Ouch! Vet Bills

[swapthing]

Today we took two geriatric cats in - one had a heart murmer and needed bloodwork to see if it's caused by his thyroid or is a deeper issue. The other needed bloodwork in the office so we could put her under to pull four teeth. I'm now 1000 dollars poorer, and the one with the heart problem has teeth that need to go too. I got the vet to agree to barter some services for the second cat but it's a big hit to a paycheckless wallet.

How do you draw the line between doing everything possible for a pet that you love like a child and spending money you don't have on health care for cats that are 10 and 15?

I am at a loss on what to do.

[kaykwilts]

I love my cat but there is no way my DH would spend that kind on money on the cat. A cat that is that old is near the end of their life anyway.

[bevjean]

I couple of months ago we took our 18 year old cat to the vet. She wasn't eating, was listless, and dropping weight fast. After taking blood tests it was determined that her kidneys had shut down. The vet said she could recover but would most likely have relapses, each one probably getting worse and end up costing us thousands of dollars. We made the decision to have her put to sleep. It was one of the hardest things my husband and I have ever had to do. My hubby got her right after we started dating and she's been with us eversince. I think even if we had the money to spend on her treatments, this was probably the best decision for her.

[swapthing]

It's so hard. We just lost one in March. Her kidneys were shutting down and her liver was failing. She went from a little over 10 pounds to 3.8 in six weeks. We made the decision not to pay for extensive treatments, which I still feel was the right thing to do.

What has me so torn with my remaining two is that other then bad teeth they are fairly healthy, happy, and full of love.

[YankeeMom]

For me, and I haven't had to make the decision yet my inlaws have with two of their cats, for me the decision would come down not to my financial burden but my pet's quality of life.

I would not give up on a family member because their treatment cost too much, I could not give up on my pet because of the same reason. However, if the pet could not get around on it's own, or control it's bladder (ie. not house training troubles, but just going where it stands), it's body was failing (due to age or disease) and/or was in pain constantly or having to have painful procedures done constantly, to me that is not a good quality of life for a pet.

But like most things in life, this is a personal decision. I wouldn't pay $5000 for a pair of boobs, but I would pay that much to save my pet's life if it were worth saving.

[SewCrafty]

Originally posted by YankeeMom
For me, and I haven't had to make the decision yet my inlaws have with two of their cats, for me the decision would come down not to my financial burden but my pet's quality of life.

I would not give up on a family member because their treatment cost too much, I could not give up on my pet because of the same reason. However, if the pet could not get around on it's own, or control it's bladder (ie. not house training troubles, but just going where it stands), it's body was failing (due to age or disease) and/or was in pain constantly or having to have painful procedures done constantly, to me that is not a good quality of life for a pet.

But like most things in life, this is a personal decision. I wouldn't pay $5000 for a pair of boobs, but I would pay that much to save my pet's life if it were worth saving.

Well said Heather, I agree with you completely!

I have been on both sides of this with pets over the years and it is their quality of life I look at and never the cost. My pets are my kids though, so I know that I look at it differently than a lot of people.

[Michelle]

I imagine it's a very hard call to make. I have never been in that position (thankfully), and I wish you the very best with whatever you decide to do.

[Chea]

A very tough call IMO. I mean when you just don't have the $$$ and the bills are mounting up - it puts you in a tough spot. No $$$ is no $$$.

My Sharpei was diagnosed with a mast tumor. Chemo is actually an option but costs thousands of dollar. I opted to have it removed, high doses of steroids and keep an eye to see if it returns. The bill for that was alittle over $400 but with dh and I both working it was doable. Now if it had been $3000, sadly we might have had to make diff choices.

[favesis37]

i would like to think i would never choose money over life thankfully i have never been in that postition, when we got lucy and ethel, ( our siamese cats) ethel was very sick, and it cost around 600.00 to save her, we paid it on payments and i never look back. dh who hates cats does, but he just grins and mummbles!

[geniebird]

This probably won't help with the current situation, but believe it or not there is such a thing a health insurance for pets. We looked at it for Hershey several years ago. Just as with human health insurance there are a variety of plans, coverage and costs. The main reason we decided against it was she has been very healthy her whole life requiring only routine annual vet visits. It made us feel a little strange that we would be betting or her getting sick to get our money back. But she's now thirteen and if she has a serious problem as she gets older we may regret our decision.

Here are a couple of companies if anyone is interesed:

http://www.petinsurance.com

http://petcareinsurance.com

and an article called Pet Insurance: A Pet Owner's Guide

http://www.pet-insurance-info.com

 

[swapthing]

Thank you for your kind words - it helps to feel like I'm not being rediculous. We found a few areas where we could pare down a bit more and are going ahead with the course of treatment. The kitties have a great quality of life and my quality of life would be much worse without them.

We tried to get kitty health insurance but they were too old...kind of like people insurance.

[Rhaynefall]

Quality of life comes first, above all. Other than that, money does not matter when it comes to my furbabies. No amount of money would stop me from doing what's best for them. People spend tons of money on human children, and I see no difference. I begged and borrowed money from my mom when my youngest chi took a nose dive off the back of the couch and I thought she had broken her neck. Several hundred dollars and a few years later, she's perfect. My eldest has a liver condition (she was born with it) that tacks on $70 to each vet visit to draw blood to check her levels. I don't think twice about any of it.

[Mom23boys]

Originally posted by Michelle
I imagine it's a very hard call to make. I have never been in that position (thankfully), and I wish you the very best with whatever you decide to do.

[swapthing]

Next step is $400 for a cardioultrasound. Totally worth it to have the little guy happily purring in my lap.

[trying to be cheap]

I LOVE animals so I would probably spend my life savings (which right now isn't much) doing anything possible for my two pugs! Actually, one of them has to go in next week to have 4 procedures done (3 on his nose and throat so he can breathe better and one to get fixed). It's going to cost us about $1,000 too, which stinks because we were finally getting a little ahead! But I would rather take a little longer to pay off my credit cards to have my baby pug breathing better