Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
That's more than a little extreme, don't you think? Would you be ok with your entire livelihood being destroyed because of one client not being happy with their bill? I agree that his daughter should've been told about the costs upfront though, but maybe she was...
Not sure JAG took his hamster to the emergency hospital, but I know those places are about twice as expensive as a regular clinic. They don't care if you bring in a hamster or great dane, that exam fee is probably the same.
And nope, it's definitely not cheap, but there's a reason. What people tend not to understand about vet costs is that these medical expenses aren't subsidized like they are with humans, therefore they have to be passed onto the client. Vets have to buy the same (human-grade) equipment and medication as human hospitals, and this stuff is amazingly expensive. As I mentioned before, my dad is a veterinarian in Calgary, and some of the costs he has are pretty staggering. There are machines in there the size of a book that cost more than a new 3-series...and that's the small stuff. I can see why they charge what they do.
Medication is an expensive business, people just don't tend to notice it when they themselves get sick, because those costs are paid for them. If there was no public health care, you would be paying the exact same types of figures if you went to a physician for a paper cut.
Like I said...people really need to consider pet insurance. This stuff get's amazingly expensive pretty fast, and if you can't handle the finances (like we couldn't with our kitty yesterday), some extremely tough decisions have to be made.
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Sorry for the late reply, but I missed your reply the first go around.
As I mentioned in my original post, I said if his daughter is under 18, they should have consulted him about treatment and what the costs were going to be. $270 to treat a hamster is a tad outrageous. I was at my Vet this morning having my dog looked after and mentioned this to her and she said it's hard to judge without knowing the whole story, but at first blush, this Vet sounded unethical.
If this is standard operating procedures for this guy, yes he should lose his license. I don't care how many expensive book sized pieces of equipment he has to pay for. Capitalizing on a customer's emotional bond with their pets is wrong.
I have 13 year old dog who was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago. My original vet wanted to start him on an agressive treatment regime that would have cost thousands and extended his life by 2 or 3 years, maybe more. I went to a second vet and was told that we could treat him but considering his age it probably wouldn't make a difference.
We went with plan B and have done nothing but enjoy every walk since then and my dog has had a way better quality of life than if I had put him on an agressive chemo plan.