How much for vet bill??

[Roger Bell]

We had a lab/shepherd mix that lived 14 years and who died just last summer. We started insuring her when she was very young. It starts out pretty cheap and then the premiums increase as the dog ages and the risk increases.

Needless to say, as she aged, she developed problems requiring extensive drugs, vet visits, etc. The insurance paid a significant portion of the bills and made the remaining balance easier to handle. We have a new dog now. She is also insured. In my opinion, and in the opinion of my (even more expensive) accountant, insurance is advised for those of our persuasion. I pay the accountant to save me money. I pay the insurance to save money.

Concerning how much is too much to spend, and where to draw the line..........that is a question that only you and your spouse are capable of answering.

[Jim King]

I really prefer if my wife doesn´t tell me what these things cost. We have about 40 dogs and if we lived in the States it would not be impossible. Fortunatly here our vet is always building on his house or office and needs wood or furniture or something. Attached is a typical example of a street dog when he came and after he was refurbished. Very rare does she bring one home with hair.
It is very rewarding to say the least.

[Bryan Somers]

Im not sure I want to figure up how much we have spent on our 3 yr old yellow lab Morgan in the last couple of months, but it wouldnt surprise me if it was $600.00 or more. She injured a cruciate ligament in her back left leg and thank goodness our vet didnt recomend surgery. After all how can you say no to this face

beach3.jpg

And is this spoiled or what

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[Al Willits]

Personally there's a lot more dogs I'd spend money on than people, sit in a courtroom for a bit as see how wonderful mankind can be.....
Wasn't two dogs that took a baseball bat to my grandmother, to steal the $36 she had in her purse.

We spend about $80 a month on our dog now, she has Addisons desease and the shot keeps her alive, I have no problem spending that.
Considering the enjoyment our dogs have brought us I'm not sure what the limit would be..

I was asked this question at work a ways back, and my reply was, does the vet take payments?

Al

[Jim Thiel]

My wife and I have two dogs, boxers by breed. Calvin came to us through neighborhood intervention, and to date has put off the purchase of a jointer (really want the Yorkcraft 8") a larger planer (liking the Griz, leaning towards the York 20") and a new bandsaw (don't have one, but would like one). He was just a dog needing help. He is now part of my family. Knowing what I now do about what he needed, I would do it again.

Jim

[Gary Herrmann]

To paraphrase the other posts, whatever it takes.

[Stan Mijal]

Charlie,

After living all my life having one or more dogs in our family, the cost aspect is essentially a non-issue with me. ogs become valued members of ones family, in a sense, like a four legged child with a speech issue. Personally I value them as I would my kids, their well being is put above cost. My only question when they are in serious medical need, is whether I am making a choice to keep them alive through heroic measures and the quality of their life from that point on. Certainly, the most difficult type of decisions I have encountered in my 54 years.

This is our dog Sam. He is a few years older now. He is the first to greet me when I come home from work. He sits and cuddles on my wife's lap when she is grading papers, He sits patiently outside my workshop till I am finished.
Attachment 55039

Took him for his morning walk today and he started limping on his front paw about half mile out. Had to carry him home (he's a Bichon, only about 20 pounds). After closer examination it was only a burr, but it got me thinking... "How much would I have been willing to pay in vet bills if it had been more serious?"

I started to talk to my wife about it and her reaction was, "I don't want to talk about it." I think she thinks if we don't discuss it, nothing bad will happen.

Which leads to the title.. and a question - how many have insurance on your pet?

I will broach the subject with my wife again, but I thought I would try to get an idea from some others.

Cross-posted to FW

[Jerry Olexa]

Charlie,

After living all my life having one or more dogs in our family, the cost aspect is essentially a non-issue with me. ogs become valued members of ones family, in a sense, like a four legged child with a speech issue. Personally I value them as I would my kids, their well being is put above cost. My only question when they are in serious medical need, is whether I am making a choice to keep them alive through heroic measures and the quality of their life from that point on. Certainly, the most difficult type of decisions I have encountered in my 54 years.

Stan: Very well said. I fully agree w your thoughts so well expressed..

[john dennis]

If it's your dog, he's your responsibility and you darn well better take care of him. If you can't then put him down humanely.

[Dan Gill]

Well, I can see we are all over the spectrum on this question. It's an appropriate and very difficult one for me right now. Our beagle Pippin went to the emergency vet last night to the tune of $650, money we don't have. For that cost we still don't know if she has an obstructed bowel or a tumor. We had an appointment with our vet for today, but my wife and son felt we couldn't wait. I was asleep and wasn't privy to the decision.

Of course, we could probably have found a vet to look at her yesterday, if we had decided it could not wait. These middle of the night things add greatly to expenses.

Today we take her to our regular vet for more x-rays, and probably surgery. Will we do the surgery? Yes. We'll eventually be able to pay off the cost. Will we do chemo or radiation, or extensive work if it's a tumor? No. We love our dogs very dearly, but there simply are no funds to fight a losing battle to prolong Pippin's life.

The worst is my son. His previous beagle died when he was 15 and fighting cancer himself. That hurt him more than the cancer did. We are very concerned for him right now.

[Bill Lewis]

This is one of those "don't ask me, I don't want to know" type questions. My wife and I recent had to have one of our dogs, Brandy, put to sleep. It was one of the hardest things we ever had to do. See this thread for more details. Brandy had epilepsy, and we did everything we could do to keep her going, and she did everything she could do as well. We could have kept her going, but the inevitable reality was that the siezures had become uncontrollable, and longer lasting and we just couldn't let her endure them any more. We were completely out of options.

Over the almost three years that we had that dog we could have bought 10 or 20 more of the same breed for what was spent on vet bills and drugs. But we would never have the same dog. We received over 50 emails and well over a dozen sympathy cards and letters regarding this dog, not including the responses here on SMC. These were from people who knew her directly, or had heard about her though others. Everyone likes to think their dogs are special, and they are to us all, but this dog left an impression on so many people.

So now, believe it or not, we found another dog of the same breed. The breeders were sincerely overjoyed to find out that we were interested. This dog comes from respected breeders with no known history of epilepsy in the family history. But we are also aware that there are no guarantees. Unfortunately, the new puppy is having some issues with a possible UT, or Kidney infection, and she spent the night at the vet's office last night getting flushed out with IV fluids.

Before this she was losing all of her baby teeth all at once, and basically wouldn't eat. Then she was either injured by rough playing with the big dog, or had a strange reaction to the lyme diesease vacination as she wouldn't put any weight on her right hind.

Thsi is all very frustrating, and we'd really like a break, but we realize that all of this does come with the territory.

[Rob Bourgeois]

I cant read all of the replies due to my recent dog issues.

I had my dog put to sleep on the Friday before Christmas. he had been fighting lymphoma and nothing we tried worked. While I cant say we had the money to spend...we spent around $4000. Would I do it again...YES.

When my daughter was about 3 or 4 months, old she made an odd noise while sleeping. We did not get up since she had been sleeping through the night and had no problems. Roux went nuts...he jumped over a baby gate and went into her room and started crying and making a fuss. I went into her room to get him and i put my hand on her and she was burning up. We ended up brining her to the ER. And the doc told us "I am glad you didnt wait till morning, I dont know how bad it would have been."

Roux got every chance and opportunity in the world. Even if he woudlnt have been so special we would have done the same thing...you take a pet in and you have to be fully reponsible for it...till the point where it doesnt start hurting your family.

Pet insurance...would have paid for it but based on my calculations...I would have paid more on preimums than what Ii spent on him in the 7 years we had him.

[Stan Mijal]

WHat a beautiful pup Bill. Sorry to hear of your loss. The end process is the only part of dog ownership I sincerely dislike. We've been there enough times, often after valiant efforts , and it doesn't get any easier each time around. All you can do is realize how much of a true friend you were to your pup to help, console, and comfort it in its last days. Ironically, I would not be suprised if each dog is probably more concerned about its master, than itself, in those last hours. Their time with us is a true gift, which I'm sure you appreciate.

Post more pics of the new pup as she's growing--brings a lot of "smile-value" !

This is one of those "don't ask me, I don't want to know" type questions. My wife and I recent had to have one of our dogs, Brandy, put to sleep. It was one of the hardest things we ever had to do. See this thread for more details. Brandy had epilepsy, and we did everything we could do to keep her going, and she did everything she could do as well. We could have kept her going, but the inevitable reality was that the siezures had become uncontrollable, and longer lasting and we just couldn't let her endure them any more. We were completely out of options.

Over the almost three years that we had that dog we could have bought 10 or 20 more of the same breed for what was spent on vet bills and drugs. But we would never have the same dog. We received over 50 emails and well over a dozen sympathy cards and letters regarding this dog, not including the responses here on SMC. These were from people who knew her directly, or had heard about her though others. Everyone likes to think their dogs are special, and they are to us all, but this dog left an impression on so many people.

So now, believe it or not, we found another dog of the same breed. The breeders were sincerely overjoyed to find out that we were interested. This dog comes from respected breeders with no known history of epilepsy in the family history. But we are also aware that there are no guarantees. Unfortunately, the new puppy is having some issues with a possible UT, or Kidney infection, and she spent the night at the vet's office last night getting flushed out with IV fluids.

Before this she was losing all of her baby teeth all at once, and basically wouldn't eat. Then she was either injured by rough playing with the big dog, or had a strange reaction to the lyme diesease vacination as she wouldn't put any weight on her right hind.

Thsi is all very frustrating, and we'd really like a break, but we realize that all of this does come with the territory.

[Bill Lewis]

Thanks Stan,
The new pup is about as cute as they get (we think ) It's strange, because we didn't think we would take the leap quite so quickly. A Friend told us shortly after learning about Brandy that "Brandy would find us some more happiness" and I'd ahve to say that she did. Even though we had known about these dogs, my wife didn't think she'd be ready to take the leap. After an encounter with them at the dog training facility (Xmas Party) we learned more about the dog's personality from the breeder. Her description was spot on for the type of dog we like (much like Brandy, but different). When we got home I suggested to my wife that given what we learned we might want to take another look at the puppy. It didn't take too much convincing for her to agree that we may not find the "right fit" for some time, and at the very least we owed it to Harley. Harley was really missing Brandy, not in the same way that people do, but he really likes a high energy companion. Besides, it's good for him, and keeps him fit. So to make a long story short you can guess the rest. We got Harley his new puppy, and he is really happy to have her, oh, and so are we.

So, even though the last few days have been kind of rough, I am happy to report that the new puppy, Daisy, is back home and doing much better. She's eating better, and her energy level is up and she is acting more normal. She is obviously happier now that she is feeling better. We're both breating a big sigh of relief.

I forgot to mention that recently we also had a sick cat (Simon the siamese) he too had to spend a night in the emergency vet hospital (think $$) He too got some sort of infection, and his potasium level was critically low. That's another story, but after another blood test this morning, I'm also happy to say that his electrolyte levels are up and holding without the supplements (light salt). This one had the Vet's severely baffled. Though we now think it was probably a kidney infection, it didn't show up in the blood work at either the Vet ER, or our regular vet office.

Sorry to hi-jack this hread, but I think it is in keeping witht he question of "how much would you spend...?" well, alot.

To satisfy the requests for more pictures of Daisy, here are a couple.

[Stan Mijal]

Bill,

Looks like Harley found a new companion. We've had single dogs and pair, and the second dog provides a level of companionship I think most dogs truely appreciate. (Plus it makes us feel less guilty in the times we cannot devote enough time to them, or we are at work)
We currently have two Siberians, both 9.5 years old. THey are rapidly approaching the age where we will ultimately have to face their passing, and it is saddening. You never can find one to "replace" a family dog, but learn to appreciate the new ones differences and uniqueness, which it seems you and you wife have. That eases the sadness of the loss somewhat, along with giving some positive direction to channel your "pet energies". I'll never forget one comment made by our vet when we had to put our first dog down. He said "when they pass, there is a part of you that dies with them", I often think of the truth in those words. The relationship you share with that canine is so unique, it cannot be replaced, but lives on inthe memories....