x-ray costs, mammary tumours - frustrated!!! Long post.

[irish_only]

Sorry for the essay to those of you who can find time to read this.
My lovely old lurcher, 13 this year, has developed a mammary tumour. As soon as we saw it, we booked her in to the vets. The vet had a feel, and noticed, as had we, that there were a lot of other pea sized lumps. Advised to run some bloods to make sure she was healthy enough to withstand anaesthetic. Bloods showed she was diabetic, so booked in to diabetic clinic. Long chat, everything explained, how to check blood sugars etc, all fine and dandy. Then asked would I like to do a blood sugar check before I go. Checked, twice, showing completely normal. Then asked to supply a urine sample the next day to check again. Duly collected, delivered, checked - no diabetes. So, next we book in for the operation. Poor trembling girl dropped in at the vets at 8.30am. Get a phone call at 10.30am to say that as well as the larger tumour she has lots of small pea sized tumours (er, yes, we'd worked that out before we took her and also at the initial visit), plus x-rays were showing a shadow on her lung, so they had decided it was unfair to put her through any procedure. Collected her later in the day when she had fully awoken, and was asked to pay the bill for £200+. Hmmm, I asked, how has it managed to run up to that amount? Oh well we did 3 x-rays, the first one is £77, and the two subsequent ones £55 each. Bloodyhell.
How much has everyone been charged for x-rays? And anyone on here got any advice re the tumours? I will be, I think, getting a second opinion when I can extract the x-rays from them, but I am wondering if the shadow on the lung may not manifest itself as a problem for maybe 12 -18 months, whereas the speed at which the mammary tumour is growing we could be looking at months. I would not put her through chemo as I don't think it would be fair.
This girl is my shadow, mate, best 4 legged friend and we love each other unconditionally, so I will only do what is best for her.
Open to all suggestions.

 

[misst]

So sorry you got such horrible news.
When my JRT had xrays at my local vets it came to £300 for a chest xray, front leg xray and spine xray. It included the sedation as well. I think £200 sounds not unreasonable if she was anaesthatised or sedated.
I hope she stays well for a long time for you.

 

[SusieT]

If your dog has spread to the lungs then the outlook is not good and there is no point removing one lump and putting her through surgery when the other lump will kill her quicker.. and to be honest for an anaesthetic and xrays that would be standard price - and 3 xrays is ideal and shows good practice.
However, this is a very stressful time and if you do not have full confidence in your vets either because they haven't explained it well etc. or involved you then absoloutely get a second opinion - but go to a big hospital who are experienced not just someone who will take more money off you and put your dog through a useless surgery - best of luck.

 

[Umbongo]

The costs of the xrays sounds about standard, particularly if she was sedated or anaesthetised too. Xray machines are extremely expensive,and use a lot of power, as well as having trained nurses monitoring your animal and the vets to interpret the xrays etc, so the cost is justifiable. As someone stated above taking a few x-rays is also good practice as they probably have taken different views too.
If cancer has metastasised to her lungs then this is the bigger issue over the mammary masses, so it may not be fair to put her through the surgery to remove them, especially if her lungs are diseased the anaesthetic may be difficult for her too. If you are not sure about your vets and the diagnosis, then a second opinion would be an option you could take, or get your vets to refer you to a specialist. Sorry to hear about your girl