Both vets and insurance companies are rip offs
After I had to have my dog put to sleep some 11 years back I decided that I couldn't afford the insurance or the vet's fees anymore as my circumstances had changed so I decided I would be dogless, after having had dogs on and off for the previous 20 years. Someone living nearby who I used to chat too as we were walking our dogs said that their friend ran a dog rescue shelter and that she was always looking for someone to foster a dog. So I contacted them and they came to inspect me, my house and garden and said that they would like my back garden making more secure, even though my dog had never escaped from it but he was half Alsatian and half Deerhound weighing in at around 45kgms. So I bought a 50 metre roll of 1 metre high stock fencing to go along one side and the bottom of my garden against the trees and bushes, the other side was solid wood panelled fencing, and shortly afterwards they brought me a mad psycho bitch called Suki, half Alsatian, half Labrador that they were struggling to find a home for as they couldn't trust her with children or other dogs and it seemed she had been out to other houses and returned a few times. They had offered to pay for the fencing and for food and vets bills but I said I was happy to pay for everything but the vets bills.
I don't think they tried that hard to find her a forever home as they knew she was OK with me.
After about 6 months I said that it didn't look like they would ever rehome her so I would keep her if it wasn't for the vets fees. They said they would cover those so I said OK I will keep her then. Without a week, despite not chewing anything in my house since she arrived she ate 3 of my dining room chairs after I had left her alone, as I had often done before , for a couple of hours. I wasn't too bothered as I was thinking of getting rid of them and the table soon anyway but a few days later I went to a neighbour's house for 20 minutes and when got back she had taken a chunk out of the arm of a leather Chesterfield chair and a chunk out of the seat cushion. So I had to ring the shelter and tell them they had to find another home. Fortunately they found one a few days later and I took her to her new owners.
A few days later a lady who had come with the first lady who brought Suki rang me and said they needed someone that evening to take in Benji for a few days. I said OK bring him over, I thought that they had brought me a Wookie when I saw him
He soon settled in ad was no trouble but then I was told that his owners didn't want him back and he was such a lovely dog I said I would keep him, thinking it was on the same terms as Suki. They arranged for him to go to the vets and get chipped and (sorry lads) to get his bits removed, and they paid for that. He was a little annoyed at me when I collected him but he soon forgave me and didn't seem to miss his bits that much after a few days. The vet estimated his age at between 4 and 5 years old, that was in August 2011.
I took him to the doggy beauty parlour and he was transformed from a Wookie wannabe into this gorgeous creature.
Apart from his food, very little as he loved my leftovers more than his dog food, flea treatments and worming tablets he cost me nothing at the vets until he ripped a claw towards the end of 2019. They charged me £70 to trim it off, dress it and to give him an injection for antibiotics and a small bottle of Metacam and 5 minutes a few days later to check he was OK. Then the following February that claw seemed to be growing back a little strange so I took him to the vets again. She said that it was OK just needed clipping but then she said he had some bad teeth that needed removing. So I said OK and booked him in for the following day. They removed 5 teeth and charged me just under £500. I rang the lady who had brought him and who had paid for that first vet's bill but she said she was a different rescue shelter to the one I had got Suki off and she couldn't help, so I was on my own. Part way through this March he started vomiting for a couple of days so I took him to the vets She couldn't see anything wrong but gave him an injection to settle his stomach and another antibiotic one, in case he had got an infection, then said he had lost weight over the last 12 months and wanted to do a blood test to check. She said it was £180 for the full blood test or a cheaper one at £140. I said for the difference she may as well do the full one. So they took £261.93 off me and rang me the day after to say that he had kidney disease and they needed a urine sample and another blood test to determine how bad. I said I paid for a full blood test but she said this was a more specific one
I got a urine sample that day and took that in and left £62.57 lighter again. She rang me the following day and said he was between stage 3 and 4 and not really much they could do but sell me special kidney friendly diet food and keep him in their hospital for several days to monitor his condition. I dread to think how much that would cost but if it made him better I would have paid but by now he was looking so miserable and fed up that everyone could see that he was not the happy dog her had always been and he was lethargic and off his food, so a few days later we went to the vet's one last time to say goodbye, my niece went with me to support me but I don't know which one of us needed the other more. He looked at me that one last time as if to say thank you as he was ready to go and that was it. My best friend of almost the last 10 years had gone
Then to add insult to injury, despite having had all that money a few days earlier they took another £157.92 from me
I think vets are sadly a necessary evil.
Sorry for such a long post on your thread Bob but I felt it had to get it off my chest with it being so recent.
