Big vet bill

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Teeny

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My friend bought a 2 year old earlier this year. Bad accident in field. Still in veterinary hospital. Friend's horse not insured and she is only 20 years old with no savings. Vet bill already £5,000.00. Can anyone advise whether there are any type of charities that might be able to help her pay her bill.
 
no charity will help pay a vet bill. they need all the money they can get for themselves.

how come the horse wasn't insured anyway, it's for these reasons it's best to insure! i know hind sight is a wonderful thing and all that but if she couldn't afford to pay the bill then maybe putting the horse to sleep would have been better. she could ask the vets if she can pay by installments, it may take a while but at least it's being paid.
 
I'm amazed the vets would proceed without assurance that funds were accessible to cover this horse's bills. Thus presuming this is a wind up!
 
When my friends new horse went down with major colic only a few days after she got it and hadnt sorted the insurance out yet,the vet wanted proof that she had the funds her self to pay for the bill or at least be able to pay so much each month on a strict payment plan. with out that he wasnt prepared to treat the horse as it was going to cost a fortune.so it was either that or PTS.

and my sisters horse has on going treatment now for a illness and we also had to prove that we had funds to be able to pay up just in case there are any hold ups with the insurance pay out. as hes having visits every 2 weeks and medication costing £10 a day and our bills in the thousands and he obviously need to get his money back swiftly.

they have to make a living at the end of they day.and cover all their expenditure.

suprised a vet carried out this treatment costing so much with out assurances.
 
My first experience with my current vets involved colic surgery costing the best part of £6k. They did ask me beforehand what I wanted to do, and I said 'proceed up til £5k then let me know and I'll make a further decision'.
They knew my horse was not insured, and didn't ask for any evidence or any assurance that I could pay.
(Don't worry, I could and did pay :D).
As for charities paying the OP's friend's vet bill - unlikely!
S :D
 
Ummm....why on earth should a charity help out exactly?

If you have a horse then get it insured or make sure you have funds available for such an event, if not then I am afraid PTS is the best option.

Charities are struggling enough to look after their own and those animals in genuine need of urgent help.

In any case I hope the horse makes a full recovery.

Sadiemay
 
I don't think this was a windup. Sometimes if you don't ask you don't get....and sadly it sounds like a case of misfortune where the person that owns the horse through false economy either couldn't afford or didn't want insurance. Hopefully it's a lesson learned and hopefully the horse doesn't / didn't suffer as a consequence.

A very good friend of mine bought a former show dog from a woman who had a show kennel and the dog turned out not liking the show ring. So the owner sold him to my friend, and over the first weekend that she had him she noticed blood in his urine. So she took him immediately to the vet that weekend and then got in touch with the former owner who then informed her that the dog was not insured. As my friend had him less than 48 hours, she didn't yet have him insured either.

Roll on several months later, a hospital stay and the vet ended up costing her over £3k in vet bills. She raised money thru doing car boot sales, and various other things. She asked friends and family for donations of items to sell (I gave her a saddle to sell and I also took some of her old tack/rugs from a former horse to sell at a horsey car boot sale to help).

Suggest to the OP that the owner maybe think about doing something like this in order to raise the cash if necessary.
 
Thank you all for your comments. It was just a long shot to see if there was any other way of raising funds. The farmer has agreed to help out and so has a friend. The vets are happy for a part payment up front and then for the remainder of the bill to be paid in installments. The horse is hopefully coming home at the end of this week but will still need the vets to call every 4 days to check on the wound until they are happy that my friend is capable of looking after it herself. The vets are very hopefull that the horse will make a full recovery. Just going to put it down to experience and make sure insurance is taken out straight away no matter what.
 
Good news Teeny.

It seems your friend has learnt the hard way but really insurance is the way to go.

Anyway I am pleased your friend has been offered some financial assistance and that the horse is expected to make a full recovery :)

Sadiemay
 
Insurance is kind of pointless in colic terms now - as most insurance companies will exclude anything remotely connected to the abdomen (and that covers just about everything bar lameness).
S :D
 
I had my uninsured boy operated on for colic and it cost £3500. Unfortunately the op went wrong and he was paralysed in his back legs. I always have my horses insured now, but we had him for 3 years so I suppose the £3500 would have almost been paid in any case if he'd been insured. He was such a lovely boy which is why we did our best for him and paid for his treatment.
 
Just a word of caution. Most insurances have quite large excesses. Mine meant that I ended up paying 15% of the costs relating to hock surgery which amounted to £750! At the same time my dog was seriously ill with lymphoma and the 10% I had to pay amounted to £1000. He still died!
 
I am expecting a huge vet bill for out of hours visits/drugs/euthanasia and disposal for my old mare. She wasn't insured but I have Ebayed absolutley everything I possibly could and been ruthless about it too, I have sold gold jewellery that I have inherited or been given and will never wear (gold is at an all time high btw) and I had cash for xmas instead of pressies, also my work bonus will go towards it.. It is annoying that all the cash I have raised will go on a vet bill but she wasn't insured which was my choice and its a part ow owning horses as mine are with me for life.
 
Sadiemay said:
Ummm....why on earth should a charity help out exactly?

If you have a horse then get it insured or make sure you have funds available for such an event, if not then I am afraid PTS is the best option.

Charities are struggling enough to look after their own and those animals in genuine need of urgent help.

In any case I hope the horse makes a full recovery.

Sadiemay
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So what about the dogs trust, the PDSA, and the blue cross? They all help with bills on unexpected illnesses for people who cant afford to pay the massive bills that vets charge nowadays. An animal is an animal at the end of the day and if it needs help and there are people with the expertise to help it then why not??
 
chunky11 said:
So what about the dogs trust, the PDSA, and the blue cross? They all help with bills on unexpected illnesses for people who cant afford to pay the massive bills that vets charge nowadays. An animal is an animal at the end of the day and if it needs help and there are people with the expertise to help it then why not??
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Yes - these charities may help - but with dogs and cats belonging to impoverished pensioners, or families on very low incomes. Dogs and cats tend to be relatively cheap to keep (barring vet's bills) and in many cases are the only real companion/friend an elderly person might have. It could be assumed that if you choose to own a horse, you can afford to insure it/or to pay large vet's bills if you choose not to insure.
 
Best thing i could suggest is to take out a loan i know you will pay more in the long run but will make payments smaller and more manageable. I have experience as had to pay in instalments for an unexpected bill via a vet and they wanted the balance of nearly £900 cleared in just 3 months so nearly £300 each month for 3 months I was 21 at the time, so that was some huge chunks of my money each month on top of my £300 a month livery bill and remedial shoes, at least with a loan over 3-5 years payments might be about £100 a month. I know that does not help with the cost but might be an option to make the burden easier. Sorry to hear about the poorly horse.
 
I've currently got a vets bill of around £1000 and the horse is not insured, however I've had the horse for 18 years and other than her annual jags have only had the vet out on 1 other occasion, if I had paid the insurance it would have came to a lot more than £1000 and I would still have had to pay the excess. My vet is really good about allowing you to pay it up, problem with this bill is every time I get it down below a certain amount she needs more blood tests etc.
With regards to medication get a prescription from the vet and buy from a chemist or an online pharmacy (make sure it's a legitimate site), the above vets bill includes 2 sets of medication that from the vet is £148.90, however from Lloyds Pharmacy it £64.12 and the prescription is £10 (only lasts 6mnths).
 
Wagtail said:
Just a word of caution. Most insurances have quite large excesses. Mine meant that I ended up paying 15% of the costs relating to hock surgery which amounted to £750! At the same time my dog was seriously ill with lymphoma and the 10% I had to pay amounted to £1000. He still died!
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South essexhave a policy with a £130 excess no matter how large the bill
 
Years ago we had a huge £1600 bill for a dog, we were skint at the time and dog not insured. We used a credit card that we kept for animal emergencies.
 
dotty1 said:
I am expecting a huge vet bill for out of hours visits/drugs/euthanasia and disposal for my old mare. She wasn't insured but I have Ebayed absolutley everything I possibly could and been ruthless about it too, I have sold gold jewellery that I have inherited or been given and will never wear (gold is at an all time high btw) and I had cash for xmas instead of pressies, also my work bonus will go towards it.. It is annoying that all the cash I have raised will go on a vet bill but she wasn't insured which was my choice and its a part ow owning horses as mine are with me for life.
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I had my horse PTS in January on a Sunday evening, he was taken away on bank holiday Monday. I had him cremated and had his ashes back. Bill was only £450, which I thought was quite reasonable:)
 
Black_Horse_White said:
I had my horse PTS in January on a Sunday evening, he was taken away on bank holiday Monday. I had him cremated and had his ashes back. Bill was only £450, which I thought was quite reasonable:)
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When the bill came it was £1200.....quite a bit more than I had estimated and I was not a happy bunny.......a very poor bunny!
 
chunky11 said:
This is quite sad, the vets charge far too much money!
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I don't think this is a fair comment. Vets are professionals who spend years at university incurring vast amounts of student debt. To do their work they run up large overheads including the cost of the things we see, such as drugs and equipment like gloves, x-ray machines and bandages, and the things we don't, such as computers, telephone systems, liability insurance. They have to pay staff such as vet nurses and receptionists. They have to maintain their cars (and pay business insurance on them as well).
After all of that they end up on call at nights and weekends and have to keep studying to keep up with developments if they want to be halfway decent at their jobs. Most decent vets I know have a special interest that they've studied further.
It's a risky job - my vet just couldn't work for several months having got kicked by a dressage horse she was nerve blocking and had her own leg broken.
When she knows I am having trouble paying (for something which is excluded on my insurance) she does her absolute best to keep my costs down and the practice offers discounts for paying on time. Credit cards help to spread the cost.
I think it is very unfair to blame the vet - a professional deserves to be paid for doing a good job, at the end of the day. If OP's friend is struggling it is not the vet's fault but the vet may be able to help. If the friend is open with the vet about her problems the vet may be willing to discuss a payment plan. Otherwise perhaps the friend should take a bank/credit card loan to make sure the vet is paid, chalk the whole thing up to experience and get insurance next time. OP, I really hope your friend is able to work something out.
 
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