One of my son's rescues is older. He rescued her from an Ohio group that was having a day in a Petco. She had a hole in her side from a hernia repair. They don't know what happened to her, but I think she was kicked, or hit by a car. She has been very sick ...but now seems stable. One vet bill was $800 and we had to pay that for him.
He has been to at least 5 different vets so far (I have lost count really). He lives in a college town, with affluence too.
(my vet is in an affluent area as well).
Her diagnoses have been confusing. One vet said she had terrible kidneys, had a ultrasound showing only one kidney and that was small and malformed. So they sold her a special food. Which he now believes made her sick. She became very ill over a night/weekend and he took her to an emergency place where they told him her kidneys were fine, but she had a bacterial hepatitis! So she got IV antibiotics and an $800 bill there. A third vet treated her for a cystitis, and gave him Elavil to give her, and she could not walk, or function. You should have seen her reaction to that drug..on Thanksgiving...I was there and told him NO MORE....
He has now found a vet in a small building who seems more with it than any of the other fancy schmancy ones! He took her off the special kidney food and she is much BETTER!

Just within our vets' large practice one new gal told me Tippy was hyperthyroid (we had a cat 20 yrs ago with thyroid cancer) so I did not believe it. This was with blood work.
I went back to our preferred vet there and she said "ridiculous"...even the blood work was normal, and no physical signs! That was 7 yrs ago.

Some vets out and out lie to make $$. I adopted Tippy from a cat only vet, who pushed vaccines. He said they only have 1 yr vaccines for Rabies and those are better! He also had a framed disclaimer on the wall about the "epidemic" of vaccination sarcoma at that practice. So I called around and NO VET would confirm a once a year Rabies. So maybe that vet used inferior vaccines and that is why my Tippy is now reacting? Needless to say I never went back to HIM.

Our current vet we have used for our other cats since 1970. (but they do dogs and everything else, and some days the dogs upset the cats in the waiting room) Hence we tried the "cat only" vet and finally left.
Our current is a really good place...accredited as well. But even within there, with 8 vets, the results are mixed. So I only go to one
woman whom we have had good experiences with.

And I admire DM's spunk for doing the ana[ glands... even I have my limits...I can't do it...
.