<p>I would not pay the bill and I would take her to small claims court for the vet bill. If she has a legitimate business, she may very well have insurance that might cover the vet bill.</p>
<p>I would also never use her again BUT if anyone asked me I would just say that I felt that she did not follow my instructions carefully enough.</p>
<p>My guess is that she does this in her house without a license, and without insurance.</p>
<p>I am with sunny florida.</p>
<p>I would actually find this easier now that she has emailed. I would carefully respond with a message to the effect of "Thank you for checking on P’s health. It was a very bad situation and the vet bill that I have received is for $1100. P’s situation was directly caused by the many treats and suppliments that you gave her during her stay with you. I know that I communicated to you that she could have very limited amounts of any food other than her regular dog food. It was an unfortunate situation and my DH and I feel that any reimbursement to you, the $428 should be used towards the vet’s bill, which we have done and which leaves us a balance of $672. Obviously, we will not be able to use your services in the future and consider this a loss for P and for us.
The reason I would not pay is that you did communicate that your dog had a special dietary situation and also because your sitter was not out any hard goods. She is out her time only.
I would then let her respond to me and see where things should go, if any further.</p>
<p>I like Oregon101’s suggestion. This is woman is a former vet tech and it does seem to me that you had talked about the dog’s health and diet. Watching your dog really did not cost her anything but it sure cost you and your dog.</p>
<p>When the sitter called me from the Emergency Vet, she was the one that told me the vet said the illness was cause by the foods that were added to her meals. The sitter was crying and said she didn’t mean to make P sick and when the Vet saw what P vomited, she asked the sitter what all she was feed. The sitter told the Vet and the Vet wanted to know why in the world she would feed all those foods to the dog. The sitter explained she does so for all the dogs and no one else had a problem. The sitter also knew the Vet bill before I did as they gave her an invoice when the sitter left for the night with current charges and expected charges for the night.</p>
<p>The first time P stayed with her, she asked if it was ok to add chicken to her food. I explained that the dog had several food allergies and food intolerance, and I would like her to stay on her regular diet and treats I sent. That is when I explained she could have a piece of banana, pineapple or melon for a treat, but we don’t feed her more than a bite or two of foods other than her regular diet. At no time was there mention of spinach, eggs, yogurt and raw carrots. That said, I have given her yogurt while on antibiotics and she gets a baby raw carrot or two on occasion.</p>
<p>Please know I am not trying to make excuses here; I just want you to understand. I forgot about her asking about the chicken the first stay until just now; my old brain doesn’t work as well as it use to!!</p>
<p>The sitter does this out of her house; I have no idea if she is licensed or insured. She does charge sales tax which I find odd; so maybe she is licensed. Actually, she has/had a company name this is currently listed as a US tax-exempt organization in Education. I have no idea if this is a business she runs currently or in the past. I guess she does dog boarding while working at home. With what she charges for boarding, she doesn’t need another job!! </p>
<p>My husband and I are going to work on an email to her tonight; he is the rational one, I am the emotional one.</p>
<p>Maybe she is hoping that you won’t take her to small claims court.</p>
<p>She’s a nut. Even if your written instructions were a bit ambivalent (and I don’t think they had that much wiggle room), you had told her verbally what your dog’s issues were, she is a vet tech and she had heard first hand what had caused the dog’s illness! </p>
<p>She is, IMO, just throwing this request out there to see if she can get you to pay. Don’t take the bait.</p>
<p>I would also mention in the email that she should consider the lost income as a lesson for the future; a lesson that may, in fact, save her business if it prevents another dog from becoming ill.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I think you should change your written instructions for future pet sitters. I understand a little bit more now how she would supplement your pet’s food. I was very harsh before, but didn’t realize you had written that your pet “enjoys table food”, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Still, I would craft an email along the lines that oregon101 has outlined. I think that a pet caregiver who, in this situation, would not proactively forgive most or all of your bill, is off base.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>With the specific info you just gave, I am back to saying that you should suggest that you will apply her invoice to the vets bill and that you have decided to not pursue her for the balance… </p>
<p>You have a good case if she takes you to small claims court. If she is not licensed there could be issues of whether she is allowed to run a business out of her home for pet boarding, if she is insured for injuries to her charges,</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Exactly. It’s just common sense. If there had never been any verbal communication between you and the only thing she had to rely on was the written instructions, her confusion might be more understandable. The fact that the vet was shocked at the amount of table foods that the dog received indicates that an animal professional should have a basic understanding of the dietary limitations of most animals, especially one with colitis. It’s not as if you left her with someone who had no experience with animals. </p>
<p>The woman that watches my dog is very careful to give each dog their own food. She will occasionally give my dog boiled hamburger or chicken if her stomach is upset. She cleared this with us first.</p>
<p>This is just a side comment to the situation, but it has been my experience that vets are woefully ignorant of animal nutrition. Most will recommend and even sell really crappy brands of food. They very often miss the connection between nutrition and animal health. The diet the sitter fed him is not a bad one. I’d probably cook the veggies and go easy on the yogurt and add in some chicken. My vet, who I trust on all issues other than nutrition, recommended Science Diet for my dog, who has a very sensitive stomach. It practically killed him and the vet seemed shocked when I pointed out the inferior quality of the filler in the food. Many dogs cannot tolerate corn or wheat but I’m amazed that not all vets know this. </p>
<p>I’m not saying this as an excuse. It was not her dog so it was not her business to change the dog’s diet.</p>
<p>If she is a vet tech, then legally she is held more accountable for her actions/inactions than if she were a neighbor or friend. That is true of anyone providing a service.
I agree, an email as outlined by Oregon101 is appropriate. Turn it around and put the onus on her. She may very well not pursue the matter.</p>
<p>I suggest you pay her and not hire her again. Your agreement was not based on how well she would do her job. If employers could withhold pay when people make mistakes or fall short of expectations, then many people would not be receiving their pay.</p>
<p>^^^Very funny coming from someone with your screen name!^^^</p>
<p>Agree, again, with Oregon. I wouldn’t even consider paying her a red cent unless she gets a lawyer involved. She’s just trying to see if you’ll cave. In your letter, I would remind her of what the vet said about the number of different foods she fed the dog.</p>
<p>Good luck! I can’t wait to hear how this pans out …</p>
<p>Well, my husband does what he does best and has ignored the issue; I haven’t been able to get him to sit down and discuss a response to the woman. This morning I went back to sleep after a typical menopausal night awake, until my phone rang while I was in a deep sleep. I grabbed the phone without called ID thinking it was a family member due to the time; well it wasn’t, it was the sitter!</p>
<p>She caught me off guard and I babbled. She was calling to see how P was, and then asked if I had sent her a check. I think she was really shocked that I would consider withholding payment when according to her, she cared for my dog in good faith. My husband is a physician and she said that he still collects his payment even if the outcome is not what was expected. It seemed she was upset that I was withholding payment and that no one else had ever done that before. According to her, she gave me a break by not charging for the transportation to the ER which others would have billed for. </p>
<p>Again I do believe she really cares about my dog and others. The reason she gave for giving the food to P was that she loved it so much! It was agreed that the food was the cause, but that she didn’t do anything to harm the dog on purpose. I was told that she scoops her yard everyday and there was no indication before that final day that P was having any problems. In the past when P has had a flair up, there is mucous at the start. We have never had a time that all that comes out is pure blood, which makes me think this wasn’t the first day of the flair up, but I guess this episode could have been different that the others she has had due to the amount of extra foods she received. </p>
<p>What I found interesting is that she mentioned she has a legal contract that she has people sign, but she never had me sign as she thought we had an understanding; I have no idea what that was suppose to mean! We ended the conversation with I would discuss with my husband and see what we were comfortable doing. </p>
<p>I think I will talk to my regular vet just for my own knowledge and see if there is any possibility that there wouldn’t have been any indication of illness before that final day. Not really sure what I will do with that information, but just want to find out.</p>
<p>Wow, sounds like she just might care about the $$$ a tad more than P. After that call I would do one of 2 things: 1) Pay her the boarding fee, say good riddens and never, ever use her again. or 2) File a small claim for the full vet bill which you will probably be awarded with all the ‘evidence’ you have here, comments from vet, etc,…and never, EVER use her again.</p>
<p>Could you ask your vet what he/she would do in this situation re: having a client pay if they had made an error? They might not want to say but it could be interesting.
While I totally believe in my last post of applying the $ to her bill I think that I would now just pay her and finish the story. It is going on too long and with too much emotion and not worth it in the big scheme of life. Sometimes siutations like this just need to end. Hope your P continues to do well.</p>
<p>On one hand, you have an experienced, reputable vet tech ( or so she says) who should know on her own that it is contraindicated to change the diet of any dog to that extent, let alone one who has a history of colitis and is out of her normal routine. On the other hand, although you told her verbally that your dog was to be given " only food and treats sent" your note said:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think she interpreted that to mean don’t change the actual dog food or treats, but additional table food of any kind in addition to provided food and treats is OK. “Small” in this case is also wide open to interpretation. While last time you were much more specific and directed her to give only a bite or two ( of pineapple, banana or melon) that was no longer mentioned ahead of this visit. </p>
<p>Your best argument is that someone with her training and background really should have known better, regardless. You can copy feeding advice from any number of dog care books if she needs you to prove your point ( if only to protect the other dogs in her care). She can’t argue with the vet’s assessment that she caused the problem, but in her mind it is due to your open ended instructions and her experience to the contrary, while the emphasis should be on what any pet professional ought to know. </p>
<p>Ultimately, in this case, as annoyed as I would be with the woman, I’d pay her because of my unclear instructions, then never use her again( at this point I think you’ve burned that bridge, anyway). But reasonable minds may differ - if it were ever to go to small claims, IMO it could go either way.</p>