Bartok Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I am only asking this as I found it a bit sad My neighbour was at her friends house on the weekend and friends Husky decided to take on a Red Belly. The Husky lost and was bitten They rang the ladies ver and another vet to seek treament but both told her she needed to pay full treatment price before they open the vile of anti-venom The lady had part but not full payment of $1400 quoted so they ended up rushing her to another vet but it was to late and he had to put the dog down. As a dog owner i would be really stressed and feel so helpless if this happened to me I rang my vet and asked them their snake bite procedure and they told me they would expect a deposit before treating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emery Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 awww how sad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancinbcs Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Most vets require payment up front unless they know you really well - as in very long term client that they have seen a lot of, not just someone that brings one dog in once a year or so for a vaccination. You are paying for something the vet has actually had to outlay a lot of money for, not for their service. Many vets will let you pay off a bill for services but not for a product. The vets cannot risk outlaying that sort of money to treat a dog, have it die despite their best efforts and then have the owner decide they can't pay. Multiply that many times over a summer for both snake and tick treatment and you can see why they do it. If you own dogs in an area where ticks or snakes are a potential problem you need a ready source of cash or a credit card on hand for emergencies like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancinbcs Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Most vets require payment up front unless they know you really well - as in very long term client that they have seen a lot of, not just someone that brings one dog in once a year or so for a vaccination. You are paying for something the vet has actually had to outlay a lot of money for, not for their service. Many vets will let you pay off a bill for services but not for a product.The vets cannot risk outlaying that sort of money to treat a dog, have it die despite their best efforts and then have the owner decide they can't pay. Multiply that many times over a summer for both snake and tick treatment and you can see why they do it. If you own dogs in an area where ticks or snakes are a potential problem you need a ready source of cash or a credit card on hand for emergencies like that. Edited to add - if your dog is bitten by a snake you don't ring the vet, you just turn up unless you can get someone to ring while you are on the way. It is an absolute emergency. With a black snake you usually have a bit more time but with a brown, sometimes you will be lucky to have 15min to start treatment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MolassesLass Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I don't know what the policy at my vets is but I suspect it may be payment up-front now. In the last year they have introduced a new form that owners have to fill out prior to surgery etc. It is all legal-speak and states the owner knows they will have to pay for the treatment and that they agree they will make payment. I asked about it and they've had so many non-payments they had to implement it. Scumbags ruining it for everyone as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra777 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 OMG - I LOVE my vet. No mention of payment upfront, not even a hint of it. Paid when I picked China up and it was half of the amount mentioned above. Yes, I understand completely vet's are a business and not a charity and why they do it, and totally agree that if you have a pet you need to have immediate access to actual cash or a credit card or insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden Rules Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 That is sad but I can understand why they do that. There will be plenty of people who will have had their dog treated and then it die, and no payment ever made A friend had his three young dogs poisoned a few years ago now and they had to rush them to the Murdoch emergency vet. My friend had his grandfather with him (he was a student at the time) and when they got the three vomitting dogs to Murdoch, they were told the dogs couldn't be treated without payment first. So the grandfather had to rush home and get his credit card. (The dogs survived that time but they were poisoned again within a week ... and properly this time All three died. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheilaheel02 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) I know there have been some issues at the clinic that treats my horses where people either could not or did not pay. Occasionally, I have to travel for work and someone else may be looking after my horses. So to save any stress in an emergency situation I rang and asked them to keep my credit card details on file and gave them an upper limit to charge to it pre-approved. When I know I'm going to be away I ring ahead and give them the dates I'm away and the name and phone number of the person who might be calling if my horses need a vet. Both horses are microchipped so they can check who they are treating. I believe the horse clinic also has an option for a line of credit you can have pre-approved for such situations as well. Now that I think of it I don't have this back up plan for the dogs as they generally board, but I'm going to investigate the possibilities. S Edited February 8, 2011 by Sheilaheel02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelodysMum Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) It is really sad about your friend's dog. But I also understand it from the vet's point of view, especially if they are not regular customers. Sandra, it depends on the size of the dog how much it costs because they use more antivenene on a large dog. My friend's little Shih Tzu had an altercation with a juvenile brown snake last Saturday afternoon. The snake lunged at Molly a few times when she cornered it in the back yard, but they weren't sure if she had been bitten or not. They rushed her to the only open vet they could find. The vet said he could give the antivenene straight away but the minute he opened the bottle it would cost $900. He said as Molly was showing no symptoms after 20 minutes he thought it best to just monitor her and give the antivenene if required even though it meant more of a risk. he said he really thought she hadn't been bitten if she had no signs by the time she got there. So he did a blood test to check if the red blood cells were bursting (which the venom causes) and they weren't. She stayed in overnight, but she is fine. Thankfully she had managed to jump out of the way every time the snake struck. A little Shih Tzu would need much less antivenene than a Husky though. :D After my friend telling me about Molly, I am thankful all over again that I saw the brown snake in our chook pen the week before last and that the WIRES guy managed to catch it. It was a huge one, even he was shocked. When I think how many times I went in and out of there checking on the chooks in the heat last week, I shudder to think what could have happened! Edited February 8, 2011 by WendyH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 In an emergency we always treat straight away, but we are not in an area that has a lot of bad debtors. I think a deposit is reasonable, so long as the animal is taken through straight away and treament started, while the receptionist or nurse can sort out payment with the owner. Poor owner and dog I would have just turned up at the vet clinic anyway, especially as they had half the money already. I doubt the vet practice would want a scene especially if there were others clients there waiting and watching. I also think that vets shouldn't be expected to do things for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casowner Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Our vet does accounts for large animals but not dogs/cats. I normally don't even get the bill for a couple of weeks, due to the regularity of vists that we have my vet is pretty good. Not sure if they are the same for all customers. I remember racing Jake to the Emergency Vet and on the way rang and explained it was absolutely critical but once we got there the nurse stuffed around asking questions about my details even though they were on file. I explained that it was again critical but she wouldn't budge, by the time we went out to get him he had died in front of my OH and son. Now coming out 5 minutes earlier wouldn't have saved his life but it would have saved my son from seeing his dog die in front of him. To top it off when OH picked up his ashes (and couldn't see through the tears when doing so) the same nurse only gave him one urn when I had rung 10 minutes earlier and spoke to her to remind her that there was an urn and a cremains container, it even said on the bag one of two. When he got home and I asked him about it he said that is all she gave him so he had to go back and go through it all again, no apology or anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra777 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) The vet said he could give the antivenene straight away but the minute he opened the bottle it would cost $900. China is a Stafford, about 18kg (fat bubba at the moment), so in weight not a lot different to a Sibe, her opponent a 2 metre brown. $900!! I love my vet even more. Edited February 8, 2011 by Sandra777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnoPaws Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) I love my vet too How very sad for you neighbour :D Poor Husky Edited February 8, 2011 by SnoPaws Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) The size of the dogs makes not differenve to the amount of antivenin given. The amount of venom circulating in the blood stream indicates how much is required. I have worked for many years in the veterinary industry and in that time part of my responsibilty was acounts and chasing up bad debtors. Some people will say and do anything to get out of paying and many people say yep do it, when in reality they have no hope of being able to pay it back. Having said that there were customers who would get sent an acoount or be allowed to pay it off but they had a solid track record of always paying their accounts being regular customers and if for any reason there was a problem they called and got it sorted. I luckily can have an account with my vet but I have a good long history with them and have always paid my bills which over the last few years have been quite high. I can understand that people getting upset but in reality would you happily give someone a thousand dollars or so just because they said they would and could pay, but you don't know them from a bar of soap??? I wouldn't, I am not trusting of people in general. As a general rule our vet carries combined brown/tiger as we get both snakes (and others) and quite often people do not know exactly what type of snake has bitten their animal. It is more expensive than the straight tiger or brown but to have all available and potentially going out of date is not feasible for many vet hospitals. It is sad but I would have a credit card available or a card to an account so that if it happens you can walk in pay the deposit and get the animal worked on. Also luckily for me if I say it is an emergecny then my vets know it is and will do what it takes to get my dogs (and all the other animals) straight in and treated. Edited February 8, 2011 by OSoSwift Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartok Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 She told them she could pay just not the entire bill at that moment. It was Sunday and she had done shopping that weekend. I to understand where a vet is coming from for payment, but it was her regular vet that she has seen for years and never had issues with. I dunno Makes it hard when something like anti-venom is so expensive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rappie Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Of that $1400 bill, more than half of it would be the cost of the antivenom - the price went up last year and it's very expensive. It will require at least one vial to treat a dog that has been bitten, possibly two or more depending on the response to treatment. Every clinic I have worked in has required either full payment or at least $1000 before starting treatment. Every time a vial is used but not paid for, it's another $800-900 that is needed to buy more. In a region with a lot of snakes, that becomes very expensive for the vet, very quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartok Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) Of that $1400 bill, more than half of it would be the cost of the antivenom - the price went up last year and it's very expensive. It will require at least one vial to treat a dog that has been bitten, possibly two or more depending on the response to treatment. Every clinic I have worked in has required either full payment or at least $1000 before starting treatment. Every time a vial is used but not paid for, it's another $800-900 that is needed to buy more. In a region with a lot of snakes, that becomes very expensive for the vet, very quickly. Edited February 8, 2011 by Bartok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 She told them she could pay just not the entire bill at that moment. It was Sunday and she had done shopping that weekend. I to understand where a vet is coming from for payment, but it was her regular vet that she has seen for years and never had issues with. I dunno Makes it hard when something like anti-venom is so expensive It does make it hard and when you are in such a stressful situation you are generally not thinking very clearly either. Would it be possible for your friend to pay a little extra to the vet so have an account in credit incase of emergencies?? I have seen some people on here that do this with their vet. I am sorry she lost her dog, very sad all round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirty Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 My ex-foster cat ended up at the emergency vet after being hit by a car and subsequently had to be PTS. I had been called out of work to go and see her - I was hysterical and had no cash or cards on me but they would not let me leave without full payment (which by the way was $700+ for 2 hours of care!!) so I had to call my mum and pay with her CC over the phone. My regular vets are pretty flexible though and usually help me out with big bills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsdog2 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Of that $1400 bill, more than half of it would be the cost of the antivenom - the price went up last year and it's very expensive. It will require at least one vial to treat a dog that has been bitten, possibly two or more depending on the response to treatment. Every clinic I have worked in has required either full payment or at least $1000 before starting treatment. Every time a vial is used but not paid for, it's another $800-900 that is needed to buy more. In a region with a lot of snakes, that becomes very expensive for the vet, very quickly. Looking at this you can understand the vet requiring a deposit - if the dog doesn't make it some owners feel they don't have to pay - this is why the vet asks for a deposit. Slightly off topic, I lost my shepherd 2 weeks ago to gastric torsion. This was emergency a/hrs surgery which was to cost around $7000, my vet didn't ask for a deposit before he started surgery (unfortunately my beautiful boy didn't make it ). I have known this vet for a long time so maybe that's why I wasn't asked to pay a deposit upfront. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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