Vivian Noell walked into her Highland home around 9 p.m. July 11 and found “blood everywhere” and her pitbull Snow suffering numerous grievous wounds, inflicted by another of her four dogs.

She said the dogs had never fought before, but the real horror story began after she rushed the injured 2-year-old dog to Veterinary Care Specialists, an emergency animal hospital in Milford.

“The doctor showed me on the paper that she had internal bleeding and gashes and her gums were so white that she needed a blood transfusion and in order for them to work on her, they would need a down payment and all these payment plans,” Noell said. “And if we didn’t have that, they wouldn’t help her. I just cried and said, ‘You are gonna let my baby die on this table.’”

Snow did die, euthanized by the veterinarian with Noell’s authorization, but that is one of the few points agreed on by the two parties in a case that underscores what can be a “tricky situation” when an animal has a medical emergency and the owner lacks funds for treatment.

Situation shared on social media

VCS Administrator Peter Barnes called Facebook posts from a friend of Noell’s charging that VCS would not assist the dog without upfront payment “a total fabrication.”

“We did treat the dog, and that is where the $1,100 bill came,” Barnes said. “What this really is, is cyberbullying. She posted a complete untruth and others have jumped on. That is the day and age we live in, and other businesses go through this. We did try and the dog was in incredibly bad shape from the injuries from the other dog.”

Barnes said he was in contact by phone with the treating veterinarian, who had conducted X-rays and was giving Snow fluids and oxygen in treatment to stabilize the dog, who was bleeding in the chest and lungs. An initially quoted price of $3,000, he continued, was not just for potential surgery cost, but additional stabilization efforts for the critically injured animal.

Noell was presented with a cost estimate after Snow was admitted to VCS, like all clients are when they bring in an animal, Barnes explained. Usually, a 50% deposit is requested, but that is sometimes waived depending on the situation, he said.

Noell contradicts this.

“They wouldn’t explain nothing,” she said, adding that her boyfriend got aggressive because the dog was her life. It helped her when she has epileptic seizures, she said.

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“I told them I didn’t have much money, but was willing to go broke for my dog,” said Noell, who recently moved here from Georgia. “I told them I could pay $400 up front and then I would pay monthly, but they said they needed weekly payments. It would cost over $3,000 to treat the dog and that was the low price… for more, it was going to be $6,000 to $7,000. They chose money instead of a life. I said, 'How do you expect a 23-year-old woman to have $3,000?' I have a part-time job busting my butt.”

Clients who don’t have cash are offered other financing options such as “CareCredit” or “Scratchpay,” but Barnes said Noell declined to apply, saying she would be turned down.

Still, even without any cash or credit, Barnes said, “In an emergency situation we do not euthanize due to lack of finance, we would have continued stabilization and then transferred the patient to another place that is not an ER once the patient is stable.”

“As we did further diagnostics, the prognosis was grave and poor,” he continued. “She admitted she couldn’t afford things. She could have ended up with a $3,000 bill and a patient that didn’t survive and she would have been very unhappy.”

VCS is one of the few emergency animal clinics that do not require payment upfront, Barnes said, adding that emergency medical treatment is expensive and Noell “would have run into this at any facility.”

No money? A problem 'tricky' at best

Carri Underwood, manager and veterinary technician at Animal Emergency Center in Novi, said no one is turned away for services at their facility, but “It is always very tricky, sometimes an unfortunate situation,” when clients can’t afford to pay for care.

Emergency veterinary care is a business and often clients do not have pet insurance to cover catastrophic illness or injuries in their animals. The cost of care for animals can come as a shock to people who have healthcare insurance for their own needs and don’t realize what actual medical expenses are.

“One of the most frustrating parts of the job is we just want to make the animals feel better,” Underwood said. “But we also rely on a paycheck week to week, and as much as (pet owners) think we are rolling in dough, we are not.”

Like Veterinary Care Specialists, the Novi Animal Emergency Center admits patients and does an assessment while stabilizing the animal. estimates are then given with different options, but Underwood said a problem often arises when clients aren’t open and honest up front.

“If money is not an object, we can offer you the world,” she said. “If we get down to it and they say they have no money, we have different things to offer.”

She, like Barnes, mentions CareCredit and other finance options. Clients are also encouraged to call upon friends or family for help. If none of these work, staff will try to make an animal comfortable until a client can take their pet to another facility.

“We would love to give every animal free care, but we can’t, that is not how the system works,” she said. “Delay in care is finding out where their finances are.”

Some clients do whatever it takes to “beg, borrow or steal,” while for others it ends in anger and frustration at the vet.

“When people see the price tag, they can get agitated and storm out and leave because they think we are trying to take them for their money,” she said. “Sometimes they approve the services, and we give them the bill, and tell them they have to pay and they are like, ‘What do you mean?’”

An emotionally-charged situation

Underwood notes it is a high-stress, emotionally-charged situation when an animal is brought in for emergency care, and people are understandably focused on saving their pet, not on the finances of it. But as a business that cost has to be taken into consideration.

“It’s all about how receptive people are to suggestion, but there are people who don’t want to work with you and want something for free,” she said. “We’d be out of business in a week if we didn’t get payment.”

She adds that there are few people who work in the business of animal care who have not been in the client’s shoes, making difficult financial and emotional decisions regarding pets.

Thursday, Noell mourned her dog and tried to make sense of her loss. She agreed to make $200 per week payments for what she owes she said and was unsure if she would be able to. She couldn't afford an urn for his cremains, a cost that would have been $300-$400, but has his paw prints. She encouraged people to do research on animal emergency clinics.

“I lost a family member and don’t want that to happen to anyone else,” she said, adding that she plans to keep Bean, the dog that attacked Snow. “I hope that people are safe with their animals. I would do anything to have Snow back.”

Contact Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanBromley10.