Holy shit. Cat's dentist appointment bill = pretty damned expensive. Here's my bill for 6106 SEK - 650 odd Euro or if you prefer, 967 USD.

I don't think I'll be going back there any time soon. Not that the doctors or nurses didn't treat my cat well, I'm sure they did (though he looks utterly depressed but who wouldn't be after pulling lots of teeth). It's just when it came time to sort the bill, and I was talking to the cashiers I wanted to let them know how fucked up I found we've been treated, and ask them for a bill.

See, a month ago when my cat clearly has pain, is not eating or drinking much and shows signs of dehydration, and a tooth looking like it was about to fall out I call to make an appointment clearly outlining what he needed to have done ("we need pull his tooth - I can also see that he has massive amounts of tartar!"). They find an appointment open - the very next day hooray - and make it for me. First I will see the vet to check the cat then the vet/dentist - those are the rules. Fine. Old cats like Henry1 (born 1994) need to be checked before being put under sedation.

So we go to do that, and the vet checks the cat and concludes he's not eating or drinking much (no kidding?), and that he needs some IV to get hydrated, and runs a blood test. However the dentist appointment is double booked so we need to go home again, even though the vet sees that he's in real pain and needs that tooth out right now. All she could do was tell me to call back the next day to make an appointment for his teeth, hoping that I could get one within the next day or so. Again that is, since I had already made an appointment to fix his teeth. For this total waste of time we pay ca 1500 SEK. (237 USD / 159 Euro).

I call back the next day and am informed that there are no dentistry appointments until the 11th of August. A MONTH later. They ask me to call other animal hospitals, in other cities, which I did but I have no better luck finding a sooner appointment anywhere else. I call back several times explaining that the cats tooth is literally hanging out of his mouth, and ask if they can't call me if anyone cancels an appointment. No, they can't do that, but I can call back every day if I want to. I also ask what it might cost as I'm still pissed off about going in and paying that first appointment where we didn't get anything done. They tell me that depending on the teeth, we're looking at 2500-300 SEK. aaarrgh.

We wait until August 11. Meanwhile, my cats tooth falls out on it's own, and he is miserable miserable miserable the whole time. I do my best giving him painkillers when he clearly needs some and making him easy eat luxuries like pureed chicken meat.

So we bring him in at eight o'clock yesterday morning. I meet a very nice vet/dentist who promises to take good care of him - I'm very worried about sending an underweight dehydrated and clearly not well old cat in to be sedated as the older they get, the riskier it is. She understands my concerns. I tell her about that first trip to the vet where we had "prepped" him for it by rehydrating the little guy, and what a waste that was since we didn't get an appointment a day later. I tell her that the problem tooth fell out on its own just a few days ago - and she replies that this happens, seemingly not registering my annoyance about that first appointment being a failed one.
I go outside and cry a little because holy shit, the cat could die and I'm deeply in love with my cat who's been with so long and even lived in Amsterdam with me. (First proper Dutch conversation I ever had was "Heb je mijn poesje gezien?" when he ran away and hid in a shoeshop.)

I call back a few times during the day to see how it's going and if I can pick him up. They waited until the end of the day to work on him. I get a call around six that they were going to work on him and what they would have to do. They tell me what this will cost. As I understand it, they had X-rayed him, discovered that he has FORL (a tooth decaying problem) and now needed to pull more than one tooth. It'll be six thousand kronor. I'm floored and say "uh..ok...*gasp*" I call my mom and tell her, she advises me to ask for a bill since that's what she's always done at the animal hospital in Stockholm. We're both stunned at the cost.

Fine. Cat stays over night and when I go to pick him up, as I stand there at the cashier I want to bring up the major fuckup from a month ago, so I begin with telling them about that appointment, how much that cost, all the callbacks to get another one and someone saying it would cost 2500-3000 - to which they respond by getting the nurse. WTF? Now the nurse tells me that she called me yesterday and I had said it was no problem. Way to miss the fucking point people! I didn't want to discuss billing details with the nurse! She's got other things to do. She interrupts me and has that strange way of talking down to me so many Swedish nurses have, which makes me raise my voice - as all I wanted was for someone to get it through their heads that I was pissed off about paying so much (total!) due to that first appointment. Everyone listens in as we speak. I can feel the whole rooms eyes on me, and it's making me angrier. "I told you last night wen I called about the cost and you said OK" the nurse says. Yeah, what did you expect me to say? What would rather have that I said? I wondered and why on earth can't an animal hospital just send a bill? "Nobody does that" she says. Oh really? Nobody? I've gotten bills from the one in Stockholm. And again : Why am I discussing billing with a nurse?

So now I'M the asshole, as witnessed by every dog owner in the room (nothing against dog owners but wow did I ever feel like the odd one out there).

So that's the reason I'm not going back there. It's not that the bills are large, it's the stupid way of not paying attention to what I'm saying. I speak several languages but apparently not veterinary clinic-ese. That's messed up.

Yeah the cat is insured, but Agria doesn't cover this type of dentistry. In fact, every type of insurance I ever get has a small printed clause somewhere stating "won't cover whatever it is that you need help with Åsk."