Advice for someone who can't afford vet bills?

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

From what you have said this vet is right over the top and sounds like a money making exercise.

Cant think why he has given a one day shot of abs cos thats useless, why not a two week convenia? Unless this haqs been lost in translation.

£80  also seems way over the top.......sorry no not if bloods were taken.

I agree with you that he needs to see a much more experienced vet even to speak to on phone intitally.

Is he able to get treatment from pdsa or blue cross? Thats the only other thing I can think of.

Insurance for a 4 year old from AXA should not be that expensive and if he pays by the month about £10 or less a month I reckon but not to attempt this until puss is well again.

[Angiew]

Had a really difficult call earlier today.
A bloke phoned up asking for some advice.
He has a 4 year old cat who has not been eating and is lethargic (about 3 days). No other symptoms. The cat is drinking.
He took it to vets yesterday who gave it an AB jab and took bloods which showed a couple of elevated markers (he thought kidney and liver). The cat also had a bit of a temp.

The vet said it might need hospitalization and a drip and also an xray and the owner was totting it all up and it potentially came to about £400 on top of the £80 yesterday.
He was given a syringe for water.

He phoned me up in a bit of a panic as he is already on some sort of money program and can't afford that sort of thing.
The vet in question is a young vet whom (I've seen) has little experience and not very good english to be able to explain things.

Anyway, the advice I gave was that the cat needs to go back today as the AB was only a days shot and to ask to see a more experienced vet who spoke better english to explain. The bloods may be off due to dehydration (which is what the vet said), and he should try and syringe water in every couple of hours to avoid dehydration. I told him the xray seemed a bit premature though obv. I was not a vet and therefore couldn't really say.
He has been with the practice for a few years, so I also suggested that he should talk to them about payment options.

Other than that, I suggested another vet though this would then mean he would probably not be able to discuss any sort of payment plan.

I don't suppose I will hear from this man again, though it would be nice to hear of the outcome.

Is there anything else I could have suggested?

It does seem a bit heavy handed to talk of drips and xrays unless the cat was in a bad way but I suppose he could have been talking worse outcomes/eventualities and because of his lack of english this was not picked up. (Unless this is a case of the new breed of vet who thinks scans and xrays should almost be the first thing one does. )