Why won't they let me sleep?!

[draggonlaady]

3am this time.

Woman actually identified herself! And then tells me she has a cat who's had 2 kittens and has one stuck. It's half out. She's pulled on it, couldn't get it. What to do?

I tell her that if she brings them in, I'll see what I can do but it really comes down to pulling the kitten--if it's half out you can't get it by c-section anyway.

And then things go downhill fast...

"Would I have to pay anything for that?"

WHAT!?@?! It's three o'clock in the freaking morning. YES you will have to pay something for that you dumbass.

"It's $75 for the emergency fee. More, obviously, if we end up doing a c-section for the rest of the kittens."

"Oh. Well, I don't have $75. She'll die if the kitten doesn't come out, right?"

"Most likely, yeah."

"Well, I don't have that much."

"I'm sorry, but that's what it costs." (Is she bartering with me? I don't barter dammit.)

"Well, I guess I'll call a different vet and see if they're less..."

"You do what you think you have to, I guess."
oh, yeah, great idea. Go fucking price shopping for emergency fees at 3am. That'll make EVERYBODY happy. Don't you DARE call me again right after I fall back asleep.

Comments

[cheshirecatco.livejournal.com]

Wait, $75 to save the lives of the cat and at least one kitten (perhaps more), not to mention save the hassle of trying to raise orphaned kittens? You guys are a *bargain*. (Seriously, an emergency visit for one of my guinea pigs started at $80 several years ago.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Yup. Compared to larger/city clinics and certainly compared to human medicine, our fees are nothing. And yet I hear constant whinging about how we're overcharging or too expensive or just in it for the money.

[evil-egg.livejournal.com]

It's like a bizarre mixture of two Monty Python sketches: the haggling scene in Life of Brian and Live Organ Transplants.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the transplant skit

[evil-egg.livejournal.com]

It was only in Meaning of Life. It might be on Youtube.

[sphynx-again.livejournal.com]

my vets emergency fees are $140. So yeah, I'd say you're a bargain! But see, for people like that, if the cat dies, she'll just box up the kittens and leave them on the clinic doorstep for someone ELSE to raise. And she'll probably leave them there really late at night, not realizing that someone won't find the box of (more than likely dead) kittens until the next morning. And she'll walk away convinced that she did the right thing and the kittens will survive, grow up, and find wonderful homes full of daisies and butterflies. Then she'll go out and get a new cat, all full of sorrow that she tragically lost her beloved kitty, and the cycle begins anew.

Have I been working at the humane society too long?

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Just long enough to see reality for the depressing truth that it is, you realist you ;)

[elegaer.livejournal.com]

ah, you're assuming something though. That people care that much about their animals, or understand that sometimes animals are a financial drain. *scowls* I just hope the kit was born ok

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

True enough.

Just absolutely unbelievable that she would even ASK "will that cost me anything?" How stupid do you have to be to wonder that?