don s

Our lab/golden mix got a bottle of pain pills from our cabinet (you'll
have to ask her how). I caught her as soon as she laid in her hiding
place under our dinner table chewing on the bottle. I couldn't
account for all of the pills missing so I called my vet. Their after
hours number referred me to an all night emergency clinic who said she
would not die if she ingested them but I could call a pet poison
control number, wihch they supplied.

I figured that, since we have to put her benadryl in cheese or she'll
spit it out, she probably didn't ingest any of the larger pills but
decided to call anyway.

The number was for the SPCA poison control. The answering message
said to get my credit card out because there would be a $50
consultation fee!!! FOR A TWO MINUTE PHONE CALL??? That's $1,500 an
hour!!!!

Needless to say, that is one pet "service" I can scratch off my list.
I expected maybe a $5 or $10 "donation" request, but this is
extorsion.

Don S

PS: Yes, I'm a pet abuser, but you are blocked so I won't have to see
your rants. You know who you are : )

robdar

I hear ya Don.
Crazy arent they...
next time call Walgreens....they will answer all your questions for free!

buglady

.....................you sure it was SPCA? Might have been a number for the
National Poison Control Hotline and they've been charging for years.

.........and don't bother calling the pharmacist, they can only tell you
about human stuff.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

don s

It was the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at 888-426-4435. I
didn't know the human poison control center charged too. I felt their
fee was steep when they were jiust going to be one part of information
I used to determine the next step. If they had seen her and had any
liability attached to their advice, I could see a higher fee.

Don S

glyford

BTDT.

It's actually PER CASE, that fee is good for all time and consultation,
the
coodination with your vet's office AND the local animal hospital,
everything.
For the amount we spent on the hospitalization, that was actually the
bargain of the whole episode.

--Glenn Lyford

don s

After the fact, I'm sure it was worthwile. It would be easy for them
to screen simple requests (at a much simpler fee) so pet owners could
make a decent decision. I just wanted a little information - not a
surgical specialist.

Sure, if there was a complex issue of the dog ingesting a known
substance, their help (and cost) would be more in perspective.
However, to help ****yze the potential severity of a "possible" issue,
I felt their fee was excessive. They need tiered support or what
support they offer is worthless to 98% of the population because they
can't justify the cost.

Don S

rocky

Don S <nomailhere@nomail.com> said in rec.pets.dogs.health:


I've phoned the emergency 24 hour vet here - while they're
expensive for drop-ins, I was given good (and free) advice over
the phone. It was a similar situation to yours, and the person
who took my call had to consult with a vet. As it turned out,
the advice was bang-on.

Do you have any 24 hour veterinarians in your area?

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

shelly

i've had similar experience. OTOH, the vet i *was* using
insisted that the animal be brought in (they were a
semi-emergency vet, walk-ins only, with extended evening
hours). they wouldn't answer questions over the phone.
their fees were pretty high, so a US$50 poison control
consultation fee would be quite cheap in comparison,
especially if that covered consultation with the vet in the
event that the problem *was* serious.

--
shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net
http://cat-sidh.blogspot.com/

shore@panixcom melinda

Greta made a point of only having health crises on major
holidays and at times when the roads were impassable, and
her first set of seizures was late Christmas eve. The only
vet that was taking calls was Cornell, and they talked to me
at some length at no charge before telling me not to bring
her in. Same thing after the second seizure, but after the
third seizure they did tell me to bring her in (and that's
when they hit me with the humungo charges).

It costs them something to provide the service. They can
either charge for it directly or they can displace the
charges into something else. Either is fine with me.
Expecting them to spend their own money to help me strikes
me as a bit unreasonable (as the old joke goes: "but we make
it up in volume!").
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - shore@panix.com

So far this year, homebuilding industry insiders have sold
$976 million worth of their stock.

shelly

yes, though i lean a little toward preferring to be charged
directly. i just like things to be simple and spelled out.
if it's not, though, it doesn't ruin my day. my bottom line
is whether or not my pet got quality care, not how my charges
are, or are not, described/itemized.


agreed. i'm in serious "quality of care is all i'm worrying
about" mode right now, so a $50 charge seems like microscopic
potatoes to me. of course, i'm also suffering from a bit of
sticker shock[1], as well, which makes the $50 in question
seem even more of a non-issue.

[1] and, it's sticker shock i have no right to be feeling,
too. three hours of PU surgery, anesthesia, urolith ****ysis,
drugs, etc. ended up costing me only $550. and that was at
the cat specialist clinic, too. i expected it to cost twice
that much, so i'm notnotnot complaining. it's just that it
came on top of a week and a half of hospitalization at the
emergency clinic, so funds are tight right now.

--
shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net
http://cat-sidh.blogspot.com/