Robyn Bland
On Sunday we brought our 9 month old cat in with symptoms of vomiting and lethargy. We were initially told the symptoms were caused by a blockage. We left Florence at the vets for fluids, pain relief, X-rays and scans. We got a call to say good news can’t find a blockage but your cat has acute kidney failure prognosis 50/50. She must be transferred to Davies for dialysis. We arrived to collect Florence and was told that Davies couldn’t take her instead we were transferred to Hatfield and quoted 3-5k for treatment. We needed to decide if keeping her alive or letting her go was the fairest thing to do - particularly with such a bleak prognosis. When we arrived home she appeared so so sick and I was scared I called the vets immediately and said I was going to take her to Hatfield but bring her in to Biggleswade on route so they could check her again, I was told they could help her on her way. When I arrived I was told she was ok but hard to tell if she would make the journey. We took her. When we arrived she was immediately taken to be stabilised at a cost of £500 which nobody discussed. We then were pulled in to a side room where we were told she was likely to have a blockage and then the kidney issues on top and treatment was not what we had been quoted but actually 12k which vets4pets did not pass on. I queried the price and was told they would need to complete all tests again because vets4pets had closed without sending bloods, X-rays and scans. After 4/5 hours and discussions about euthanasia it was agreed they would keep her comfortable over night £1000 and review everything in the morning. Vets4pets were chased 4 times before the sent everything which upon review along with bloods that morning Florence had a different diagnosis- no kidney problems but a blockage which could almost be made out on the X-rays but the vet had failed to X-ray high enough. We were given the option to take her to another vet who may be cheaper. We found a vet who was able to operate immediately and sure enough found Florence had swallowed an ear plug! This was removed and she was sent home after a few hours where she is expected to make a full recovery! There are too many failures to mention, Florence isn’t just a cat she is our family and we could have put a healthy cat to sleep due to their negligence. Even more frustrating it’s impossible to access their complaint procedure which I have been trying to do since Monday - further failings so now I am going public. I have all of the vets notes etc to validate what I have written here. I urge vets4pets to contact me directly to get this matter resolved.
