By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
This story was reported in our local newspaper ‘The Northern Echo’ today:
Darlington Pensioner’s Vet Bill
A frail pensioner has been left with a huge bill after an out-of-hours vet treated her cat when its tail jammed in a stair lift. Firefighters who dismantled the stair lift at Maisie Wilkinson’s Darlington home to free feline Tilly are now holding a whip-round to help out.
The 81-year-old, who lives alone and receives daily support from carers, was charged £753.56 by the Vets Now service. Her son Tony is angered at the size of the charge – which involved Tilly’s late night collection by a vet and overnight care. Next day she was transferred to the PDSA veterinary charity in Middlesbrough who amputated Tilly’s injured tail free of charge.
“I don’t know how they can justify the cost,” said Mr Wilkinson, 61. “All he did was give Tilly an injection and kept her overnight; the PDSA did the operation.”My mother is worried sick about it all and wants to pay it but she hasn’t got the money.”
His mother, recovering from near-fatal E-Coli contracted in July, said the whole ordeal – which happened shortly after 10pm on a Thursday night – left her shaken and upset. “It was terrible,” she said. “I was coming downstairs and Tilly ran upstairs when her tail got caught. “She was screaming and screaming; I didn’t know what to do.” Her son called the fire brigade who dismantled the stair lift to free Tilly, whose tail had almost been severed by the cogs. One of her carers spotted the fire engine outside and called in to comfort the pensioner during the hour-and-a-half ordeal.
Her son said he was warned that the Vets Now call-out charge would be around £300 but he was flabbergasted at the final cost. “At the time I didn’t feel like we had much choice; my mother was so upset and the cat was in so much pain, what else could we do?”
Richard White, district vet for Middlesbrough Vets Now who attended Tilly, said payment options and fees were “extensively” discussed with Mrs Wilkinson as Tilly needed hospitalisation and further treatment including IV fluids, pain relief and treatment for shock.
“Vets Now is a dedicated out of hours emergency and critical care provider and our treatment fees are representative of the high quality, out of hours treatment we provide,” he added. “Any out of hours emergency service will always come at a premium because of the expensive running costs”
Our clinics are fully staffed and fully equipped every night and weekend so that we can be there for pet owners in an emergency, when other vets are closed. In return for the fees we charge, pets receive a high standard of round-the-clock care; our vets and nurses are awake and on duty all night, and this is reflected in our consistently high levels of client satisfaction.”
Mrs Wilkinson said she will try to pay a small amount off the bill each month, adding that she had been touched by the kindness of the Darlington firemen together with her carers who are also holding a collection for her.
How can that emergency vets justify £300 for a call out? £453.56 for treatment?
I think this is outrageous!
The latest news on Tilly…
Mrs Wilkinson says that she is fine and doesn’t seem to be missing her tail at all and she’s still running up and down the stairs too so it hasn’t affected her emotionally at all.
She had written out a cheque for £100 as a first instalment to pay the vet’s bill but tore it up when it was so kindly paid for her, however she didn’t keep the money, she wrote out another cheque for £100 to give to the PDSA instead. I think that’s lovely, what goes around comes around, she was helped and then she helped someone else.
Wouldn’t it be a much better world if everyone did the same as the lovely people in this story with a happy ending!
I guess you are saying that vets like dentists like doctors like bankers like lawyers and estate agents are all getting greedy….it’s the modern way.
This little old lady was charged the 750 pounds for a call out and overnight stay at a company called Now Vets..The actual surgery was carried out next day by a charity for free.
The reason they charge so much is that they assume everyone has pet insurance but here in England insurance can be very expensive and an 81 year old whos only company is her cat will of course agree to any cost rather than have her animal put down by the emergency vet during his visit. If that were to happen there would still have been the call out charge and according to Now Vets website a charge for “consultation”.
The problem is that after hours the regular vet doesn’t do call outs and instead refers the client to these leeches who make a fortune from peoples misery and despair over their beloved animals emergencies. I don’t know it for a fact but it wouldn’t surprise me if the regular vet got a referral fee from these predatory after hours emergency vets.
I am pleased that this episode has brought world wide attention to the issue of extorniate vetenerary charges her in the UK when emergencies after hours occur
The vet is charging too much because he charged an exorbitant fee for coming out AND an extremely high fee for treatment. One or the other, but to do both is wrong. My friend Bob charges a fairly high rate per hour for labor on cars his shop fixes, but he does not mark up parts. He said that it should be one or the other, and he thinks the garages that charge both a very high fee for labor and mark the parts up are wrong to do that.
We could get my sister’s furnace fixed in the middle of a winter night for less than this vet charged this lady. Usually Jen’s furnace just needs some little sensor replaced or cleaned, so the bill is quite low. Honestly, if we called in the emergency repair team and paid the extra fees for a middle of the night, emergency service call, it would not be $700. Charging a fee that is so high just because people are in a bind is a form of stealing.
Agreed as usual but the insurance companies are greedy and very commercial. You won’t get a good deal. Ever.
Good point. In the UK, we are used to big numbers, expensive things. I agree that people should think about the expense of keeping a cat before adopting. It seems that too many people don’t factor in the expense of keeping a cat over the cat’s lifetime.
Thanks for responding to my comment.
Perhaps I should live in India where my money would go far, far further and make a difference, in the cat world, perhaps.