I need a miracle

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PhDoc

PhDoc

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So a family member had a chameleon and this person was not qualified at all to take care of him....so what did i do? i took the poor lil guy with me. he looked like he had mouth-rot (thought i could help out). I put him in his lil container and when I took him out once I got home his eye was swollen 3 times its size (SIGH!!!)
yup, the infection spread and it was worse than i thought. I quickly quickly quickly quarantined the animal.
So, because i dont have $200+ to take him to the vet, I called around some clinics and explained the situation. I told them I was somewhat experienced with chameleons and this was a rescue chameleon, and i was 100% positive it was mouth-rot and if they would be willing to help me out and prescribe the antibiotic....and what did they all say 'No'....I even asked if they would be willing to reduce the pet visit from prices that were $70-100 down to something reasonable like $30 (I was always willing to pay for the antibiotic) and what did they say 'No'.
I got so frustrated at one point I was like, 'so what, he is just going to die then?' and the woman's response was, 'Good luck.' I even asked them how much would they charge me to put him down and she informed me that on-top of the killing, they would still charge the visit
ughhhhhh:(:(:(

I know medical treatment isn't free, I know things cost, but I also am very well aware that people experience financial hardships and some things are just overpriced, and what the hek! they can't even help! I couldn't even fathom having a patient come to me and tell me 'hey, i got a real bad infection and im going to die from it, can you help me' and me say 'sorry buddy, better luck next time because you dont have the all mighty green (and maybe you do have some, but not enough to fill my want)
sigh
sorry guys, im sure this will upset some and others can relate. and as things stand now, i dont even think a miracle will occur. does anyone have any constructive way in which i can help this poor lil guy? Thank you all for taking time out and reading this
 
Sad really... are there any other vets to try in your area? Maybe one would let you set up a payment plan?
 
Can you take some pictures of the animal? Sounds like you need a Vet, but without seeing we really have no idea. Can you also give us some idea of the conditions it was in before?
 
In Canada, and I'm sure it's the same in the US, it is illegal for a veterinarian to prescribe any kind of medications without seeing the animal first. It's not always about the 'almighty green'.
 
i totally get you, at most vets i have been to they seem to pul at your heartstrings and drive up the cost, seem they know most will pay it.
i recently took my dog to the vet for a prblm with her paw, the vet took one look at it said " well thats not what i thought it was gunna be. i dont know what this is " then proceded perscribe a broad spec antibiotic and charged me $200.
what a big waste of time and money.
but i guess they cant know everything and im sure glad they are there when i need em.
P.S my new vet is great, he even waived the examine fee and only changer me $25 with baytril for my veiled, because he thought it was very interesting and took the oppurtuity to show one of his interns my cham.
 
I would think in a metropolitan area the size of Chicago, you should be able to find a vet who will help. Are there any shelters in your area that have vets? Just get on the phone, explain it is a rescue, don't tell any excess info, and see if the can help. Worst case would be to put him in a box and overnight him to ChamEO in southern california. I can sen you the address if you want. That may be his only chance.
 
A few weeks ago on my way to work I passed a very small kitten (.66 lb) on the road, so me beig the softy I am picked her up. She was very scared and skinny and had a truemendous eye infection. I cleaned her up try to feed her and kept her with me threw the night. In the morning I took her to my vet. They examed her said here cornia ruputred and would need the eye removed, the cost was just over $500. I explained I did not have the funds nor did I want to pay that for a found kitty on the rd. They responded by, well we can put her down. I then explained that defeated the whole purpose of me picking her up...so the vet said and I quote.."Well we can try some antibiotics for ten days and see what happens but I think you would just be doing her an injustice." So $35.00 exam fee, $15.00 antibiotics, and a week later her infection cleared up, her eye dried up and fell out with no problems, she is absolutly adorable, she is spunky and crazy and purs like a motor boat. Her name is Stinky Winky! Thank goodness I did not fall for the we can put her down if you can't pay $500.....:cool:
 
I am very sorry you guys have had bad luck with vets in your area. I am a veterinary technician (animal nurse) and I wish I could say money should not matter and we should always help every animal that comes in whether the owner can pay or not. In many cases, if you have a doctor/patient relationship (have been to the same clinic for a period of time), most vets are willing to work with "their" clients. It is in fact, illegal for us to prescibe medications if we have never seen the animal - one would have to take that up with the FDA.

In a perfect world, where no one lied, everyone always paid their bills and someones word was their bond, we would help whenever we could. It breaks my heart to not be able to help every animal or to be able to give a solid 100% diagnosis to every case. I could give you a million explanations but as animal lovers it is impossible for it to make sense. All I can say is for every person that really, truly needs the charity, there are a dozen that take advantage or want to make payments - then we never hear from them again.

That said, many clinic will take Care Credit, which is something you have to apply for, like a credit card. This gives you a lot of payment options all based on what the total bill is. If you are interested in information, they also have a website.
 
Do you go to the grocery store and tell them you can't afford your giant cart of groceries and then become enraged that they don't just give them to you because you want them? Do you also tell your electric company that they should just provide electricity for free because you really like watching tv? I don't understand why vets are expected to be able to provide top quality diagnostics and round the clock care when it's "ridiculous" to pay them so much. The office, the technical staff, the diagnostic equipment, the schooling, the tools and medication cost a ton of money people! Vets would love nothing more than to be able to help every animal that came in the door for no charge at all, but they would be in business for about a month, if even that long before not being able to pay their electricity to the clinic or any of their staff or support their families. Sorry for the rant, it just saddens me to hear people think that vets don't care just because they have to pay the same utilities that everyone else does. And then are criticized for not knowing the answers when someone won't put any money into diagnostics. Loving animals is just not enough to be able to help them, I sure wish it was. I blame human medicine health insurance. No one has any idea what this stuff costs because insurance pays so much of it. An exam at a vet is usually around $50, but my last exam fee at a doctor was over $200 before insurance. Vets do things cheap compared to human doctors!

It is illegal to prescribe medication without seeing the patient and it could cost them their license to practice medicine. I'm sorry to hear your Cham is having problems and I hope you can find a way to help him.
 
CalaMala said:
A few weeks ago on my way to work I passed a very small kitten (.66 lb) on the road, so me beig the softy I am picked her up. She was very scared and skinny and had a truemendous eye infection. I cleaned her up try to feed her and kept her with me threw the night. In the morning I took her to my vet. They examed her said here cornia ruputred and would need the eye removed, the cost was just over $500. I explained I did not have the funds nor did I want to pay that for a found kitty on the rd. They responded by, well we can put her down. I then explained that defeated the whole purpose of me picking her up...so the vet said and I quote.."Well we can try some antibiotics for ten days and see what happens but I think you would just be doing her an injustice." So $35.00 exam fee, $15.00 antibiotics, and a week later her infection cleared up, her eye dried up and fell out with no problems, she is absolutly adorable, she is spunky and crazy and purs like a motor boat. Her name is Stinky Winky! Thank goodness I did not fall for the we can put her down if you can't pay $500.....:cool:
Click to expand...

I dont think the vet was trying to pull a fast one by giving you the option to put the kitten down. It is a terrible situation - we dont like to kill animals, that is never our first choice in treatment (to stick with the theme that all vets are money hungry - if we kill everything how are we going to make more money?) :eek:. You got lucky, the antibiotics were enough and the eye took care of itself. What if it didn't?? What if it just kept getting worse and the kitten died anyways after suffering through that? Then you probably would be mad that the vet only gave you crappy antibiotics and didn't do more to help the poor kitten.
Unfortunately, surgery costs $$$ especially a delicate surgery like an eye removal...ever think what it would cost you if you needed a surgery? Some vets may price gouge, but anesthesia is just expensive, antibiotics are expensive...right now drug companies are who we should all be mad at as they are monopolizing the cheapest, simplest medications and driving costs through the roof - which unfortunately we have to pay more to keep them in stock and our clients have to pay more!
 
Thank you ferretinmyshoes! I wanted to say a lot of those same things...most get very angry to find out that although we all love animals, vet medicine is still a business. Thanks for having the courage to say it!!
 
ferretinmyshoes said:
Do you go to the grocery store and tell them you can't afford your giant cart of groceries and then become enraged that they don't just give them to you because you want them? Do you also tell your electric company that they should just provide electricity for free because you really like watching tv? I don't understand why vets are expected to be able to provide top quality diagnostics and round the clock care when it's "ridiculous" to pay them so much. The office, the technical staff, the diagnostic equipment, the schooling, the tools and medication cost a ton of money people! Vets would love nothing more than to be able to help every animal that came in the door for no charge at all, but they would be in business for about a month, if even that long before not being able to pay their electricity to the clinic or any of their staff or support their families. Sorry for the rant, it just saddens me to hear people think that vets don't care just because they have to pay the same utilities that everyone else does. And then are criticized for not knowing the answers when someone won't put any money into diagnostics. Loving animals is just not enough to be able to help them, I sure wish it was. I blame human medicine health insurance. No one has any idea what this stuff costs because insurance pays so much of it. An exam at a vet is usually around $50, but my last exam fee at a doctor was over $200 before insurance. Vets do things cheap compared to human doctors!

It is illegal to prescribe medication without seeing the patient and it could cost them their license to practice medicine. I'm sorry to hear your Cham is having problems and I hope you can find a way to help him.
Click to expand...

Sadly most vets grow desensitized to caring about animals. This largely occurs in vet school. It is a business to them, just like a mechanic.

However, the vet business is most definitely not a grocery store or the electric company. The electric company helps out low income families with reduced rates not shutting off their power in winter, etc. Many grocery stores donate unsold food to food pantries etc. Someone alluded to human health care- guess why it's so expensive? Because they have to treat everyone that walks through their door.

The vast majority of vets are in business solely to make money. If you can't pay, your animal dies.

That said, there are a few good vets out there that actually care about animals. I was lucky enough to find one when I found a cat on the side of the road. The cat was abandoned and quickly racked up $1200 in vet bills. I planned to pay for it all, but the vet helped me out and cut it in half.

So yeah, many vets are only about the money, but there are a few out there that will take care of you.
 
I am not complaining about my vet. I love my vet,I have gone to the same vet for 13 years with my 17 pets. All I was saying as sometimes there is a less expensive route that can be taken before the most expensive one or terminal one is thrown on your lap. He could have said, yeah the infection is pretty bad and chances are the eye needs to be removed but lets try the antibiotics first and see where we go from there. I was prepared to put the kitten down if it didn't work or if I felt like it was suffering...but the little stink pot ran around like a goof, jumping and playing, and eating...she was not suffering by any means, even the vet agreed with that.
And I agree 100%, when you have a 13 year relationship with your vet they do work with you...because I am sure if I went the surgery route, he would have aloud payments.
My point is if I said yes to the surgery I would have paid over $500...and he would have never said, "Well wait before you do that, lets try this other route" knowing there was a less expensive way to go or at least try. That's all I was getting at.

And to ferritinmyshoes.....I don't have medical insurance so I am very well aware of the medical cost to visit my Dr. and pay for my 6 rx's. Believe me I wish I could see my vet....it would cost 1/3 of the price if that!! And he might even do a better job!:)
 
Ekaj13 said:
Sadly most vets grow desensitized to caring about animals. This largely occurs in vet school. It is a business to them, just like a mechanic.
Click to expand...

Really? Have you gone through vet school? Or have any data to back up this claim other than your own personal opinion? As someone in vet school I can tell you it is quite the opposite. The overwhelming majority of vets do not become desensitized to caring about animals and it physically hurts me that you think that. What we become desensitized to is people totally unwilling to do anything for their animals because it is absolutely exhausting emotionally to care so much about something and be totally unable to help it. Don't lecture me about things you know nothing about. You are right, it is a business, but that is something that most new vets find out the hard way. Coming out of school we want to save the world and do whatever we can to help everyone, and quickly learn that helping people from the goodness of our hearts means our paycheck gets less and less each month (the money you don't want to spend has to come from somewhere!). Unfortunately vets are subject to all the bills and expenses that everyone else is too so this just doesn't work. We have rent, and car insurance, and grocery bills, and families to support, so yes, in the end that paycheck is important - the same as it is to you. I can't afford to feel bad about trying to earn a living like everyone else. The reason those other businesses you mentioned can afford to do charity programs is because every single person that uses them never complains about the price and haggles and negotiates for their bill so they have the money to stay afloat and spare some to those who really need it, not the person that just bought an $800 puppy and "can't afford" the $25 rabies shot. If vets are expected to extend that service to everyone that comes in how will they ever pay for inventory of staff, much less have extra to spare? Veterinary medicine is a business, not a charity, the same as human medicine or any other industry there is. Mechanics like cars so why can't they fix my car for free? It's the only car I have, I need it to get to work, so why can't they cut me a huge deal since they like cars?

Don't get me wrong, I am well aware that there are bad vets out there. There are bad apples in every profession ever. It just makes me sad that people think that about all of them. I haven't even started in the profession that I absolutely love and am so passionate about and every day I hear about what terrible people we are for wanting to charge for our services which we have trained long and very hard for. No other profession is so poorly regarded for trying so hard to help a noble cause...

Since we've totally hijacked this thread I invite anyone to PM if you'd like to discuss the matter further. I really don't mind discussing it
 
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Your link is about animal experimentation - not at all representative of veterinary medicine or my professional training in the slightest! You have no idea if those stories are even real, they could be a ruse by activists to rile you up, which they succeeded at, or those stories could be from long ago before proper regulations and animal welfare rules were in place. That kind of thing does not happen anymore, if they ever did to begin with. Most vet school don't even have cadavers to practice on for training. And I promise you that schools that use live animals for surgical purposes do absolutely everything they can to limit the number of animals used and treat them with nothing but kindness. We are not permitted to do anything to cause unnecessary pain to an animal - we practice fracture repairs on fake bones and cadaver limbs.

There are new procedures and guidelines enacted everyday to prevent your vision of vet school from happening. If that was the profession I was joining I would not be a part of it. Sadly you have it all wrong, and anyone can post anything they want to a tripod page. I'm here to tell you that is not true in this day and age at any school in the US. Our practice spays and neuters were strays that had been taken in by a shelter and they went back to the shelter after a week of meticulous perioperative care and were adopted out from the shelter like normal. We do those procedures for free...well, our tuition pays for them. And we are one of the few, lucky schools that has the ability to even do that much. Does that make you feel any better about them?

Seriously, I will tell you whatever you want to know about my training. Just PM me.
 
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So Great update on the poor lil guy (of course I didn't get a vet's help) but through you guys and a lot of researching I got him on an antibiotic for his eye and the mouth-rot and I am supplementing him with a reptaid....so this morning his eye looks much better (and im hoping that within 3-7 days the mouth-rot will start to heal, thank you all for your help and concern).
ferretinmyshoes: From one medical professional to another, i highly recommend that you do some self-introspection about the profession. I similar to you, understand how hard it is to go through graduate school (your in vet school and im in med school) and i see you are very passionate but time to wake up and smell the roses. opening up your own clinic (becoming an entrepreneur) is to make more money! a vet working for a clinic or a zoo can make a rough estimate anywhere from 45,000-67,000 and in this setting, you are still getting paid and working to help animals. once you decide, 'hey, i want to open up my own clinic and be the boss' your salary has an exponential rate to grow. Now, if you do not realize this, then it's going to be a crude awakening when you graduate....it's the same thing for MD's...you can either work in a hospital and get your steady pay, or you can open up your own clinic and take a chance to make more than you would ever had made at the hospital
I know it is illegal to prescribe medication without seeing the patient (and it very well should be) but at the end of the day it is to the doctors discretion whether or not he/she will see the patient. We have the choice to see a patient whether or not he/she has insurance....and if you are in the profession to help, then you will do what is in your power to help. that doesnt mean you arent going to get paid, that just means you are willing to be flexible...IMO
 
:) phdoc,i am glad to hear things are looking up for your cham..keep us posted please as i am prayin for an excellent outcome:D
 
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