RIDICULOUS vet!

Okay, as some of you know my mother has two bengals (which, legally are mine...my name is on their paperwork as their legal owners and they know that if at any time they can't keep them or if anything happens, the cats go with me).

Anyway, my stepdad has been procrastinating about getting the snow bengal fixed, and I put my foot down. Either she gets fixed now or I'm taking her back. I even gave him the address and number to contact the municiple low cost spay and neuter clinic, where I got my boy Jasper done. A spay is only 45 dollars there.

So they make an appointment to get her fixed this Monday. Now, there's a vet just down the road from them, and out of curiosity he went in the other day to ask them how much it would be to get her spayed there. Now, the highest I've ever seen a spay for in this state is about $180, plus like an additional five dollars per kitten if the female turns out to be pregnant.

They asked him how old the cat was (six months), if she'd ever been in heat before (not yet), blah blah blah. Then they told him how much it would be.


$350!!!!

Their reasoning? 'Well, at her age, it IS possible she could have been in heat before, and there IS a chance she could be pregnant. And if a cat's ever been in heat, even just once, it makes the surgery more difficult.'

Mom told me that and I was just floored. I know that if a cat is IN heat at the time of surgery, it could possibly make it more difficult, as it could if a cat is pregnant. But charging them that much because they thought she could have been in heat before is just ridiculous!

Not to mention the fact the cat has NEVER been outside, and most certainly has NEVER been in heat. One of my cats was spayed, and when they discovered that she was a week pregnant at the time, they called me and told me, and I paid extra (the womb was already out and there was a high risk of infection and miscarraige to stop the spay). But even with the extra paid, it was STILL less than $200!

Yeah, they're going to the municiple clinic. I told them to avoid that vet completely. Sounds to me like they're just interested in how much money they can milk out of ignorant people than honestly caring about the animal.

Anyone else agree, or am I just being an idiot?

That'sd totally and utterly greedy of them. My cat had had an accidental litter before her spay and it was the regular price regardless ($35) to get her fixed. Why charge more because she MAY have been in heat? That shouldnt matter unless she was in heat at the time, and even then, $350 is insanely steep. With prices like that, it's no wonder that many lower-incomed families cant afford to fix their pets! $350 is more than two weeks' pay for some people.

Something is definitely wrong there!! Doesn't that's vet office realize how their greed is going to make people think that they can't afford to get their pet fixed, and how many unwanted pets could result!?! You're right, this seems to be somehow unethical - I suppose there is some sort of state governing agency that you could ask, not to make trouble, but just to find out if that is good vet practice. I wonder how much animal suffering, not just in the realm of neutering, that goes on because of that vet's greed - who can afford to go there??? Even if I could afford it, I'd go to a competent, less expensive vet & use the extra money to sponsor an animal in a shelter, or at least make a donation.

Yes that seems steep to me and their reasoning flawed. Our little cat was recently spayed at our normal vet. Their usual fees for spaying are £60 (about $100). She had gone into heat for the first time and the only difference that made was that they wanted to wait until the heat had passed because of the increased risk of spaying during heat. Increased risk due to the increased blood flow to the womb. After the heat had passed the risk returned to normal and there was no increase in price.

I agree with you - this Vet seems to be simply trying to get as much money as possible.

We have more or less "fixed" prices here, and I just checked the normal price for spaying a 6-month old female cat: €60 = $72. That vet is going to put himself out of business fast if he keeps gouging his patients.

This is EXACTLY why people don't want to take their pets in to have them fixed! Greedy vet, indeed!!

Sounds fishy to me, too.
I had Mini done at an Aid to Animals clinic. I don't remember the exact cost, but it was well less 100.00-and she had been in heat. What's strange is that I asked them if there was an extra charge because of her being in heat & was told that in Florida, they are always in heat. (But I wasn't charged extra)
???
Is there a similar clinic that you could go to?

She's going to the municiple shelter spay clinic, and my Mom has sworn never to set foot in that vet if that's the way they behave. If she has to, she'll drive the cat all the way to my vet (about twenty minutes away, so not bad) for her routine stuff.

I'm glad it wasn't just me thinking that vet was insane.

I totally agree that $350 for a spay alone is INSANE, but I just have to play Devil's Advocate here (hey, it's a character flaw )

Is it possible, just maybe, that after interviewing your mother, the vet found that the kitten was not vaccinated, and tacked on the price of a few routine shots to the "spay" visit? I know that Bella's vacc's and office visit cost me about $150 before the move, and if the vet is high in his pricing anyway it could very well run upwards of $300 for the whole kit-n-caboodle - but I STILL think he's nuts!!

Originally Posted by sunnicat

This is EXACTLY why people don't want to take their pets in to have them fixed! Greedy vet, indeed!!

Click to expand...

I agree! Highest price around here is $80. I would not know what I would do if I was told that amount.

There is nothing fishy about it. Some vets charge more than others.
I think the vet clinic that neutered my cats charges a lot as well. I beleive they charge about that much for a spay.
I could have had my cats neutered a lot cheaper than I paid to this vet.
Nobody is forcing anyone to pay these prices. Obviously some people are paying the vet, or he would go out of business, but vets don't charge the same. So, it's a good idea to shop around.

That's hard to believe! I'm sorry you even had to hear about that! Wow, people these days...how low some go in evolution.

Before I found the Cat Clinic here in J-ville, I called the new vet's office in Petsmart. They said it would be $369. I almost fainted! They told me they had an operating suite, and a whole surgical team, or some such nonsense. The Cat Clinic took great care of her for $79. They run low cost spay and neuter specials several times a year. Neither one of my cats that went there came home particularly traumatized, either. The whole staff are dedicated cat people. I love them!

That's crazy!

That is a rip off!

It cost me $200 total for Sage's spay and that was for the surgery, follow up visits (three of them), and pain shots as well as antibiotics and this is in Korea where everything is expensive!

Oh, believe me, the cat is vaccinated. I got her from a rescue so she had her first series of shots then, and my parents were exemplery in getting the follow ups done. I talked to my stepfather today and he said they actually told him $350 to $475, depending on if she was pregnant or not.

I'm sorry, I still find this atrociously ridiculous. Maybe Bill Gates is paying that for his cats to be fixed, but that's about it.

i skimmed most the article. therse not a local spca or whateve? that price sucks! lol. yea. if they cared then they would just fix the animal for free. or lower price. but then again. everything cost money.

We have a vet clinic in our area that charges extremely high prices too, way out of line with everyone else around. He makes his money even with fewer clients. He also has a word of mouth reputation for unnecessary procedures (raise the price even more.)

We had a bad expereince in the DC area when we lived there with a vet (Silver Spring.) He ran up the bill with the old "needs a dental" routine, then extracted nearly every tooth in two different cats, without so much as calling us. I filed a complaint with the state vet board in Maryland, but they naturally found nothing wrong.

A Vet practice is a business, and they are entitled to cover their costs and make a profit. At the same time, a reputation for over charging or poor service tends to get around before long.

The spay and nueter clinic they did end up taking the cat too is part of the SPCA. They only charged them 45 dollars for the spay, but get this...my Mom went in this morning to drop her off and the vet informed her that it was illegal to bring bengals into the city of Seattle! None of us had any idea of that. However then the vet said, "well, the legislation isn't firm on just what generation is or is not allowed (ie foundations only or all bengals, including SBTs) so we'll just mark her as an SBT and do it".

Okay...cuz she IS an SBT. It's my mother's other cat that is a foundation. We just don't have the paperwork to prove she's an SBT because she was a rescue.

Not that it really matters. The vet has to do what the vet has to do, and all it means is mom will have to find another place to get the second bengal fixed when she's old enough. But it kind of made me mad all the same. It smacks of me as almost the same BSL that covers pitbulls.

I mean, I saw one of those Animal Cops in Houston and they did a rescue of a house with about a trillion bengals in it. The cats were semi-feral, yes...just like any cats in any horders house will be when undersocialized and kept in such appalling conditions. But they made it sound like the bengals were acting wild JUST BECAUSE they were bengals, and all bengals behaved that way. They ended up shipping most of the cats to a wildlife facility! Even those that were purring and snuggling with people.

It's just ridiculous.

That vet sounds like a scam artist. Spread the word.