind for over 11 years, and we just couldn't leave Izzy to the same fate.

This is Izzy today at 3&1/2 y/o.

image.jpg
 
I would have one of those doggy front packs and he would never touch the ground. I'm smooching my computer screen for that widdle face!
 
fureverywhere said:
I'm sorry about your pup Yaya. You do want to do everything you can, but most people aren't in a position to spend zillions. At least we're blessed that our creatures can learn to accommodate themselves sometimes. Our Callie ideally should have knee replacement. $6000 plus months of daily rehabilitation. We have steep staircases and he's solidly over fifty pounds. I don't know, I guess we would have had to hoist him up to the second floor through the window.

But even crowd sourcing and charities we couldn't come up with that kind of money. But he's a young guy and rippling good health otherwise. He limps a bit sometimes, but we just try to get him to take stairs slow and not launch himself off the back porch. Lifting him onto the bed is daily weight training. But we do all we can for our fur babies.
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Fur can you keep him comfortable with anti inflammatories and pain meds? My old Harold had nerve damage in his neck and meds let him live a happy, fun life. Without them, he would have been in pain every day. They are not very expensive, and also helped my old Suzie (arthritis) add several quality years to her life.
 
Yes I have anti inflammatories for when the limp returns. It seems to be how much he exerts himself. Playing with best buddie's puggle and he has a blast but it takes a few days to recover. The back porch is a problem. We could easily put a ramp from ground to door. It's maybe a six foot jump. The problem is Sophie is longer and leaner. She does it like a greyhound. He's built like a lean hippo. Not fat but shall we say uncoordinated? If there is a noise in the yard they both launch out the door. She lands gracefully like a cat, he wipes out.
 
Fur, could you put a big piece pf plywood as a ramp? That's what my son did for me back when I was using the walker because of my hips. It worked out just fine.

My Bonnie is also sort of built like a lean hippo. She uses the ramp just fine.
 

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