oh my, that really sucks :( hope you can get this sorted out soon

uggh vet bills are just a second punch to the gut.
I hope things work out well in the end.

I hate it, its costs the same, or even less, to repair a hernia on a damn cat or dog. You get royally stung with rats sometimes. Im not even downplaying it but.......I could have a rat spayed for less. And thats an invasive op involving cutting of internal bits and bobs. A hernia is simply find where its popping out, pop back in and secure.

It's ridiculous. You'd think smaller animals would cost less than a cat or dog. Then again, I have no clue how veterinary business works...

Small animals often cost MORE than cats or dogs, because of the extra skill needed to work on such a small scale.
We are fairly fortunate with our vet, they fixed a hernia for one of our little girls a year or so ago for under a hundred quid, and the senior partner there is an incredibly skilled surgeon.

They've done a couple successful eye removals too (horrible I know but they are careless little sods sometimes and there isn't always a great deal of choice with such things, even catching the wound early and getting the right eyedrops and medication doesn't always save the eye!), without charging a massive amount (iirc the last eye removal they did was around the £70 mark including meds)