For those of you who don't check the front page: Crash came in limping and bleeding last night, probably bitten in the leg by the evil Mochi (biting other dogs in the leg is what she does), and had to spend the night at a very expensive emergency vet hospital. Four hundred bucks for a little valium, some stitches, an Elizabethan collar, and antibiotics. I swoon.

What's the most expensive vet care your pet has ever received? Do you have a limit? Are you like my dad, who always reminds me that bullets are cheap? Would you spend more on a young and otherwise healthy animal than you would on an older one?

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Answers

By the way, we almost brought him home when we saw the estimate, because we knew it would be around a hundred bucks at our own vet. But he was chewing on the wound and we were really afraid it would get infected overnight. It was a v-shaped flap right over the joint, and we just wanted to get it taken care of.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

My Mom rescued a cat that ended up costing her a fortune. Her house backs onto a hilly wooded area and she tends to get a lot of strays wandering around. This cat kept hanging around, mom fed her, and then finally the cat decided to start sleeping in the porch. The cat limped. It went on for about a couple of weeks, before Mom was finally able to get her hands on her. Another week before she was finally able to inspect the cat. Turns out she had a collar around her neck. She had put her paw through the collar so it went around her neck on one side, and under her leg on the other. It must have been there a while, cause it had rubbed through the fur, the skin, the muscle enough that you could see bone. It was awful.

So mom took her to the vet, and had her fixed up. 3 or 4 operations, medications, overnight stays cost over $2000. The vet did a lot of work for free. ON top of that was the $500 for shots and spaying.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Knock on wood, I think I've been pretty fortunate to never have a pet need emergency care or have something wrong with them that required a series of medications to help them continue to live. Most of the pets I had that are no longer around were hit by vehicles or we had to give them to someone else before we moved to a new town or new house.

My oldest cat is 18, and I know her number's up soon, so I can't imagine that I would spend much to keep her going if her life expectancy wasn't long. On the other hand, my youngest cat is 6, and I would probably shell out what I could to keep him healthy (maybe $500?). I don't have money set aside for pet health or emergencies, though.

Isn't someone selling pet health and life insuarance?

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Yes, they do, and can I just tell you that if you have a dog you should go buy that insurance right now? Dogs are much more expensive than cats, it seems, but maybe I only think that because my cats don't go outside and are basically very healthy. We found an insurance carrier that would have covered everything for Doc -- including hip displasia -- had we purchased it before he was diagnosed. So then we said, "Damn, we should get that for the other two dogs." Did we? No. Why? Because we're dumb.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

One of my best friends is a veterinarian, and practically every week she has a new story about some pet owner insisting that heroic measures be taken on behalf of their pet's health. Last week, at her clinic, a dog had root canals done on four teeth at a cost of $500 per tooth. Apparently, the owner didn't want to have the teeth removed, as it would weaken the jaw and increase the risk of jaw fracture.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

My cat Petunia - my first New York cat, loved and adored and adopted by an ex-roommate when I couldn't take her with me to my next place - had to be put to sleep because it was too expensive to keep her alive.

She was only 8 years old, and had kidney failure and a whole host of other problems they told us could be fixed, but would cost us in the thousands. And realistically I know that we couldn't do it. Neither of us had the cash, or any way to raise it. And so we told them that we had to put her to sleep.

We sat in the emergency room waiting area and took turns holding her, and she was purring, and we felt like murderers.

There is a limit on spending for my cats - there has to be. They're just animals, right?

But how much does it fucking suck to say "I have to pay the rent more than she has to breathe." I hate it so much.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

The total vet bills for Puck when he got sick came in at $3K. $200 here, $300 there over a course of 6 weeks, plus shots and narcotic patches, x-rays (and more xrays) it added up quick. The thing is, had the cancer that was eventually found been operable we'd have done it and paid for the chemo treatment if it would have meant that he'd have his quality of life back. I never thought I'd spend that much money on a dog but when it came down to it I did and would have gladly spent more if it meant he could have been saved.

Now Gyspy I'm sure has some sort of deal with the vet that she gets a kick back or something so many times we've had to take her in. Not only does she have hip dysplysia but she has chronic bladder infections. We spent almost $1K trying to figure out ~why~ and never did find out so we gave up and she just gets vitamin c tablets which seem to help prevent them - at least make them not occur so often. We never did anything about the hip - it bothered her when she was a puppy but once she got bigger and stopped growing it only bothers her if she gets a lot of exercise. I suspect as she gets older it will begin to bother her again and we'll treat her with arthritis meds. If you added all her vets bills up and then included the costs of all the carpet she has damaged... well, it's a good thing she is such a lovable dog :)

We looked into insurance and will definitely get it with any future dogs.

- t

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

For the first four years I had cats, we had no problems, and only had to pay for shots and checkups and the like.

Then the oldest cat was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and partial kidney failure. She's fine now but between the ultrasounds and the drugs, that was easily over $2000.

The youngest cat was a stray and had to have six teeth extracted a few weeks ago, to the tune of $650.

And then last week, the middle one had to be hospitalized because she wouldn't stop throwing up and had blood in her urine. She's doing a lot better this week, but the vet still isn't quite sure what was wrong, even though we spent $1200 on her in the past week.

So, I guess in my case, the answer is that given that they are all relatively young cats (under six years old), there's no amount too high. I can't ever see saying, "Forget it, I'll just put the cat to sleep." Not that I'm criticizing others who make that choice -- I just don't have kids or a mortgage, or car payments, or students loans, so I feel like my cats are my big financial indulgence.

And yes, I've looked into insurance, but with three cats, it was fairly expensive, and I'm hoping this past year was a fluke in terms of health problems.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

There is nothing more pathetic than a dog with an Elizabethan collar.

He's hopping around on three legs but doing pretty well, but he can't go up stairs. Not because of his leg, but because the collar bumps into the step above him, and he gets stuck.

This means I have to carry him, and he weighs 40 pounds, and my back was just about ALL BETTER until twenty minutes ago.

Shit.

Still, he's Crash. Trying to play. Wondering if he can have more antibiotics if it means more cheese. Stealing toys from Doc.

He's a good dog.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

There was a story in the paper recently about a Vancouver area woman who has spent over US$6000 on her cat. It had been attacked by a dog.

It always strikes me as perverse when I read about such large sums of money being spent to save the lives of domesticated animals. I find myself wondering how many human lives that money could have saved.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Are Elizabethan collars those big radar-dish dealies?

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Yes, they are.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Oh, imagining Crash in one of those things is really pathetic.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Crash's collar is much bigger than that, though. I think we're going to have to make him one, because he just keeps getting stuck. Even when he's able to put weight on the leg (in a few days, I think) he won't be able to go up the stairs because his collar gets stuck. He keeps getting stuck going through doors, too.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

So just to sum up: You have one dog that's scared of everyone.
One dog that can't walk through doors because of his space helmet.
And one dog you've described as "labrador retarded."

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Hey now. Let's look at that in a different way:

One dog who is simply fetching while seated upon any couch and has let me pet her several times.
One dog that probably needs a space helmet to keep the babes away (Crash is a doggy playboy, the Heath Ledger of any backyard).
One dog that combines the attributes of a lovely young Angus calf with the jaw-crushing power of a shredder-chipper.

Sounds like a fine and entertaining mix.

Oh, and just a thought on spending vast sums of money on pets: I feel the same way about new cars, clothes, drinking at expensive bars, blah blah blah. At least I'm spending my discretionary income on a living thing. To each their own money pit.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

I am not sure if the collar things are really to protect the dog, as the vet claims, or for the amusement of dog owners, who need a good laugh after shelling out the bucks on veterinary care. I like to think of the collars as a funny little present, from my vet to me, at the expense of the dog.

My rule of thumb used to be that I wouldn't spend more on the dog than I would on a new couch. It didn't last. But now that my dogs are elderly ladies, I wouldn't be comfortable putting them through a lot of medical procedure to prolong their lives - for us, the expensive stuff has been the really invasive surgical type stuff, and I wouldn't go that route now for them.

Most expensive care was knee surgery on a horse, followed by knee surgery on one of my dogs. Easily $2000, USD, for the surgery and aftercare. Easily. I wouldn't do that again!

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Ok, I have a stupid question - I thought those collars were to protect head injuries from getting bumped. What's the purpose of it for a leg injury? (other than the entertainment value, that is..)

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

--the collar is most likely to keep the dog from licking the leg and making the problem worse.

--I once spent $500 to get a rubber band out of my cat's intestine. It was "blocking her up" and made it impossible for her to go to the bathroom or to eat. The vet was considering surgery, but luckily, a good strong enema did the trick.

The worst part is that the vet saved the rubber band to show it to me.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

The collar makes it impossible for the dog to lick/bite at any injury that should be healing.

I guess it's a bit entertaining, but mostly sad and painful. Just picture a 90lb dog with a "cone" on that has the radius of a large steering wheel. When said does runs, and you just happen to be in his way, this stiff plastic thing runs at you in full force. It makes for interesting bruises, though.....

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

"When said does runs, and you just happen to be in his way, this stiff plastic thing runs at you in full force. It makes for interesting bruises, though....."

When said dog runs, etc...

I need a program that checks for words that are spelled correctly, but make no damn sense in the sentence!

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

It's not the most I've actually spent, but in perspective to the size of the animal and initial cost thereof...

My $5 hamster (way back when) was extremely cold to the touch and lethargic one night. I rushed it off to the 24 hour vet and then paid $105 for the 2 a.m. late vet fee and for an adrenaline shot to jolt her heart back to normal. I then paid an additional $60 for medication for her.

Excessive? For a $5 rodent, perhaps, but I loved her with all my heart.

I now own 2 cats and I'm sure I too will experience large vet bills someday.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

My research partner actually had to take out a loan to pay for vet bills. I think this should have been expected, as she had 11 cats and two ferrets.

All of the following happened in a four month period:

(1) Zoe, a tabby cat, was struck by a car, disappeared for three weeks, then returned with no tail and a shattered hip. $1300 for the surgery for the hip and stump stitches.

(2) Nancy, one of the ferrets, was diagnosed with leukemia. She was on chemo for three months. Very expensive.

(3) Zachariah, one of the kittens (about 5 mos. old), pulled a HUGE potted plant over on himself and broke his right rear leg. $900 for the surgery to repair the leg and insert a pin. $40 for a large cage for Zach to prevent him from jumping while the leg was in a cast and then out of the cast but still healing. It's VERY difficult to stop a kitten from jumping. Ice cubes in hell, we're talking.

(4) One month after Zach was released from the cage, he was killed by the Rottweiler next door. It was just the saddest thing.

Nancy was healed after the chemo (it was interesting to see a bald ferret, I must admint) and is doing fine. Zoe (a.k.a. "Stumpy" now, is also back to normal. Zach was buried in the backyard and continues to be missed by all. He was a crazy kitten.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

I had a horse that needed an arthroscopy (a knee operation).

I had a friend who was a vet, who gave me a quote of $900 AU, and the bill came back at nearly $2000. I yiked, and rang the vet - not to quibble, since this was his job, but to find out if anything had gone wrong and or was more difficult than was first thought.

He said: "Oh, sorry, you've been charged the racehorse owner's rate, not the other rate".

So - go to the vet's looking grungy, and you might get a better deal.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Dog update. (I was going to post an entry today, but I spent all day yesterday finishing up a research project that kept my ass in a computer chair for twelve and a half hours straight, so I'm just not in the mood.)

Crash -- who is clearly George to Doc's Lenny, or perhaps he's Squiggy to Doc's Lenny and Mochi's Shirley -- is doing just fine. He is officially the best natured dog in the world. He's still running around on three legs and he doesn't have as much energy as usual, but he's doing fine. He has learned to use his head-bucket (yes, we call him "bucket head") as a weapon. He bashes the other dogs with it, and uses it to trap June bugs or to hide toys from Doc and Mochi or to carry ice cubes into the living room.

And speaking of Mochi, she's off the hook. This isn't a dog bite. We didn't see it happen, but she tends to be an ankle biter, so we figured she'd snagged a tooth in him or something. But the tear is in an awkward spot for that -- on the inside of his rear leg, high up where the leg widens. He's also unable to put weight on the foot, which doesn't make sense if it's just a tear. Last night I felt around on his foot and he flinched, so there's something else going on. My hunch is that he tried to climb on the big awful brush pile in our back yard, and he slipped and hurt himself. Or he tried to climb the palm tree after a squirrel, or something like that.

Anyway, the foot isn't broken or swollen; I'm guessing it's just bruised. The stitches look good. The other dogs are being nice to him -- sticking their heads into his head bucket so he can lick their faces, being fairly gentle with him while still playing with him as much as possible, and bringing him toys. He is very, very fast on three legs, but he does tend to wear himself out. And he's just sad and pathetic on the stairs.

But funny. Definitely very funny.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

"Head Bucket" Oh god.

Howard was the saddest dog in the world when he had to wear his collar. Would mournfully allow us to put it on him and take it off.

But soooo funny.

Howard has had no emergency/huge illness expenses. Flea prevention and heartworm meds can get pricey since he's largish. I did spend $45 calling poison control for him once.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Yeah, heartworm preventative and flea stuff is pretty pricey if you have three dogs and two of them need the big dog size. For that matter, food is pretty insane. We go through almost 100 pounds of food a month. And nobody's fat.

As for Crash, Jeremy thinks the injury is a lot worse than we thought. He found a puncture wound on Crash's other rear foot, and he thinks his hip looks like it might be dislocated. ($400 and they didn't find any of this? Grumble.) I'm making an appointment with our vet to have him checked out.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Yay for the happy dogs!

I love the image of the dog hiding toys in his head-bucket.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Oh, Beth, honey - this is not your week, is it? I sympathize with your poor aching back, and my wallet sympathizes with your veterinary bills.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Thanks for the sympathy, Kristin. Crash is having a rotten weekend. His stitches itch, and his limp isn't getting any better. He's clearly having trouble with both of his back legs, and one of them looks kind of cockeyed to me, like he did something to his hip. He has an appointment with the regular vet on Monday to see what's going on with him.

Wish him luck, and check out his little bucket head on the front page.

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

My father had an expensive lesson in animal care. He gave her big old rib bones to chew on and they ended up solidifying in her lower intestine. She couldn't poop for days. So finally, I took her to the emergency vet, and they took x-rays and all that good stuff. Dad paid for the $600 vet bill. He hasn't given her bones to chew on since.

Also, my dog is pretty high maintenance, she's an epileptic pup, so she takes medication every day. Her meds add up to roughly $70 every month. So her health care is an ongoing thing.

I love my Henri though. And I'd pay any amount of money to keep her healthy and happy.

Cheers!!

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2001

Driving to Kansas to pick up Dork, my car broke down. Repairs and rental cars - $600. I wouldn't put that one on his tab, if it wasn't for all that came next.

A few months after that, he got torn up by one of the other dogs (my housemate spent $500 to find out that dog had a brain tumor or abnormality, plus $700 in ER costs to treat his leg, which was bitten to the bone), after 5 on a Friday, that one ran about $1000 over a couple of weeks. Two months later, one of the other dogs stood up on her hind legs to look over him, and punctured him (thin greyhound skin) once on the back and once in the side. Didn't look bad. Wouldn't heal.

A month later, $600 surgery to try to clean up that infection. Three months later, $300 surgery (vet felt sorry for me) to try to clean it up again. A year later, an $80 round of antibiotics to try to stop it. Ditto a year later. Plus, any number of comforters, sheets, and misc clothing/furniture ruined by his chronic oozing.

This week, three years later, a new vet discovers the cause. A tunneling bacteria, happily traipsing around unidentified under my dog's skin all this time. $400 in antibiotics (*special* antibiotics, a month's worth), plus sedation and shaving and the office visits, and it looks like we might actually see the end of this, erm, tunnel. I'd guess $3K-$4K all told over three years.

But, you know, my buddy is really perky for the first time in months. I'd missed him. I'd spend that much all over again if I had to. I really hope I don't have to, though.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

i am a big sucker. i just got my first cat and just the thought of her getting sick is making me all weepy and silly. i don't want her to be sick!

but your dog certainly looks amusing.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

I decided I wanted a dog (and no, I did not know what I was doing.) I decided I wanted a purebred Golden Retriever. Professional breeders were talking CRAZY money, so I found a private breeder that could provide papers and welcomed me to come and look over the litter. Fell in love with Spenser. Purchase of pup: $350 Purchase of brand new pup supplies (i.e. kennel, leash, bed, food, baby gate, etc.): $300 Pronto vet visit to get him checked out before the three days the breeder allowed for a "guarantee" of the dog expired: $65 Follow up vet visit 6 days later because he was mopey: $40 Immediate panicky visit to emergency animal hospital one hour later because he had parvo, a stay which lasted 5 days and included sad puppy IV's: $1100 The joy that dog showed when he realized he was in the car with me at 1am on a Sunday morning, because I said to "call the minute I can get him" was the moment I truly fell in love. And he with me. It's an expensive joy, and I'm still paying it off two years later, but he seems determined to make it up to me.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

safasdf

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Laugh at my dog.

Does that mean you're keeping him ?

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Oh man, last year, my favorite cat got something called "hepatic lipidosis". All in all, I think it cost around $1200 to fix him -- initial blood tests to find out that something was wrong with his liver; surgery to get a liver biopsy; surgery to implant a tube in his stomach so that I could feed him; lots of antibiotics; lots of boarding at the vet when he was too sick for me to take care of and still go to work; and finally, when he was better, surgery to get the tube removed. I also spent a really long time (I think it was only two months, but it seemed like forever) slowly squeezing food and medicine into his tube every few hours. He was very grateful -- I could tell he knew I'd saved his life, and he's been working his little cat ass off to pay me back with love ever since.

I do have limits for pet care. They depend a lot on which cat gets sick. Two of my cats are very skittish, reformed ferals. They're not particularly affectionate pets, and they also wouldn't tolerate the handling required to get them through a serious illness -- I can barely even hold them long enough to clip their claws. The other two are well-socialized and easy to handle. For them, I'll do whatever I can, although I don't believe in keeping them alive at all costs if they'll be in for a lot of painful treatments (e.g. chemotherapy).

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Our cat, Ally cost us $2,600 out of the wedding fund...

One day she's fine, the next she's throwing up every 2 hours in the middle of the night. Fiance (now-husband) takes the next day off to take her to the vet. She's dehydrated and needs lots of tests to determine the problem. So he leaves her there to get blood tests and fluids and we go back when I get home from work. She has a heart murmur (but that's not the problem) and needs a sonogram to see if there's damage. They've ruled out as much as they can, so it's likely a kidney issue, needing a sonogram on a different area of ther body. Could be an infection, could be degenerative (and hereditary... we also have her sister, so that means we go through this again in the future). So, the vet calls the specialist to come in to the office in the morning. He can't. But, he will be at the emergency hospital for rounds very early the next day. So, they wrap up her IV and we take to to the (very expensive) ER and check her in for the night. After a sleepless night, we go pick her up in the morning and take her back to the regular vet so he can read the test results. Turns out it was an infection (thank goodness) and she needs to spend the next three days at the vet on IV for fluids and antibiotics. The murmur is a non-issue but needs to be checked annually.

Moral of the story is, no there is no limit, young or old...

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Awww, Crash is just too damned cute.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

I lost two bunnies to a sudden virus - total bill _not_ to be able to save them was around $800...but I wasn't going to not try. It's a rock and a hard place.

My kitten picked her stitches out when she was fixed a few months ago - she had to wear one of the plastic collars. She walked backwards for the entire week she had it on! She was so paranoid about not being able to see around her that she felt it was just safer to back her way around!

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Okay, I am so very glad to see that you're keeping Crash. He's a good boy.

I'm cracking up over D. Grenier's descriptions, and will be referring to it as his "space helmet" from now on. Ha!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

comfort collars are a huge improvement over those plastic e-collars http://www.bonafido.com/page6.html and they also make a foam lined neck brace type (couldn't find a pic online) that doesn't stick out at all, simply prevent dog from turning head to chew at wound/sutures/etc

try that!

not as funny but more comfortable for both pet and owner imo

cathy

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Wow, Cathy, thanks for the tip. He only has to wear this until Saturday so we wouldn't be able to get that mailed to us in time, but I'll keep it in mind. The most irritating thing is that the emergency vet charged us forty bucks for this plastic thing, and that soft collar is cheaper.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001