Expensive fecal exam.

Hello Dr. Marie,

My question is about a vet bill that I got yesterday and I wanted to know if it was excessively high or legitimate.

On Wed. night, my dog had diarrhea, which turned into diarrhea with blood, and then he was just dripping blood, then it stopped. I walked him that night, and he had a more solid poop, and at 11pm, he had the zoomies and was racing around my house for about 5 minutes. I thought he was fine.

At 6am Thursday, my husband woke up and there was diarrhea all over the house - at least 7 places, and some places there was just blood.

I brought him to a new vet that was recommended by my puppy trainer at Petco. She uses him and said that he was good and reasonable.

My son said he saw Boomer eat grass on a walk, and the vet said he had inflamed intestines that were holding liquid. His eyes were still white, his tongue was blanched, and his gums were not as red as they should be.

The vet said that he thought the dog had pancreatitis from the grass and that he would be fine by tomorrow. He gave him a few shots and took blood, and took the stool sample I came with, and gave him two pills (one was flagel), and gave me bland dog food to feed him for a week.

When I got the bill, I almost hyperventilated. It was $642. I'm not questioning most of it, like the medicine, and food (though $47 seemed high), and shots, and visit, but the fecal test was $185 and the blood work was $145.

I asked the dr. why I needed these tests since he was so sure of his diagnosis and that the dog would be better in 24 hours. He removed the blood work for $145 (he said that it was a THI test for a specific thing that we didn't really need to do), but he said that we really needed to do the stool test to confirm his diagnosis and to confirm that the course of treatment is correct.

My question is - is this BS? Did I really need that $185 test? If the dog wasn't better today (he is much better, thank God), I could have brought in a stool sample today to test.

Thanks, Dr. Marie. I've known about you and admired your website and business model for years from Cre8asite, so you were the first person I thought of when I had a vet question.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Risa

Thanks, Dr. Marie. I haven't participated at Cre8asite in such a long time, that just a few weeks ago I asked to be removed from Moderator status.

At your suggestion, I just called my Vet and they clarified the bill, which was unclear and I feel much better. The fecal test was $15, a snap test for giardia was $45, and the $185 was for the CBC (does $185 sound about right for a CBC?).

Right after I submitted my question, the dr. called who said that Boomer has gastritis and pancreatitis, which I think they found out from the CBC.

Thanks!

Risa