Stressmagnet Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 (edited) My boy was quiet when he came in tonight but I didn't think much of it until he jumped up on the couch and settled. He kept licking his belly and I had a look. A nasty 2cm gash pretty close to Mr Hapoy and too close to the femoral artery to think about. I took him to the after hours vet. She said he'd need surgery under a general which would cost about $900. I opted to have him injected with a painkiller, an antibiotic and have it flushed out and see my vet tomorrow morning ASAP (Tues). Questions: Can't they just flush it and stitch it? Why surgery?? How does pet insurance work? I have Comprehensive Insurance with Bow Wow Meow. The after hours vet filled in a claim form and gave it to me. I assume the vet tomorrow will do the same.' But... $900 will leave me with nothing in my account to live on. How quickly is the settlement process? Do vets do the claim for you (as in people) and you pay the excess? Or am I up for the whole shebang tomorrow? Poor boy. I cannot believe I didn't notice anything wrong until 9pm tonight. I feel awful. And I also feel like a shitty owner since I took the cheaper option tonight. If anyone can answer these questions, I'd be most grateful. Edited May 18, 2015 by Stressmagnet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Rusty Bucket Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Ok all the hollards backed insurances pay about 80% and you pay the other 20%. As for the surgery - I'm not a vet but I'm guessing it's gone deeper than a surface wound. Either that or the emergency vet wanted a general to do the stitches - which is understandable. I've just had two skin thingies off under local and the one the dermatologist stitched... was on my back so I couldn't see but there was a lot of pulling and pushing and prodding - which didn't hurt thanks to a generous dose of local but did freak me out. Wasn't expecting that (adrenaline surge). Hopefully your vet will be able to give a more considered explanation. Do be sure to write down every question you've got now - and take that with you. I tend to type them up and then sort into similar questions grouped together eg get the same question pop into my head with 20 different variations... Make sure you get your question sheet out and tick them off and scribble answers or you will miss some and still be freaking out. Speaking from experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dame Aussie Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 I don't know about insurance sorry we don't have it, but she really should have explained why she thought surgery was warranted? Is it very deep? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinabean Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 (edited) Ouch, poor Ernie. Stressmagnet I'm with Petplan, so it may be different with your insurer, but we normally pay the bill then claim back from our insurer. Do you have a credit card you could use to pay the initial bill? With our claims, we download a claim form from Petplan's website and fill in the owner portion, then there's a page that the vet fills in. Our claims take 4-6 weeks normally to get paid out (minus any excess if applicable). Hopefully someone with the same insurer as you will pop in with better info. Good luck tomorrow! Edited May 18, 2015 by trinabean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 I don't have insurance at the moment, nor could I afford a surgery bill right now. Seriously dogs, don't you even dare! So I can't answer your question but DO NOT feel like a bad dog mum, you have a whole lot of things to weigh up at the moment and dogs are super resilient. Seriously, you're still taking care of him, Ernie won't mind waiting and with any luck won't need surgery anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdierikx Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Interesting that they could flush it under a local, but couldn't stitch it at the same time. Flushing is somewhat intrusive... Hopefully your regular vet who knows Ernie can stitch it under a local today... T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest donatella Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 (edited) Pending on the depth of the cut they might need to do some internal suturing to ensure the artery hasn't been damaged. I'd say she suggested general so as they could do more investigating into the wound an awake dog wouldn't allow. Hopefully your vet has a less intrusive plan. The good news is insurance are pretty good at paying out for accidents but you need to pay up first and they reimburse you. I was in this place 2 years back when Bon required $7000 surgery, they paid up (80% reimburse) pretty quick no questions asked. I've always found it's just illness they are jerks about Edited May 18, 2015 by donatella Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 (edited) I usually pay on my credit card, then hope the claim goes through before I get charged interest. There is an option for them to pay vets directly, though not many vets are willing to take on that burden. All you can do is explain the situation to your vet and ask if they would consider it... Edited May 18, 2015 by aliwake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stressmagnet Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 No credit card. Ok. Thanks for your answers. Not sure how I'm going to do this but I'm very grateful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jemmy Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Yikes! Poor Ernie, he's really putting you through a bit at the moment. Hope all goes well this morning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stressmagnet Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 I'm hoping the vet will take ½ down. Otherwise, I'm going to just have to ask they suture it and hope to god there's no internal damage. But they flushed a litre of saline thru it last night. Surely they'd notice with all the poking around that it had hit something critical. The good news is that it missed the artery by about 3cm. I don't even want to think about it. He's reasonably bright, a bit sorry for himself but still waggy. I'm hoping the normal vet has some more reasonable options but he's not getting out of his crate except to pee this morning, just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jemappelle Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Your local vet should be cheaper than the emergency vet (less overheads). Hope you can sort something out with them. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malakita Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Glad to hear Ernie is feeling much better this morning. It is so stressful when they are sick. When our dog was sick, it was our first claim and it snowballed into 9 separate claims in the space of a month aprrox. He is with Real. We were paid upfront close to $3000. My worry was the time it would take with the paperwork to get processed. But they were terrific, we got the money back in about 3 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliwake Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Fingers crossed for you that your normal vet will a) be less expensive! b) be more willing to help you out with some flexible payment options... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoemonster Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Bow wow process quite quickly as long as you fill out the forms fully and provide a full vet history with your first claim form, you do have to pay it in full and they reimburse you Hope the vet has fixed him up today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dame Aussie Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 How's he doing SM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stressmagnet Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 My Ernie is the BEST DOG EVAH. 1. Vet said tho the gash is deep, it missed anything important - no stomach or intestinal damage. 2. He poked around in it (gag) with a cotton swab and said it will drain and heal just fine without stitches. 3. He gave me antibiotics and Ernie has to live in his crate for a week but will be fine. Total cost? $130 I swear I was blessed when j got that dog. Still need to file a claim but I'll wait till the follow up next week to make sure all is well. He was a very lucky boy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinabean Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Yay, that is good news Stressmagnet. I'm relieved for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dame Aussie Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Woohoo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Rusty Bucket Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 I do love an update. I think my insurance has a $200 excess - so for $130 I'd just be paying. I think you can get 80/20 insurance with a hollards backed insurance that has no excess but you'd want to check what your excess is before you go to the trouble of the forms. Good old Ernie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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