Legal vet fees?

Hopefully I am posting this in the right place.
Anyway, I learned of a case where this lady brought two cats to the vet for checkup. One was good and the other one was a terror to handle. The vet charged the owner $11 as handling fee for the bad kitty. Is this a common practice in the US? Is it even legal?
My vet charges basic consultation fee whether my cat is good or bad.

I've never heard of that before- and I often take difficult to handle cats to the vet. All my vet asks is that I warn them ahead of time that a feral is coming in.

In Australia, some vets do charge a handling fee and at the vet surgery I go to, there is a notice for it.

With my understanding, it is only applied when the animal is destructive and difficult to control. But even, then the room where the animal is checked, is rather bare and sectioned off from the operating room.

Most other vets that I know of insist strongly that the next booking made that the owner warn the vet tech and assistants ahead of time.

I've never checked with the legality of it though.

I've never heard of that either. I brought 2 of my more difficult cats in today for their annual checkup. I warn my vet in advance, confirm once I get there if he is ready to handle them, he doesn't turn me away and he doesn't charge me fees (he got scratched today for the first time by my cats in 10 years).

I do know that a lot of the vets in the city won't even handle feral cats - they will turn you away with a reference to one that does.

I know that petsmart charges a handling fee for dogs that are bad. My vet doesn't charge a fee though. I would know, my dog nanook is VERY VERY bad and it takes everyone that works there to do his yearly check up! All my cats are pretty good at the vet.

we dun have such stuff over here in singapore... at least not with my vet.. we just pay for basic consultation fees and any additional stuff for tests or injections... boy boy is kinda tough to handle but they dun charge anything extra...

Sounds reasonable, as long as the amount isn't too far out of proportion to the regular office visit charge. Cat bites can be REALLY nasty, usually requiring a doctor visit for antibiotics because of the bacteria in a cat's mouth.

If a cat is tough to handle, it's a good idea to warn the staff ahead of time, and also to trim the cat's claws nice & short prior to the visit, if you can. Those gestures of courtesy may help to avoid an additional fee. Sometimes, if the cat is really difficult and you have an existing relationship with the vet, you can pick up a sedative pill from the vet to give the cat prior to the visit.

Shalimar was a bloody terror in the vets. I say bloody terror cause she used to make my hand or arm bloody on a regular basis during exams. None of the vet techs would come in the room. There was a big sign on the front of her chart "CAT BITES". But there was never an extra fee for handling her.