Our family is devastated and furiousâŠ
Our family is devastated and furious after the horrific experience we endured at Crown Vets with our precious 11-month-old Maine Coon kitten, Nala. What should have been a place of care and support became a nightmare of outrageous costs, vague answers, and heartless profiteering. If you cherish your pets, I beg you to avoid Crown Vets at all costs and seek out independent vets instead.
It all started on a Sunday afternoon when we couldnât find Nala. After searching, we found her cowering in a downstairs room next to our garage, where my partner Aga and I had been cleaning earlier. She bolted upstairs and hid under a bed, clearly distressed and unlike herself. When we coaxed her out, we saw blood on her beautiful long fur and tail. She was breathing rapidly and seemed in pain. We settled her into her bed with food and water, and she stayed close to us on the sofa that evening, but it was obvious something was terribly wrong. Since we had a Pet Plan Plus with Crown Vets, we contacted their out-of-hours service and secured an 8:15 a.m. appointment for Monday.
That night, Aga checked on her and couldnât find her again. We eventually located her hiding behind our bedroom curtains, still in distress. When we gently lifted her onto our bed, she cried out and hissedâlikely from fear and pain. We did our best to keep her comfortable in her carrier until the appointment. At Crown Vets, the vet examined Nala and immediately asked if we had insurance. We didnâtâa decision we now regret, but no pet owner should be made to feel like theyâre at the mercy of a money-hungry practice because of it. The vet said Nala was guarding her rear left leg and needed X-rays and sedation to find the source of the bleeding. The cost? £544, payable upon collection. Desperate to help her, we agreed and left her in their hands.
Hours passed with no word. When Aga finally called for an update, we were hit with devastating news: Nala had suffered a tail pull at the base of her spine, numbing her tail and requiring amputation. Shockingly, Crown Vets admitted they werenât qualified to perform the surgery and needed a specialistâat an additional £2,000. Why does a so-called professional vet practice lack staff capable of basic feline operations? They also revealed that her bladder was full due to the injuryâs location, and she might not be able to urinate on her own. Theyâd manually expressed it for relief, but said sheâd need âmonitoringâ for 24 hoursâor possibly days to weeksâat £1,100 for the first day and £900 per day after that, just to sit in a cage with no guarantees. They couldnât tell us if the surgery would work or when weâd know anything definitive. It was a black hole of uncertainty and skyrocketing costs.
Faced with their incompetence and these astronomical fees, we had to make the agonizing decision to euthanize Nala. To pile on the pain, they charged £156 for the injection and £97 for a group cremation. The entire ordeal felt like a calculated cash grab, exploiting our love for Nala and our desperation to save her.
Crown Vetsâ prices are beyond outrageousâtheyâre predatory. Theyâre clearly price gouging, preying on insurance policies or pet ownersâ wallets. Most insurance wouldnât even cover a week of this âtreatment,â let alone the surgery. Without insurance, itâs financially ruinous. This isnât a vet practice; itâs a profit-driven machine owned by directors tied to thousands of practices across the UK and US, ultimately controlled by private equity firms and Nestlé. They donât care about your petsâthey care about inflating costs for basic services and drugs while youâre at your most vulnerable.
Please, spare yourself this heartbreak. Take your pets to local, independent vets who value care over corporate greed. Nala deserved so much better, and your pets do too. Crown Vets will likely respond to this with their generic, robotic âwe care about customer serviceâ nonsenseâdonât believe it for a second. The only thing they care about is your money. Avoid them at all costs.
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