My heart is broken in pieces. Today, I had to bury a friend, who I loved and cared very much for, after I begged this clinic to help me save its life.
I brought my pet chicken in critical condition to the Westminster Veterinary Group, hoping that they would help. They wanted $500 just to stabilize it.
It could not stand, eat, or drink. They quoted me $290 for the emergency exam. Dr. Houston came in and asked me some questions. I told her please don't let my bird die. I asked her don't you love animals? After she took the bird in and looked at it, one of her assistants came in and said it would cost $2,300 for treatment. When I was looking at the paper, I smiled because I thought it said $230, I didn't see the extra 0. I told her that was way more money than I could ever afford. Then she came back and brought me a lower price of $500 just to stabilize the bird with antibiotics, and that price included the emergency visit charge.
Insane that they would think anybody would be able to pay either of those amounts for a bird. They must have taken a lesson from the Art of the Deal. Make the first offer ridiculous, so that the person would accept the second offer, thinking it won't get any better than that. Before that, though, they offered me an $800 euthanasia option. Can you imagine? They would've charged $800 to kill the bird. That's $300 more than they were charging to treat it.
I tried, but couldn't get credit with their Scratchpay or CareCredit. After some back and forth, I told them just give me the bird, I'm going home, because I can't afford any of your options. The assistant had me sign an AMA (Against Medical Advice) form. Then she told me that if I still had the paperwork that I filled out, because I never gave it to them, that if I gave it to her she would go and talk to Dr. Houston and see if she was willing to lower the price. They tricked me! I gave her my paperwork with all of my information that I shouldn't have given them at all, just for her to come back and tell me the exact same $500 price. The only difference was I would have 30 days to pay it.
A woman in the waiting room was kind enough to offer a $100 donation from her credit account to help pay for my bill, but I couldn't accept that. You'd think seeing her display of generosity would've softened the veterinarian's hearts a little, but nope. They were dead firm on that $500 charge. $500 is a ridiculous amount of money, in fact $100 would've been too much, for something that cost them much much less to do.
Before I left, I told them to give me my bird and my paperwork that I had just handed to her, because there was no way I was going to do $500 over the course of 30 days. If it had been over the course of a year, fine, but 30 days, no way. She gave me the bird, but not the paperwork. I left because I didn't want any trouble and because my bird was dying, and I wanted to spend the last moments with it.
It died in front of me within hours, in my bedroom, the same room that it was born in, and I buried it today in the backyard that it used to love playing and running around in. If they had offered to treat it without the additional unnecessary $290 emergency charge, I would've paid them to do the antibiotics and the other treatments they mentioned, it would've only been about $200. But $500? Pure greed.
Do these people even have any blood running through their veins? Do any of them even own pets themselves? How can they ask for $500 to treat a bird that they could've treated for way less money? There was no reason for them to have charged that emergency fee and I hope that my pet's death remains on their conscience forever, if any of them even have one. read more