After calling with concerns about our kitty acting out of sorts, we were told that it could be a "life-threatening" situation and to bring him in immediately. Having been to emergency vets before, we knew just an exam would be at least $100. The triage and initial exam went fairly quickly. The vet said that this wasn't a "typical case" because the cat wasn't exhibiting being in severe pain and that it could be stress related. In fact, by the time the vet came in, kitty was walking around wanting to be petted and purring. He recommened doing x-rays to help determine what the problem may be. When the desk clerk came in with the estimate, it was going to be from $335 to $486. No matter how much we love our kitty, that money is just not doable--in times like these, it was literally choosing between a roof over our heads or exploratory x-rays for our cat. We told her we couldn't do it and got ready to leave. She told us the vet wanted to go over home care instructions before we left. We waited another half hour, the vet called us back into the exam room and said, "How about just doing one x-ray for $100? Or I can stick a needle in him free of charge?" WHAT?!? If those were options why weren't they presented in the first place? Where was that "free of charge" a half an hour before? If he was truly concerned about the health of our cat, all the options would have been presented initially. Appauled at this, we told him we understood the possible risk and that if the cat seemed to worsen we would act immediately. The vet literally stormed out of the room while I was in mid-sentence! Obviously the health of our pets is of paramount importance. We could have waited to go to our regular vet the next day (for the same exam that would have been less than half the price) but instead we sought emergency attention. The vet threw out numbers like a used car salesman and had a fit when we didn't buy. PS: Kitty is doing great--eating, drinking, playing as normal.
Pros: 24 hrs
Cons: Staff more concerned about making a buck then the health of pet
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