Has anybody else seen this piece by Slate.com on saying no to your vet? As a pet owner, I found it very interesting and relevant to situations that I have experienced with my animals.
Our five pets are easily the least frugal aspect of our lives. We have one dog, one house rabbit, and three guinea pigs. While they are not insanely expensive,they are not cheap. Vet care is one of our biggest expenses related to our animals. When we accepted the responsibility of having a pet, we accepted that we would have to lay out a reasonable amount of time and money to care for them. And for the most part, we have lived up to that promise to them. We feed them quality food, keep their living areas clean, walk the dog, clip piggie and bunny toenails, and take them to the vet when needed.
There are some people that say "Oh, we'll just put Fluffy down if we are presented with some huge vet bill." For us, our vet care expenses have not been something that would cost a lot in one fell swoop (like the $1300 vet bill Ada Calhoun experienced) Our biggest vet bill was a slow snowball. It was not like we were presented a huge bill for a complected problem. Our biggest vet expenses came from a fairly simple problem and lack of research on our part.
Our first house rabbit Kibbles developed a mild foot infection shortly after we got her. Her former owner kept her locked on a wire floor cage 24 hours a day, she was a big bunny, and the combination resulted in a fairly common infection. We took her to a random vet, not realizing at the time that it is very important to find a rabbit specific vet. She looked at the foot, shrugged, and gave us some cream. It helped for awhile, but the infection always came back. Each subsequent visit to have the vet look at it and give us more cream cost about 60 dollars. Had we gotten it taken care of in a visit or two, the expense would not have been much.
After a year of these visits, I did some research and switched vets. Our new vet was very knowledgeable about rabbits. She took one look at the foot, said that the infection was out of control, and asked what we had tried. We handed over the cream, and she very gently lamented the fact that we had not seen a rabbit specific vet sooner. There was a lot more the other vet should have tried besides the cream. The cream was fairly weak and would not do much for an infection as terrible as the simple foot infection had become.
At this point, the infection was so bad that she said we may never actually get rid of it. Our best hope was to keep it under control. We spent around 200 dollars for her to put Kibbles under, clean it out very well, pain medication, stronger cream, and bunny antibiotics. Then follow up visits, another cleaning, and more medication. The infection cleared up quite a bit after this. We'd spent around $1000 total at this point, over a year and a half or two year period. It was a small infection- nothing that we would consider putting an animal down for, but when we added up the expense (at a time in our life where money was very limited) we were amazed at how much we'd spent.
A foot infection is hardly an expensive surgery or chemotherapy, but those things are available to pets. I'm not sure what we would do if this came up. When we accepted the responsibility of our pets, we accepted the expense that goes with it. As long as the quality of life would be back to normal after the treatment and we are not prolonging suffering, I would hate to put animal to sleep because the treatment was expensive. On the other hand, how much is to much? I know I would not go into debt for my animals, and spending $25,000 is out of the question.
The Salon and Slate articles have been weighing on my mind since I read them. Our dog, who we love so very much, is getting older. I know that these bigger vet bills may be an issue sooner than we want to think about. How much is too much? And if it becomes too much, will I have the courage to say no to my vet without feeling like an absolute monster? I think that if she was suffering and the treatment would not make that suffering less, I would be able to put her down without too much guilt. But if that $1300 treatment would cure it, what would I say? I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it.
Have you been in this situation? How did you decide that it was too much?
Saturday, February 16, 2008
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4 frugal thoughts:
We decided it was too much when the family dog got bit by a rattlesnake and the anti venom was $500 alone, the whole vet bill was $1100.
Also, on the same dog, we were fighting growing tumors on her. Pretty sure they were non-cancerous, because she had them for half of her 14 years. We would take her to the vet plenty of times to get them removed, but they would come back. What happens when you ignore a tumor? It grows, and grows and grows... and busts open. Yes, it's gross, the skin flaps off and you can see the fat cells. Not a lot of blood though.
We had a neighbor who cared a lot about animals, and he gave us some tips and powders to use. My sister would powder the wound, iodine and leave it be. After it healed, the tumor never grew again.
Once the family dog was about 11 (my dog was only 7) we decided that we weren't going to be throwing away our money at vets. The next time we took the family dog in was to put her down at 14. She was pooping uncontrollably (for about 2 years) and the tumors were causing havoc on her tummy.
My own dog was great about not needing vet care. She had some standard shots as a young puppy/dog. She did get some post-birth care ($40 for a shot and to make sure there weren't any puppies in her). The next time was when we thought she might have eaten some rat poisoning. That was $200. She didn't go to the vet again for over 6 years until she was 9, and had a horrible ear infection. We tried our best to treat it ourselves, but after 2 weeks we had to take her in. Full surgery on the ear, $517.
My dog died when she was 11, on her own. She was sick for about 3 weeks; she couldn't hold down her food and water very well. She likely had cancer. Towards the end her 2 most favorite people in the world weren't there (I had moved out a year ago, sis was on a vacation)... not much for her to live for. Thursday afternoon another sister called a vet to make an appointment to take Missy in, just to make her comfortable - perhaps a shot or something to get her eating again. The appointment was set for Friday morning. Well, she died that Thursday night.
In the end? The family dog wasn't missed at all, ever. We let her live too long, put up with her problems too long. Nobody pines for her, or talks about her fondly. She's gone, and we're relieved.
My dog? Sorely and dearly missed. She was beautiful and friendly. She aged very gracefully, and relatively problem free. Nobody in my family has gotten another dog yet, we miss her too much. But I'm very grateful that she died on her own, and that we didn't have to make that kind of decision.
Have you been in this situation? More than once
How did you decide that it was too much? I had two small indoor dogs. One lived to be 17 and the other one was 12. One had cancer and the vet told me I could pay $1200 to operate and it would get all of it. The reason the decision was made to put her down was two fold. She was 17 and had lived a good life, had I paid the $1200 dollars it would have interfered with the quality of life I provided for my son. Although I love all my pets very much, my HUMAN responsibilities come before my ANIMAL responsibilities. Believe me, if I were financially sound enough to have dropped the $1200 I would have.
We know have a cat that is 4 years old. She is a cross between ragdoll and siamese. A beautiful loving cat. Took her to the vet a couple of months ago. She has a HUGE bladder stone that needs to be removed at the cost of $750. We dont have the money. When it's time, I will have to put her down. I will be upset and mourn for her for days like I did with my other pets. But I will not let her suffer.
Finding a vet that knows your animal or has that type of animal is a good idea, but like Lisa said, my human responsibilities will take precedence over my animal ones... even if it can be 'cured' in one surgery.
Age, cost and life have to be considered for each animal.
We haven't faced that issue yet. Both of our cats have gone in for teeth cleanings (about $200 each), but nothing more extensive has had to be done to keep them healthy. They've had the occasional infection or pulled muscle that required a vet visit, but nothing terribly costly.
If they had cancer or something serious and expensive, I'm not sure what we'd do. If the treatment would be too uncomfortable for them or too expensive for us to afford, we'd probably forego it. I think we would do what's reasonable for them and us, but nothing so extensive as chemo. You can't explain chemo to a cat, and that just sounds like misery for them. But surgery to remove a tumor or something? Yeah, we'd probably do it as long as it wouldn't hurt us too much financially.
But as others have said, human care comes first. If we were faced with paying a big vet bill or a human's health care, the animals would lose.
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