Aussie vet sparks debate after surprise twist in $600 bill dispute: 'Blown away'
Dr Nicole Rous said she's never had a client make this kind of threat before.
A popular vet has sparked a discussion about the cost of animal care in Australia after a client told her to keep their two kittens after disputing the bill. Dr Nicole Rous, owner of Melbourne-based Mont Albert Vet clinic, shared her shock after the surprising twist following a routine desexing of two purebred kittens.
"The client called the week prior to the booking to find out how much a desexing was and the vet nurse said it was $300 for a cat to get desexed," she told Yahoo News Australia. It's understood the client then booked the two kittens in to have the procedure, but when the $600 bill was presented to the pet owner, "they claimed it was $300 for both cats, not per cat".
"They said 'just keep the cats I’m not paying it'," Rous said, adding the clash was "quite confronting" for the vet nurse who spoke to the owner. Rous said the clinic eventually let the owner take both kittens and pay just $300 with the intention of keeping a close eye on the kittens' welfare in the future.
"I don’t know if they were calling our bluff," she said of the threat. "I haven’t had someone say just keep the animals before."
Discussion over true cost of vet care
After posting about the incident on her social media accounts, Rous said she was taken aback by the heated discussion that ensued about the cost of vet care in Australia.
"I didn’t think that $300 per animal to get a general anaesthetic and a procedure is expensive, I was just blown away," she said, adding that the response to her video highlights the negative perception from the public about the "true cost" of vet care.
"Vet care is expensive, I get it. We don’t have a medicare system for our pets so everything is out of pocket," she said, adding "we're used to everything being covered by Medicare [for ourselves]."
Rous points out the cost of a desexing involves a number of factors — including staff costs, medication, anaesthetic equipment, training, and even rent.
'It’s not like we pick a number out of thin air, there is a reason behind it. We’re the standard price for metro Melbourne," she said, adding desexing "can be one of the most complicated surgeries we do. It’s a really hard surgery."
Rous explained there is a "long history" in Australia of vets discounting desexing. "We've done it as a community service but the downside is that people don't understand that’s the true cost."
Vet hopes incident opens up vet healthcare discussion
Dr Rous said she hopes it helps open up the discussion on the true cost of healthcare in Australia for our pets.
"The good thing is that we’ve had a bit more of the chat," she said as a result of the incident, adding "there’s nothing more heartbreaking about making a decision about the life and health of a pet based on finances".
"It’s a trauma that is so hard," she said. "We still try and support all our clients and cost is an issue for so many people these days," she said.
Rous says she always recommends pet owners take out health insurance, and those struggling can even use apps like AfterPay and Vetpay as a payment plan for big bills.
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