Is your pet worth the vet bill?

[Opcn]

I was thinking about it, and how much some people spend on vet bills, I have an aunt (by marrage, not a blood relative) Who is majorly into dogs, she spent a grand total of more than 55,000 Dollars keeping one animal alive, he had asthma, liver problems, Kidney problems Diabetes, alergies, arthritis and she still kept shovleing Money into the vets office to keep it alive.

I know where I stand where do you?

 

[Polardbear]

Back in my dog breeding days I spent enough money at my vet to have my own wing. I probably funded his ultrasound machine at least.

I recently spent roughly $30.00 on meds for a sick swordtail.

I guess it all depends on how much you care for your pets!

 

[lady_tanksalot]

with all my pets ...2 dogs...5 cats... + fish i dont take the risk of having to mortgage the house.

thats what insurance is for.

so I pay £45 per month to keep them all safe and well

 

[SarahBravo]

Yep, the same day I got each of my current cats I took out vet insurance on them - £9 a month each.... of course, because of that they've never been sick a day in their lives!! My old cat was 17 when she became ill with a twisted bowel - she had an op and was in animal hospital for a week, but was in pain and not recovering so she was put down.... cost £850 but I thought it was worth it because there was a 50% chance of recovery, although vet offered to put her down straight away.

If either of my cats needed medical attention and I had to pay for it I would. They're not disposable or replaceable, they're individual living beings - and besides that they're my friends.

Sarah

 

[RandomWiktor]

I'll pay as much as myself and my family are able to afford. Example, we spend probably close to 1,000 dollars in vet bills on my rooster Skoggi. However, those bills kept him alive for 5 years, instead of the 1 year he would have had otherwise. It was well worth it to me and everyone involved. I've pitched hundreds of dollars into stray cats, who now all have wonderful homes and happy, healthy lives. Having some of my adopters sending my pictures of their pets with stories about how well they are doing makes it all worth it.
However, there have been times when I simply did not have the money to treat and have had to euthanize. I feel it is more humane to do this than let the animal "die naturally," because when I was 9 my mother let my favorite rabbit die naturally, and it took months of his face rotting off, his legs becoming paralyzed, and being in excruciating pain before he finally died. I'm moving to Oregon so I can get euthanasia when this kind of crap happens to me; I've been chronically ill all my life and I'll be damned if I'm going to cost my loved ones money so I can be a doped up veggie on a resperator.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Well... Our cat Jasper has stomach problems. He's.. 15? Mum pays for a paste stuff sometimes, but TBH, he's OK, he just throws up more now and is very skinny. Our other cats don't really go to the vet. The only real time they've been is for skin problems, Molly has FAD I think and Bobbie gets scabby sometimes. We don't take our small animals to the vet, but we'd take Hatty (our rabbit) because she is very cute and is as big as the cats anyway. The only time we've taken a small animal to the vets was Patch, he had a tumor and we needed to know whether it would be better to let him carry on. At least she died naturally.

 

[corykitty516]

Sometimes prolonging life is simply prolonging suffering. If there is a real chance of 100% recovery I might spend a few hundred dollars ... but thousands ... I dont know. I've never had to make that choice before. For my cat I spent a few hundred for initial neuter, shots, tests and such. After that its not much per year. I try to do all I can to prevent having to spend that much money. I keep the cat inside, and try to feed him a balanced diet so he wont develop problems. If anything ever happend to him ... I dont know .... I'd sure be tempted to go to great lengths
Anyway .....
This goes for humans too: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Thats a tough one as it depends on the situation.

Our last cat was about 12 and developed breathing problems. after a visit to the vet we found out it was a tumar of somesort. so we started paying out for pills in about april. It seemed to get better at one point but then she went downhill to the point she could barely eat. so just before out holidays we had to make the hard decision to put her down in about july.

now you made me all upset remembering her

 

[plecoperson]

This is very tough. A couple of years ago my beloved 13 year old dog Bessie had a stroke, and we had her put to sleep two days later. We knew she had a (apparantly) painless death, a quick death and she had one heck of a good life with us. It wasnt fair on her or on us to prolong her life because of a very slim chance she would return to normal. she wasnt able to stand up properly and couldnt walk. Basically, she wasn't the dog we knew and loved. But if she had had a tumour or something that had a high chance of recovery, we would have probably spent loads of money. However if it was terminal, I would probably let her carry on until she appeared to be in pain and then had her put to sleep.

You can't put a price on what a member of your family is worth to you.

 

[Fishy411]

I would pay any amount of money to have my Dog live a Really Long life.

 

[plecoperson]

I would pay any amount of money to have my Dog live a Really Long life.

surely its the quality of life thats important, not the quantity?

 

[Fishy411]

I would pay any amount of money to have my Dog live a Really Long life.

surely its the quality of life thats important, not the quantity?

Ok i would pay any amount to have my dog live a really long really healthy life.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I'd do and I do what I can. One of my giunea pigs had a problem in his ear and I paid about £200 on an operation and medication for him.

He lived a little while after that but had always been quite sickly.

I think anyone who takes on the responsability for an animal has to do everything they possibly can to look after it. It's part of the deal. Anyone who doesn't, or think money is more important should not be allowed to keep animals.

 

[boozybears]

Really tough question Opcn.

My dog is like my child... so that said i'd do whatever I could to help her out. But I would draw the line at remortgaging the house (if I had one lol). Guess it depends on the situation. As many have said, it's quality of life that's important, not quantity.

*rushes off to give her pup and big hug and more belly rubs*

 

[RandomWiktor]

I'd venture to say that it also probably depends on the pet. For example, mice only live 1-2 years, so if my 1 and a half year old mouse gets tumors, I'll keep her comfortable as long as I can then euthanize, not spend $200 on a risky surgery so she can live her next few weeks in the painful recovery stage. My dog is even a good example of this. He has a brain tumor and will be dead in a few weeks-months. He tore his knee having a seizure, and we wanted to repair it (a $400 surgery). The vet told us that we'd be better off giving him pain killers, because the surgery would be an elevated risk, and he'd probably die long before the knee ever even healed, so he'd never get the chance to use it. So, he's getting the pain killers instead of the surgery. Though I suppose thats not so much financial as just weighing our options.

This topic could so expand to even the every day care of your pets. I have a parakeet I got for free who is about 11 or 12 years old right now (so on her way out), and last year I bought her a $120 aviary. To me it was worth it because she was very depressed after her mate died and having a new place with more behavioral enrichment pulled her out of it. But most people are like "why spend the money, the other cage was fine."