Vets bill

I would ask for monthly repayments Mattsmum2 that way he will be reminded of his responsibilities. The down side of having pets I'm afraid and not something people always consider when taking an animal into their family.

This does seem a lot of dosh for putting a cat to sleep. My elderly cat was very poorly last November and it cost me £80 for the consultation, injection and disposal of the body. It didn’t reach the minimum for any insurance to be included. I would be inclined to query the bill with the surgery and ask for it to be itemised.

I suppose it depends on the kind of relationship you have with your son and whether you can afford the £2500. If my son were very attentive and supportive of me, I may let it go if I could afford it. If he has no sense of money and often uses me as a member of staff, I may well want to be paid back.

The vet bill for euthanasia should be nowhere near that amount. Unless of course the cat had scans prior to being put to sleep.
You're right to encourage your son to get pet insurance in future.

MissChateline

This does seem a lot of dosh for putting a cat to sleep. My elderly cat was very poorly last November and it cost me £80 for the consultation, injection and disposal of the body. It didn’t reach the minimum for any insurance to be included. I would be inclined to query the bill with the surgery and ask for it to be itemised.

Absolutely MissC, my first thought was ‘how much?!’.
We had to have our lovely cocker put down a few years ago, from memory £400 which was covered by insurance.
That included her ashes returned in an urn.

In the UK it should cost between £100 and £300 to euthanase a cat.
If the vet came out to the home then the charge is around £250 to £400.
It seems to me that you have been grossly overcharged.

That's a lot of money to put a cat to sleep. I'm assuming there were tests beforehand?

I'm not sure what you should do as far as the cost, but wanted to contribute on the pet insurance. If they're a young family that hasn't got a lot, the cost of pet insurance is not insignificant (but neither are vet bills). I do have pet insurance on my animals but feel it's a fortunate position to be able to do so. You could talk to your son about pet insurance (maybe told him you picked up some leaflets about it when you saw them at the vet's office) or suggest he start a separate savings account for vet costs. As the animals get older, this only increases.

£2000+ is a lot of money given that the cat became ill and was pts the following day. It would be understandable if it had been treated for a while.

Five of the seven cats we have owned had to be put to sleep. We never had insurance on them so paid all the costs. I may be wrong cos it was more than 12 years ago for the last one but I honestly don't recall being charged at all, or a minimal amount, for the job. Fortunately, apart from one, all our cats were pretty healthy throughout their long lives. But we definitely didn't have any bills of that sort of level.

A couple of years ago one of mine had to be put to sleep as an emergency' It meant an out of hour's appointment, but the vet had been able to diagnose over the phone so no further investigation was needed. As far as l remember it was about £350. A lot of money but it had to be done.