Vet Bill Advice NEEDED

Vet Bill Discrepancy!!

Hello everyone I need some serious advice.

A bit of backstory, I have a male neutered cat (almost 2 yrs old in May) he has had 3 urinary blockages since January. I took him in last Wednesday worried he may have a uti, nope he was blocked. Vet said they’d put a catheter in place and keep him overnight and it would be $254. I get a call that night saying they were unable to place the catheter and recommended the PU surgery. I said okay that’s fine I want to know the pricing details first because I don’t have much money left. ( I already have spent almost 5200$ at this point on this cat for urinary blockages and overnight stays and meds and everything else.) They said it’d be $1200 total if they were able to do it from the outside going in, if they were unable it would be $1500 and they’d have to go thru the bladder and use two doctors instead of one. They said there was a stone lodged in my cats uretha. So I said okay as long as it’s not more than 1500$ that is fine with me but I’d like to be told when and if they have to go thru the bladder.

So the next day(Thursday) they said they would do the surgery, called me said they had to go thru the bladder, then they call me around 6 at night and said there were complications the doctor wants to talk to you in person.

I rush there and am told they were unsuccessful both times and were unable to do the surgery. They said he needed to go to an overnight place to be monitored and have a radiograph and dye placed in his uretha or bladder to track where the pee was going.I said I can’t afford that though and the doctor said they would help me out (dr.w) and then I talked to gal named ‘ G’ and asked how much the overnight stay would be and she said $100 about the same as us. So I said okay that’s fine, they gave me my cat I ran him to the other office.

When I get to the other office they ask me general questions and then start telling me what dr.w and them have talked about and give me a price of $1465 and I say I can’t afford this and the nurse tells me well the other vet said they are covering your bill. I said no way are you sure? The lady gets up to confirm with the other place (dr.w) comes back and says yes they are covering your bill. So then obviously I was shocked and so thankful. I ask a couple times throughout me being there that it was being covered and I’m told every time yes it is. Then I offer my card and say you don’t need my card info? They say no it’s covered by the other place. I say okay and go home for the night.

Now it’s Friday morning, I go to pick up my cat and take him to the other place because the other place will attempt to redo the surgery as they hadn’t been successful the first two times. I’m picking my cat up and they give me an invoice of the $1465 and tell me to wait in the car they have more paperwork for me to give the other place. So then they come back out and now the invoice is $1970, they tell me to give the invoice to the other place as they were covering it. I say again that is so crazy thank you so much. And off I go to drop my cat off to have another surgery done.

I get to the place and awkwardly hand the invoice to the ‘G’ gal and say the other place wanted me to give this to you because they said you guys were covering my bill and I said I’m so thankful. She looks at me confused and says okay we will figure this out, and that to her knowledge she hasn’t heard of this but not to worry. So my cat gets in for the surgery I get a call he’s ready to be picked up and I get there to pick him up. I am then told by the ‘G’ gal that yes dr.w had told the other place this place was covering my bill there but since dr.w hadnt ran it by her ‘G’ or dr.r (another vet there) that they were unable to cover the bill. They said to make up for it they would allow me to have a payment plan with them to pay off the $1500 bill I owed them. So I was put on the spot and just said okay.

Now that I’ve thought about it, I really don’t believe I should have to pay for the bill. Had I known that this promise of having the bill paid was false I would’ve taken my cat home with pain meds and monitored him myself because I do not have the money for that. They did the radiographs and dye almost for nothing because it didn’t change anything at all with the surgery. I would not have allowed my cat to stay there had I known I would have to pay $1970 because I can’t pay that.

At this point idk what to do or even how to go about this. Any and all advice is needed and greatly appreciated. I know this is a very long post so thank you for reading if you did this far. - concerned cat mom

UPDATE: 4/17/24 Went to vet to have last stitches taken out of my male cat. (G) gal pulls me aside and says dr (w) has said he feels as if he didn’t do much for me or my cat so he doesn’t want me to pay for his work or part of the surgery. So i had already put down %50 of the $1500 i owe for the pu surgery so $750 and am being told i do not owe them anything more because the dr(w) feels like we shouldn’t have to pay for his services because the surgery failed the first two times. It’s making me feel uneasy because even if it was just one doctor it was going to be $1200 not ever only $750. Don’t get me wrong i am extremely grateful for this but I’m nervous about it because of what has happened previously. I don’t want to get too positive either because i still haven’t figured out the $1970 charge. I called the other place but have yet to hear back. Just thought I’d update you all. Thank you!