21-year-old woman drives her friend’s pet to a vet appointment at 4am, pays for it, and her friend says she isn’t going to pay her back: ‘ She thinks we should split the bill because I made a financial decision on his medicine that she didn’t agree to’

Author image for Olivia Arocena
Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Jul 30, 2026 1:45 PM EDT

It's all a question of money

People react to not having money in the most random ways. Sometimes it's easier to have a fight with someone than for them to admit they don't want to pay you back because it's too much money for them, and not because of some rationalization about a cat's health, lol. Either way, when someone pushes back this hard, the only two possible solutions would be to insist until they pay you back, or back down and get away from them; the sad part is that it is about money, and that it is about money you spend out of your pocket to help a friend and an animal at the same time.

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  • a woman holding a cat
    via oonmeiroslyl

    The cat at the vet

    Representation

  • AITAH for paying my friends vet bill and asking for her to pay me back in full?

    121 (f) have a friend 22 (f) that for the sake of the story we'll call Anne. This friend is out of town for the summer and one of our mutual friends is watching her cat. Last night this mutual friend messaged
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  • me because she didn't know what to do, the cat was acting weird. He was eating, drinking, wanting love, but he was meowing more than usual and wasn't able to pee, he would walk to the litter box and stay in there for a
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  • minute before coming out and nothing coming out of him. So this mutual friend asked me to come over to get a second opinion to make sure the cat was okay. To me it looked like a UTI
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  • which could be extremely life threatening for the cat. So I said we should take him to get checked out at a 24 hour vet clinic. There aren't any close to us so we had to drive out of state, 2 hours away to get him scene. This entire time
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  • I was texting and calling Anne and she wasn't answering me. when we got to the vet they gave him a quick exam and said everything feels normal but the couldn't take a proper exam because he doesn't seem to have any
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  • urine in him to take a sample. At this time Anne finally called me back. so I tell her the situation and I said I'll keep her updated and I said "I don't mind paying for the bill now if you
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  • a cat sitting on a blue backpack
    via Ali Kazal

    The woman taking the cat to the vet

    Image is illustrative

  • would just pay me back, because I know transferring money can take awhile" my first mistake, but she agreed. So the doctor comes in tells us what's wrong with him, they said he doesn't
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  • seem to have a UTI but he's having all the signs and it could just be a blockage with no inftion which is still really bad for him. So they recommend 3 medicines he needs to take. I text Anne and let her know whats going on, the
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  • updates and everything. Then I get the paper to tell me the price. It was $250 which isn't bad because we showed up, without an appointment, at 4 in the morning, and we're gonna be able to leave with all of
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  • the medicine with us that night. I'm texting Anne everything and she hadn't even viewed my message. So I pay for the exam and the medicine that the doctors prescribed. Keep in mind they said that they couldn't give a proper
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  • analysis because he doesn't have any urine in his bladder so they're treating it as if he does. have worse case scenario which is a UTI. So I pay, and we start driving back to our own
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  • state. An hour into our drive Anne finally texts me back and says "Woah that's a lot of money. honestly we could just do without the medicine right? he doesn't seem like he needs it. besides he does this all the time" (first
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  • of all if this is a common regular issue than something is wrong) when we had already bought the medicine because the doctors said he NEEDED it and I'm not going to argue with a professional. So this entire time we're
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  • texting we're going back and forth about whether he needs the medicine and if I could cancel it and not pay. I had told her very clearly that it was already paid for and that we have it already. I also said "hey don't worry about paying
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  • me back the whole $250 right now, you can pay me what you can now and the rest at a later date" I'm assuming alls well and good then I get a paragraph a little while later saying she thinks we should split the bill
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  • because I made a financial decision on his medicine that she didn't agree too. I explain to her, no I'm not going to split the bill when I was already kind enough. to pay it and let her pay me back WHEN. SHE. COULD. I wasn't asking for it right
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  • away. She makes the argument that he "doesn't seem like he needs it." I explain again to her that the doctors don't know if he's fully okay, because they couldn't give him a proper analysis. So after a few
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  • hours of arguing back and forth I told her "Yk what, just go ahead and pay me for the exam and never talk to me again" which is what she wanted in the first place. she hasn't answered me so I will keep you updated as I am. but
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  • safe to say I no longer want to be friends with her nor do nice things for anyone financial wise. So reddit, AITAH?
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  • Wild-Marsupial-6457 Absolutely not. She asked her friends to care for their animal, which you did, and $250 is a lot less than the sur ry it would have cost her when she got back.
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  • NightMgr I was in a similar situation felt better when I decided I didn't "pay her vet bill." I cared for an animal and paid that dog's vet bill. I cared for the dog.
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  • Sufficient-Wolf-1818 With her attitude i would add on a charge for time and mileage.
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  • vet holding a cat
    via ooneiroslyl

    The cat after hearing all this

    Stock photo for illustration

  • If she had the money, she wouldn’t be arguing about veterinary treatments; I mean, she is not a veterinarian; what’s weird to me is that she isn’t able to admit that and have an honest conversation about it. Of course, the fairest option would be that she pays back whoever helped her and her animal when she was not around, because they took care of a lot of things and she wasn’t there, whatever the cost is; but sometimes we have to be realistic and understand someone got fixated on not paying us and stop trying. It’s sad, but it's true, and it also gives us valuable information about how our friend handles communication and favours.



     

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friendship relationship advice friends relationships toxic relationship relationship drama
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