Can I get a refund from an animal hospital for the wrong assessment on an X-RAY?

[christmusicgirl1994]

Took my dog to an emergency hospital about 7 days ago, after I was worried he swallowed a cloth / plastic toy. They gave him an X-ray and told me there was nothing in his stomach to be worried about. Just this morning he threw up the entire toy that I was worried about. Do emergency vets offer refunds? Don’t want to get on bad terms with these guys because they are our only local hospital, but that wrong X-ray was $437

The toy in question

https://imgur.com/a/fO6RV5H

 

[mazigodwin]

@christmusicgirl1994 Unlikely.

Not seeing a foreign body on Xrays is common (at the top of my head, I think at least half the foreign bodies I remove in surgery were not seen on x-rays). Just yesterday we operated a kitten, it took 1 x-ray and 2 ultrasound before we saw the foreign body.

Cloths and plastic being often notoriously difficult to see. The fact that your dog vomited the toy is an indication that is was in the stomach and not obstructive (so not life threatening), which is likely why it wasn't visible as it wasn't causing any kind of signs of obstruction.

 

[bcp1928]

@mazigodwin This 100%

The amount of times we haven’t seen anything, only to pull out fuzzy socks face palm

 

[bcp1928]

@christmusicgirl1994 No. Emergency medicine is not perfect, radiology is apart of that. You are paying for technicians exposure to radiation, the machine, the electricity it takes to run it, and the years of education it took to interpret the rads. You needed that information, so you need to pay for it.

I don’t have the full story here - but you brought your dog to the vet with concerns & they examined and created a medical plan with you. They most likely explained to you the importance of the imaging, and you were likely thankful when it came back that your pet did not need emergency surgery to remove the toy. A good vet would not tell you that you have nothing to worry about after your dog ingested something. (Probably to feed bland diet, rest, monitor, watch for vomiting/straining/diarrhea, lethargy, and so on) You should be monitoring your dog and keeping the vet updated on symptoms. The rads gave you important information at that time - “is this life threatening?” “Does my dog have internal bleeding or damage from this?” “is there an urgent foreign body?” - most likely your vet ‘did not see anything ‘ on the images so they determined your dog was not a medical emergency and will clear the toy on its own. If you had concerns about care/cost it should have been discussed with them at that time. The rads gave you that information, which your vet discussed with you, why do you think it was ‘wrong’ ?

It appears you did not have to worry much, as the imaging showed, and your dog did clear it on its own. It seems like your vet did exactly what they should in an emergency situation,

I work in a veterinary hospital, we see toy ingestion and foreign bodies often, we aren’t going to refund our services/treatments. We helped your pet, your wallet is not our problem.

If anything you should refund the now damaged toy. /s

EDIT: formatting/grammar, also added sarcasm to clarify the end.

 

[christianwriter87]

@bcp1928 That’s what I’m saying.

 

[mrbentley]

@christmusicgirl1994 Probably not. Most likely the toy didn’t look like a toy on the X-ray and there were no other signs of intestinal obstruction.

You can certainly ask. But I doubt they will.

 

[bcp1928]

@mrbentley It would be rude to ask.

Diagnostic preformed on a pet should be paid for. What do you guys think radiology is? It’s not a perfect picture, it’s a mess of organs/bone/insides that needs to be interpreted by a professional. Sounds like they determined the pet was not blocked/obstructed by that imaging.

Why would you wanna refund good news?

 

[cristal19]

@christmusicgirl1994 I would call and let them know what happened and ask if they have any advice. But no, this is common. Fabric is very hard to see. I worked in a shelter where we had a foster dog went through this. This dog got three X-rays over the course of 3 days and multiple vets said there wasn’t anything but dog was still sick. The foster parent, the behavior manager at the shelter, insisted on exploratory surgery and a vet agreed. They pulled out a 3ft long tug-style fabric toy. Dog was lucky there was no necrotic bowel and recovered fine. So it’s possible even when you have multiple X-rays. Happy your pup was able to get rid of it on his own! Hopefully you never have it happen again but maybe just maybe, if you keep this vet you would be able to jokingly ask about a recurring X-ray discount or something.

 

[mcarans]

@christmusicgirl1994 The only thing I would suggest is nicely saying to them that in the future they may want to be a little more cautious with the news they give clients, and more specific….”we don’t see anything on the X-ray, but sometimes that isn’t always definitive, so please be vigilant and let us know if you’re dog shows any signs of stress or anything of concern.”

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@christmusicgirl1994 Maybe r/legaladvice would know if you don't get an answer here

 

[p4m3l4]

@christmusicgirl1994 You can certainly ask for clarification and express your frustration (politely and patiently). See if they sent the x-ray out to a consulting radiologist. My local emergency clinic sends x-rays to IDEXX so if that happened there’d be a print-out of exactly what the radiologist observed. Did the vet talk about doing a barium series? If the vet explained what a barium series was and express that they felt your dog wasn’t in distress and suggested you could just keep an eye on your pup?

I brought my dog in a few months ago because she was vomiting what looked like diarrhea. The vet explained the options and expressed that because she was acting healthy (alert, good appetite, etc.) that I could go with x-rays and so forth but he felt she was healthy enough to just keep an eye on. So I’d say the important thing was whether the vet discussed options and risks.