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French Bulldog Owners Call Out Vet Over $37,000 Bill

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Little Gifts

Little Gifts

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I felt ACA weren't totally on their side though saying she would have to sell her designer handbags to pay the bill. It is a lot of money. But it is also specialist surgery requiring lots of medical testing to determine the issue . Even without the emergency side of things it probably would've cost them about $20,000.

 

Sell a handbag, luv.

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Mairead

Mairead

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Handbags were probably made in China, even if "genuine".

I hazard a guess most people will not learn anything from this, will say "what an adorable dog" then buy one.

Brian Kilcommins and Sarah Wilson wrote that the further away you get from wild dog physical design (and they then describe what we would call a dingo/pariah dog) the more problems you can expect to have.

Edited by Mairead
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Kazm

Kazm

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I don’t understand some people. Easter weekend, specialists, tests, spinal surgery. What can they expect. It all adds up and medical procedures etc are expensive. We all know that. Buy a frenchie, buy insurance. 
When Molly was attacked we had everything explained thoroughly to us and it was expensive enough but if she had deteriorated further the cost would have blown out too. Thankfully my little girl was on our side and became my miracle. Personally I would not be seen on national tv saying I had to sell some handbags that I didn’t want to. :doh:
 

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Loving my Oldies

Loving my Oldies

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I wish I had a few designer handbags that could pay for the eye surgery Beatrice and Bunches have recently had.  Actually, I do have a Louis Vuitton that was a parting pressie from the company I worked for nearly 20 years ago.  I would be more than happy to sell that LOL.  It is hardly used.  Any takers?  POA.   :laugh:   :laugh:   :laugh:

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tdierikx

tdierikx

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I'd say that Matisse was one very unwell little dog, and the care she required in order to save her life was rather complex/involved... however, the public holiday surcharge of $4000+ was actually more expensive than the actual spinal surgery ($3250), which is somewhat of a worry, wouldn't you say? Technically the dog was there for 2 public holidays, which makes the charge roughly $85/hour just for those 2 days... and dog only knows what that place has charged for a bag of Hartmanns fluids, of which she may have had a few over 6 days. Hartmanns fluids cost around $3-$5/litre to buy, but in fairness, someone qualified must catheterise the animal, monitor the flow, and change the bags at regular intervals - but I'm also guaranteeing that the catheterisation step will have had it's own charges applied. $44 for 15 paracetamol tablets works out to around $3 per tablet, and you can buy a box of 100 500mg tabs for around $3 online - then let's extrapolate that by guessing that the dog weighed around 10kg, and the dose rate of paracetamol for dogs is 15mg/kg, each dose given would have been around 150mg, or around 1/3 of a 500mg tab every 6-8 hours, so for 15 tabs, she would have had 45 doses over 6 days at 8 hour intervals, at a cost of $1 for each dose given.

 

Let's then look at what it costs to have a vet nurse attend said dog 24/7 for 6 days... most vet nurses are paid around $25/hr, but experienced emergency nurses could get up to $40-$45/hr, so let's split the difference and call it $35/hr - 6 days of 24 hours x $35 = $5040 (more if they were paid penalty rates for the 2 public holidays) - but in all honesty, no animal in any clinic (emergency or not) is going to have a dedicated nurse all to themselves 24/7.

 

I think the owners are a little deluded/entitled, but in all fairness that particular vet hospital does have a bit of a reputation for exhorbitant fees at the best of times - regardless the fact that it's an emergency clinic.

 

T.

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sandgrubber

sandgrubber

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Posted (edited)
On 17/05/2023 at 8:12 AM, tdierikx said:

I think the owners are a little deluded/entitled, but in all fairness that particular vet hospital does have a bit of a reputation for exhorbitant fees at the best of times - regardless the fact that it's an emergency clinic.

 

T.

Frenchies also have a reputation for ill health.  A recent peer reviewed article gave them a shockingly low life expectancy 4.5 years. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2318084-french-bulldogs-are-the-shortest-lived-dog-breed-in-the-uk/

 

To me the bottom line is "do your homework ".  I feel for the dog, and all the other dogs bred will grevious health defects.   But if you do buy a trendy breed known for health defects, at least shop around for vets, and do your check-ups for likely problems rather than waiting for an emergency and going to a trendy vet.

Edited by sandgrubber
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DogsAndTheMob

DogsAndTheMob

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 IMO, the biggest shame about this story is that it trivialises an important issue… that owning and taking good care of a pet is becoming a big luxury. There is an increasing pressure to pay more to feed our dogs than to feed ourselves and to routinely treat our dogs with a greater variety of (usually expensive) preventative medications than ever before. On top of that, emergency vet care costs have skyrocketed from hundreds of dollars to thousands and potentially tens of thousands. The up side of this is that it’s at least partially because of better and more available diagnostic procedures and treatments. The downside is that people could easily become trapped into debt spirals.

The couple in this story are almost a caricature of “first world problems “. I watched an interview in which she really did complain about having to sell her designer handbags! But the same scenario could easily happen to a family in financially precarious circumstances. It’s easy to see how people could opt for treatment then find it difficult to say “enough” as costs spiral (there’s a branch of psychology called “sunk cost theory” which explains this.)

I don’t know that vets are to blame, either. Most get into that career because they love animals and it might be equally difficult for a vet who initially described a hopeful prognosis to recommend euthanasia after investing time, effort and emotions into patient care. And they need to cover their costs in order to stay in business.

I’m not convinced that pet insurance provides reliable protection, either. So many things seem to be considered as pre-existing conditions and increasing monthly costs can make insurance prohibitively expensive as dogs get older - just when the insurance is most likely to be needed.

In short, I don’t think there are any easy answers but if a young person  asked advice about getting a pet, I’d probably advise them to think twice about getting one at all.

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DogsAndTheMob

DogsAndTheMob

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20 minutes ago, Mairead said:

Do you mean all pets or just dogs and cats?

Honestly, I’m not sure. On an ethical level, should other pets receive poorer quality or lower cost veterinary care than dogs and cats? What veterinary care is, or will soon be, available for other pets? What are the costs of that care?

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sandgrubber

sandgrubber

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14 hours ago, DogsAndTheMob said:

IMO, the biggest shame about this story is that it trivialises an important issue… that owning and taking good care of a pet is becoming a big luxury.

A large part of this is end of life care.  The life expectancy for a Frenchie in the UK is 4.5 years. (See my previous post in this thread for reference).  This pup was 5.  Chances are it will be back for more expensive and painful treatments in years to come and these will not be entirely successful.

 

If an aged dog gets osteosarcoma or suffers congestive heart failure or equivalent horrors,  ALWAYS ask the vet how much time the dog can be expected to live after the expensive treatment and what its quality of life will be.  Then ask yourself,  is it worth it?  It's also worth asking the vet what they would do if it was their dog.  Oft-times they know it's basically hopeless and take heroic and expensive measures due to emotional pressure from the client.  Euthanasia is sometimes the kindest solution.

 

Also note, there's a reason insurance costs sky-rocket as dogs get old.  Sadly,  they don't live that long.

Edited by sandgrubber
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Selkie

Selkie

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The statement at the end by the SVES is very telling. They provide "human-level" care. If you want that for your pet, then you need to pay for it. If you don't want that, go to a vet who offers normal vet care.

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