Brutal ER visit bill from dog bite

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  • Grrrrrrrr!!!

    Anonymous Poster

    2 months ago 02/07/2025 11:07pm EST
    re: colder and wiser

    colder and wiser wrote:

    Next time, do us all the favor and call the police. Make sure the owner talks to the police before you leave.

    The fun thing about rabies is that there might be a very low chance of getting infected, but if you do start to show symptoms, there is no treatment and you die. Try doing the math on that one while you're wondering if a $10K course of treatment is worth it.

    there's probably about a 1 in a million chance, really. Unless the dog is acting rabid.

    Chance is higher than that to get untreatable lung cancer if you smoke 3 packs of cigarettes a day for your whole life, but people do it anyway, let alone spend 10k trying to quit.

    I bet quite a few people would turn down the shots if they knew the cost. I probably would if the dog owner produced proof of vaccination. This treatment was invented long ago in a time when rabid dogs were much more common.

  • registered

    runnER/DR

    Member since 11/02/2016.

    1,988 posts. Last post 17 hours ago.
    2 months ago 02/07/2025 11:14pm EST
    re: Precious Roy

    Precious Roy wrote:

    I had a bill for $3k for an x-ray and a two big band aid for two bites. In most places, rabies is considered to be eliminated from dogs. So, I skipped the rabies shots.

    The big issue with the cost is whether you go to an urgent care or an actual emergency room. ERs are crazy expensive because they have to have a surgery theater, etc. Urgent care just is supposed to be able to stabilize you to get you to an ER if necessary. A lot less gear in an urgent care center.

    Unfortunately urgent cares have adopted an increasingly narrow scope of practice. Many can't do xrays. There's a trend towards not closing any wounds at all. Most patients I see in my ER from urgent care should never have been sent to the ER.

  • registered

    colder and wiser

    Member since 02/16/2016.

    1,789 posts. Last post 6 hours ago.
    2 months ago 02/08/2025 6:20am EST
    re: Grrrrrrrr!!!

    Grrrrrrrr!!! wrote:

    there's probably about a 1 in a million chance, really. Unless the dog is acting rabid.

    Chance is higher than that to get untreatable lung cancer if you smoke 3 packs of cigarettes a day for your whole life, but people do it anyway, let alone spend 10k trying to quit.

    I bet quite a few people would turn down the shots if they knew the cost. I probably would if the dog owner produced proof of vaccination. This treatment was invented long ago in a time when rabid dogs were much more common.

    Precisely. How do you weigh the expected outcomes of (99.9999% chance of wasting $10K) versus (.0001% chance of dying)?

    I got to balance that equation a few years ago thanks to a neighbor's dog whose vaccination had expired a week earlier. I consulted a doctor, the doctor consulted another expert, and everyone decided that treatment probably wasn't worth it. Probably.

  • Femboi8

    Anonymous Poster

    2 months ago 02/08/2025 6:40am EST
    re: Clewds

    Clewds wrote:

    I posted in the ‘dogs are everywhere’ thread about being bitten two weeks ago and having to hit the ER for care. My bill came today - a few minutes with the provider, shots of rabies immunoglobulin, and the first shot of a four vaccine series came to just over $17K. After insurance, I owed $919. I was in the military until this past year, and this was my first experience with seeing a healthcare bill as an adult. Terrifying!

    Next time make sure you always carry a pocket knife to dispose any vicious animal you come across.

  • registered

    TheTortoise

    Member since 04/25/2024.

    1,460 posts. Last post 21 hours ago.
    2 months ago 02/08/2025 7:18am EST
    re: Clewds

    Would cost me $0

  • 09841535

    Anonymous Poster

    2 months ago 02/08/2025 7:40am EST
    re: Grrrrrrrr!!!

    Grrrrrrrr!!! wrote:

    colder and wiser wrote:

    Next time, do us all the favor and call the police. Make sure the owner talks to the police before you leave.

    The fun thing about rabies is that there might be a very low chance of getting infected, but if you do start to show symptoms, there is no treatment and you die. Try doing the math on that one while you're wondering if a $10K course of treatment is worth it.

    there's probably about a 1 in a million chance, really. Unless the dog is acting rabid.

    For a dog that the owner just scooped up (like the OP said?) there's a zero percent chance it has rabies.

  • the mad pooper

    Anonymous Poster

    2 months ago 02/08/2025 7:42am EST
    re: Clewds

    Last week I was out running on a country road when suddenly I heard a lady screaming "no killer, get back here killer." I heard something running towards me making a grunting noise. I thought I was screwed when a freaking pug jumped out from the tree line with it's tail wagging happy as could be. Dogs, man.

  • registered

    Clewds

    Member since 10/23/2017.

    38 posts. Last post 2 months ago.
    2 months ago 02/08/2025 9:01am EST
    re: colder and wiser

    Older and Wiser is right, and I think you are as well. I’m actually a family physician, and I get messages from the county Health Department including alerts about reportable disease diseases. Two weeks ago, they emailed a message describing out describing an outbreak of rabies among skunks in the county. So far no dogs involved. A human patient also died of rabies in January but it’s believed that he acquired the infection outside of the country. I was considering these factors when I decided to suck it up and accept the treatment by the way, I looked at the itemized bill and most of it was due to the $15,000 price tag of the rabies immunoglobulin.

  • registered

    Clewds

    Member since 10/23/2017.

    38 posts. Last post 2 months ago.
    2 months ago 02/08/2025 9:03am EST
    re: Clewds

    Sorry for the errors…my first attempt at voice to text on LR.

  • registered

    JustMe22

    Member since 02/03/2008.

    1,185 posts. Last post 1 month ago.
    2 months ago 02/08/2025 9:16am EST
    re: Clewds

    You got lucky and I'm glad you are OK. Rabies is almost always fatal if it isn't caught in time. Sorry you had to go through all that...hope you gain some gratitude for surviving the experience.

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