£550 vet bill eeeeek !

NOISYGIRL

NOISYGIRL

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Came home from badminton to find my dog with what looked like a dislocated hip, she's 3, ESS, she either slipped or caught it out the garden, she likes to lay on the bench we have out there watching the world go by ! my mum was at home but didn't see or hear her doing anything other than she ran in from the garden crying in pain, off down the emergency vet we went, stayed in overnight, xrays etc, bill came to approx £550, she is insured but they wouldn't invoice the insurance company direct, you take out insurance thinking you are ok if anything happens, but we has to pay there and then, has anyone else had this experience ? is this standard practice or just because it wasn't my vet but the emergency one which was on duty, I think a few vets in the area take it in turns to be the emergency vet, maybe its all the time when they are closed, I don't know, I will contact my vet after the bank hol and find out.

I was glad I could get hold of it, just thought its was alot of money to expect someone to pay there and then
 
My vets have always been happy to wait till insurance has paid up (if the patient is insured, recently they haven't been), but suspect it varies from practice to practice, and if its an emergency vet they wouldn't know you so perhaps understandable.
 
My vets only deal directly with Petplan. Anyone else, you pay upfront and hope for the best! I think some vets also deal directly with NFU?

Feel your pain, my last bill was £380:eek: Hope your dog is ok though, that is the main thing!
 
My vet's expect an upfront payment for things like x-rays but for bigger stuff they deal directly with the insurance company....good thing too as our 2 spaniels ran up just over £10k at the vets last year :eek: :eek: :(:(
 
Our old dog had an op on his ear (had his inner ear removed) £1700 later and he was home. Luckily our vets dont expect you to pay upfront. This gave us chance to get in touch with insurance company to get payment sorted out.
 
Yes the main thing is she is recovering, the hip wasn't dislocated as suspected, she's damaged her muscles near her hock joint. She has metacalm and antibiotics (not sure what these are for) can muscles get infected ?

Could take few weeks to recover, she's on restricted exercise on short lead only as far as she goes to go to the toilet. Good job she isn't a boingy ESS lol

She's insured with NFU so will be enquiring about a claim form asap !
 
JoG said:
My vet's expect an upfront payment for things like x-rays but for bigger stuff they deal directly with the insurance company....good thing too as our 2 spaniels ran up just over £10k at the vets last year :eek: :eek: :(:(
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I think they would have been peeling me off the floor at that point !
 
Thank god for insurance is all I can say - I did actually have to sit down when at one point they said "we'll try to stick within your £6k limit" :eek:

Glad your girl is ok...I found that insurance can take a couple of months to pay up so I now have an emergency credit card for if/when I need to pay out a vet bill like yours then I pay it off in full when I get the cheque back :)
 
Spudlet said:
My vets only deal directly with Petplan. Anyone else, you pay upfront and hope for the best! I think some vets also deal directly with NFU?

Feel your pain, my last bill was £380:eek: Hope your dog is ok though, that is the main thing!
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Same, NFU were fab with the horse-over £5000 bill, double ouch, but the current company doesn't deal direct.
 
Have to say a big thumbs up for NFU dog insurance

Emergency vet took approx a month to complete the claim form, sent it off to NFU 27th May and had the cheque in full yesterday, less the excess no quible, very pleased, unfortunately I owe most of it to my mother, never mind !
 
cinammontoast said:
Fab news! Perhaps we could have a pic of the girl to celebrate? Not that I'm obsessed with springers, of course!
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If you insist ha ha - sorry they're so big

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Vets' bills - beat this.....I used to insure my dogs and cats with the RSPCA with a deal I had after taking on an RSPCA rescue kitten in 2002. Insured all my dogs and cats with them until a couple of years ago whe they transferred thier insurance to Tesco, and thinking I was getting a crap deal, I cancelled, and my dogs and cats have been uninsured since.

All way fine until, about two months ago, my daughter's boyfriend was in the garden with the dogs when our Large Munsterlander and one of the Springers clashed heads resulting in Springer's upper right canine tooth being broken off to the gum......it took three vets an hour and a half to remove the remaining tooth resulting in a bill of almost £500 (the surgery allow me to pay off my bill by instalments as and when I want - phew), but then two weeks later, daughter's boyfriend was playing ball with our dogs in the local cricket field when Bryn, the Large Munsterlander, jumped up for the ball, landed awkwardly, breaking his leg so badly that my vet had to refer him to Cambridge Vet School Hospital. I have now paid bills well north of £3,000 (£178 today for a check up). I'm not wealthy, just a hard working self-employed horsey person, but he's worth every penny!
 
My fella was not insured and racked up nearly €6500 in 4 weeks when he was bitten by a rat in dec and at the end of it all we couldn't save him. My vets & parents & the other vet hospital were amazing, dad said do whatever it took to try save him and vets gave us massive discounts and round the clock care...when Boots was in hospital an hour away I got a Happy New Year kiss photo of him from the vet at midnight on New Year's Eve!! They gave me massive discount and before my dad stepped in and said he would be helping with the bill vets had already had a team meeting and told me no matter what I could take all the time in the world to pay off the bill. Hope your girl feels better soon...she is gorgeous!
 
My vet was happy to bill petplan a couple of years ago, for some reason petplan sent me a cheque though. Not sure they would do it with current insurance as its not as well known.
They have been very good recentally, letting me take £50 worth of meds without paying or only paying a bit. I had been buying flea and wormers monthly because sh was still growing once she reached adult weight they started giving me 6 months at a time and I only expected another month so didnt take enough money with me
 
OP - your springer is B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. :D :D

Sucha a shame my springer has every bloomin' joint problem going as they would make a perfect pair!!! :)
 
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