Thursday, February 09, 2006

Rip Off

What a big rip off some veterinary clinics could be!!! - Jan 10

Nana was tested to have trimple phosphate crystals (struvite) in her urine at her visit to our vet on Dec 10th. Although she does not have any infections now and is perfectly healthy, Dr Lavoie suggested to put her on a prescription diet FOREVER in order to prevent crystals forming in the future, which may lead to Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD) or urinary tracts obstruction. He gave Nana 3 different brand to try, which are Hill's Prescription Diet c/d, Medi-Cal Preventive and Royal Canin Urinary SO to try, and I could find one which one she likes best. He explains that about 2%-3% cats are prone to have cyrstals and Nana jsut happened to be one of them. The idea of putting Nana on a prescription diet FORVER freaks me out, also I'm not comfortable with the prescription food as they all contains by-products.

After that visit, I've done extensive research online, and asked around for opinions. I leanred that most of the cats in a similar case were only put on prescription diet for a few months, also I leanred that cyrstals could be related to stress and the food she eats. Since I only adopted Nana for a month at the time, and have no idea what she has been eating in the shelter, as well as the first 2 weeks she's with me she only get Hill's Science Diet Dry, I wonder with better care and food, would the crystals disappear. We've decided to keep her on Wellness cans and Eagle pack dry for another month, and do another body check to see if it gets any better. Another reason for waiting one month is that her insurance would kick in. One Month has passed and we’ve been longing to bring her to this vet clinic for a more thorough check-up. This one called Bloor Animal Hospital and has four locations, one in Willowadle, they are one of the few 24 hours clinic around. From their website, I learned that they've been in business since the 60s, has 10 doctors and 30 support staffs, they even have a on site lab. A health examination done here would include bloord test and feacal analysis. They provide all kinds of services including Cardiac Monitoring, Endoscopy, Radiology and Ultrasound, surgery….sounds like a very well equipped clinic, doesn't it?

I planned to bring Nana in during the weekend, but on Saturday night naughty Nana ate a piece of string which is at least 30 cm long. Monday morning Lester found stool on the bathroom floor that consist the string she ingested, he took some picture for me to see and that sample certainly looked SCARY!!!!! I decided to bring her to the animal hospital earlier.

I schedule an appointment for 9pm for that night, we arrived around 8:50. The clinic was very crowded, and have only 2 doctors on duty. I have to put Nana's carrier on my lap, as there's obviously no room and I don't dare to put it on the floor for all the dogs trying to sniff her.
It wasn't until 9:25 until we finally see the Vet. I told her Nana ate a long piece of string (those string you use to tie your oven roast) and pass it thru, and showed her the picture. She says that is almost surgical, if there were a knot on the string it'll get stunk in her tiny intestines. She has just done a surgery a few days ago to remove a piece of string from a cat's stomache and it cost his owner $3000. She gave nana some basic checkup, (looking at her eyes, ears, taking her temperature…etc) and asked about what food she's eating, and her background. I mentioned she's from the shelter, we have her for only 2 months and her vaccinations is up to date except she needs another booster shot for her Leukemia. She look at the record, and says that her first shot is done on Dec 10, and the booster should be done in 3-4 weeks after the first, so it was time for her 2nd. I asked if it's better to have my regular vet doing it, as he's been following her profile. Her reply was unless I could bring her in tomorrow, it'll be too late as there's only a few days of grace period. This contridicted to what Dr. Lavoie has told me, as he said as long as she's kept inside, she doesn't need her booster until later. I thought it's better to be cautious and agreed to give her the booster, although it'd be much more expensive to have her shots at this clinic. As well I felt better not to refuse as I still have lots ot ask the vet.

When she insert the needle somewhere around Nana's hind legs, Nana was so agitated that she actually tried to run for it, so the vet had to hold onto her and try to insert the noodle again. This actually puts me off, because when I saw Dr Lavoie do it, he was talking to us casually and we didn't realize he's given her shots until he finished, it's like Nana didn't feel it either, for she has never moved to twiched.. Now this vet need my help to hold onto Nana.

Next she recommended a Leukemia test, as she's been a stray before. I'm not too sure about this, as the shelter have her since June and I have her since Nov, and she shows no symptoms of having Leukemia. Since I don't know how long the virus would stay undercover before it actually make her sick, as virus like HIV could stay 10+ years before one developes AIDS, I agreed to have her tested.

Next I asked for a urinalysis, due to Nana's crystals issue. She immediately go on and say Wellness and Eagle Pack is not a good food, espeicially for male cats that have FLUTD. Which I replied while I understands a FLUTD cat needs prescription diet, for the healthy cat, what's good for them. Guess what's the answer I got? SCIENCE DIET, she's such a big fan of Science Diet that her face glowed when she's announcing the name. I asked why is it so?

“Best company around, biggest, been around longest, industry leader!”

hm..yes??? No comment about the ingredients they use? Just becuz they are industry leader? Well, why are they industry leader anyway? Because they have the biggest share in the market? That could have been simply because they are making the most money! The company with best sales figure doesn't necessary have the best quality!! In fact, doesn't usually the cheap or middle range quality product has the biggest market share as it's more affordable and appeal to the average buyer? Don't tell me that a Corolla is a better car than a BMW in terms of safety and performance. Don't tell me that those chicken rasied a cage and have hormone injections and sold at a cheap price in supermarket are of healthier food compare to the expensve free ranged chicken.

I remain polite and asked her opinion about “by-product meal”. The answer I got almost made me choke! Really!!

“Oh those company who claims to use chickens in their product, “chicken” could mean they use the whole chicken, with feather and stuff grind up, and Science Diet we could trust to use good products.”

?????? HELLO?????? EXCUSE ME????

According to AFFCO, chicken and by-product is defined as follow:

Chicken: the clean combination of flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken or a combination thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet and entrails.

Poultry By-Product Meal: consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.

Even by-product meal DOES NOT contains feather, Miss Science Diet Fan, let alone chicken.
I told her “I thought Wellness and Science Diet are Ameirican brands? And they have to go thru AFFCO? According to AFFCO chicken is really chicken meat, muscle meat.” There she immediately back off, hestitated and said

“Maybe I remembered wrong, it was deboned chicken instead of chickent.”

Ha, if they bothered to deboned the chicken they don't bother to take off the feather???

“But Science diet is really the best food around, don’t trust the labels so much, it could be deceiving. Like they always put chicken in the first ingredient, and grain is the 2nd or 3rd , but that was measured before they take out the water, so after you take water out, chicken is way down on the list and you have grains on top”

Yes I know her theory is right, but it's only for the dry food as they rarely put grains in cans. And most important of all, grains on Science diet was listed as 2nd (ground corn) while Grains in Wellnes (ground brown rice)is the forth down the list. So, according to her theory, Wellness is still better compared to Science Diet. So there I goes

“Yes I'm aware of this problem, but I thought it only happens to the dry food, as they don’t put grains in wet and do not dehydrate it. Also as I've told you, I feed mainly wet”.

Another pause.

“I thought cats don't need grains as they r carnivores?'

“Well, what does cat in the wild cat? Mouse, and mouse eat grains, when the cat comsume the whole mouse, there's grain in the mouse' stomache, intestines, as well as his feces. So that is what made a balanced diet for the cat”

It seem sort of make sense the very moment you hear that, but when what you think about it again, the grain contains in the mouse body is like what? 5%-10% of the mouse body????? Why on earth do you need grain as one of the MAIN INGREDIENT listed 2nd on the cat's food then?????

“Don't trust the labels so much, trust what you see, Science Diet is really what the vets feed their cats, and look the results, they look so much healthier. “

“But when I feed Nana Science Diet she has hairball problem and once I switch her onto Wellness and Eagle Pack her hairball problem disappear.”
Indeed her digestive systems become so much stronger nowadays that she successfully passed thru that 30cm piece of string, feathers, pieces of bamboo, elastic bands and other things that she happened to swallow.

Another Pause

“Well, if Wellness agree with her more… but Science Diet is really the best food”.

The way she talked, made me think that she's been brainwashed, or she has been payed to promote Science Diet, like a sales representitve would do. Yeah all vet feed their pets Science Diet, but haven't we heard about how poorly vets are taught about nutrition at school? Doesn't the huge shelf of Science Diet food that takes up about 1/5 of the recption area say something? Vets get their “education” about nutrition from big companies like Science Diet, Iams, Purina, and it's pretty obvious they get incentives for carrying their food.

Now when we r finish with all our questions, she said she need to take Nana downstiars for blood and urine sample. I asked how are they going to take the urine sample, by inserting a needle or by pressing her tummy. She said needle, I asked why, she said pressing her tummy and have her pee naturally would be hard to do, especially when Nana is so tiny and have a small bladder. Um, while my regular vet who charges much less is skilled enough to do that, I certainly did not expect this kind of answer.

I can't go downstairs so I waited at the reception. I saw the vet come back up upstairs right away so I have a look of concern on my face, and she told me that lab assistants will be taking the sample.

There I wait for another 15-20 min before Nana came back to me, and they tell me that they WERE NOT able to take urine sample. No they didn't phrase it that way, they said “She's not willing to give us any sample” as if it were Nana's fault. There they give me this tiny bottle of plastic beads, told me to clean out the litter box, put those plastic beads it there and have her go. EXCUSE ME? They gave me so little plastic beads that it would not even fill up a cup of small yogurt. We are talking about CATS here, not any other animal, and they sure see enough cats to know how clean and picky cats are regarding litter box issues. Do they really expect her to go in those plastic beads??? I asked the lab assitant to give me more of those plastic beads, as I know it wasn't nearly enough. She gave me another small bottle. I asked it was some kind of special litter, they said it's just simply plastic, and it won't clump or tract the urine, which makes it possible for me to collect the urine sample. I have my mind made up that if this is not going to work, I'll buy some marbles used in fish tank to substitute for litter, and collect the sample that way. I read about this method online.

And here comes the Bill,

“Your total is $345”

I THOUGHT I HEARD IT WRONG

“$345???”

I have expected this clinic to be much more expensive then my regular vet, but I certainly did not expect it to be THAT expensive. When I schedule the appointment I did ask what the fee is like, the reception told me that Doctor examination fee is aorund $62, Vaccination is about $95 and stool sample is abour $35. But if you cat is healthy and just need regular vaccine the cost of it would be included in the exam fee. I asked the price for blood work and urinalysis, which she refused to give me any quotes, but said it depends on how many and how the vet would like the test to be done.

Now here’s what they charge

Examination and Vaccination $72
Feline Leukemia Test $95
Urinalysis $57
Blood Work $35
Wellness Check $6x

While my regular vet only charge $22 for urinalysis and $45 for exam fee, this one charged $57 and $72. The exam fee is far from what the the receptionist quoted to me, and she never told me that the Wellness Check (taking body temperature, checking her eyes, ears) and the stool sample would combine to cost $6x! I've only expect the bill to be $150-$250, now I am paying $345! And what kind of service do I get?


I wait 25 min before I see the vet

The office is totally crowded

There's only 2 doctor on duty

The vet left in the middle of our time for an emergency and I need to wait another 15.

The doctor have trouble giving vaccination to Nana, I have to hold onto Nana to make it easier.

The doctor claims it's too hard to get urine sample from my cat as she's tiny, and need to use needles to extract it. My regular vet has no problem performing this.

The doctor DID NOT extract the sample herself, have lab assitant do it.

I wait another 20 min before the Nana came back, and the lab assistant FAILED and said my cat is not willing to give any sample.

They give me tiny little bit of plastic beads to use as cat litter.

I need to collect the urine sample and bring it to the vet office within 6 hours.

I am not getting the blood work report right away or the next day (as the doc told me), but instead, reception said I won’t get the result until NEXT WEEK.

I am landed with a $345 bill!!!!!!

I totally hate this clinic now, and would tell all my friends to avoid it unless it's really really aemergency and all other vet office is closed in the city.

This is such a long post, I don't know if anyone could have the patience to read till the end, but I really need to write it out, to release some of my anger.

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