Vet diagnosis confusion

[westendwendy]

My Daughter's cat was taken to the vet over a week ago when he seemed to have trouble breathing and he was found to have blood stained fluid in his chest cavity,as I have had cats for years and have seen the condition before I believed it to be a tumour.

 

The vet did blood tests for FeLV and FIV which were negative,the chest was drained and the pleural fluid was sent to a lab for testing during which time she advised my Daughter that the cat would need to be hospitalised.They then did three xrays and administered Dimazon,Metacam and Synulox daily for six days.The vet made a diagnosis of FIP and to be honest I had never heard of it but after checking I found that this was,in the majority of cases,fatal.

 

The test results came back yesterday and,as I first thought,it turned out to be a cancerous growth and sadly the cat was put to sleep.

 

The cat was not insured and the vet was made aware of this but my Daughter promised to pay the bill but said that she could not pay it all at once which the vet accepted and between us have now paid £200.00 towards a bill of £1292.00.

 

She went into the vet today and asked for their bank account details so that I could set up a standing order to pay off the bill in full but the practise manager became very agressive and said that she was unaware of any arrangement and the cat's remains would not be released until the bill was paid in full.

 

I know that vet bills came be very high and I'm not trying to get out of paying them but going back to my initial thoughts about the cat's illness would I be unreasonable in thinking that blood tests and an xray would have determined the presence of a tumour in the first couple of days?

 

I just have that feeling that not only was the cat left to suffer for over a week while all the time the fees were rising and at no time was my Daughter given any indication of the cost of different treatments and tests,it just seems wrong to me but would value anyone's opinion who may know a little more on the subject.

[honeybee13]

Hello there. I really feel for your daughter and what she and her pussycat went through. We have experience FIP, but that's not relevant here.

 

Other people here must know far more than me, but vets have a professional body and it might be worth having a chat with them about the practice manager and the fees issure.

 

My best, HB

[hightail]

Have you asked for an itemised bill? FeLV/FIV test should have been done in-house and cost around £50 (varies from vet to vet). I don't know what a full FIP screen costs but a simple FCoV titre test should not be more than £100. I'm giving real approximates here - I have my cats screened once a year for all these and it's been a few months since any were due so I'm adding a bit onto what I last paid. Presumably there would also be a separate lab charge for further blood counts/screening for the tumour. These aren't cheap but your bill does seem steep to me.

 

FIP is a miserable disease and many cats are pts through being wrongly diagnosed. Vets can be a bit quick to assume even though there is a very detailed diagnosis protocol which, if followed, can rule out FIP in many cases. It happens to be a particular interest of mine so I would be very grateful for some info on this cat. Was it the only cat in the household? How old was it? Was it kept indoors or allowed out? Did your daughter ever put it in a boarding cattery when she went on holiday?

[hightail]

And straight after I hit the 'post' button I thought of something else - typical. I don't think it's within the law to hold someone's property against a debt - need someone with a bit more knowledge than me to confirm that. Animals are property just like anything else you own. It isn't uncommon for vets to claim they won't release an animal (or its remains) without payment but I wonder if they are entitled to do so.