By which, I mean in terms of veterinarian bills - not some nutter kidnapping your pet for ransom. If your pet came down with some serious ailment requiring treatment lest it perish (or the vet ‘putting it to sleep’), how much would you be willing to pay?
Poll coming!
It’s rarely so simple as “save”: it’s more often “have a chance of saving” or “extend life for a period of time”. Different treatments (and outcomes) also involve different amounts of discomfort and pain.
So where I might pay several thousand dollars for a procedure that was virtually sure to give a pet many more years of perfectly normal life, I might not pay several hundred dollars for an exploratory procedure on an older pet that would be painful and would almost certainly not discover anything treatable.
I would pay however much I was able to.
If I have no money, no credit card and nobody to borrow from, well I’m not going to be able to pay much.
If I’m filthy rich I would pay whatever it takes.
True, but for poll purposes let’s assume the choice is extend the pets life and providing treatment or or being forced to say goodbye due to financial purposes - ‘saved’ from being put to sleep. With rising vet bills this is a very real dilemma.
I chose “$5k to $10k” but it really depends on the prognosis of the treatment and the quality of life that can be expected after treatment. I’d only pay that much if a full recovery is likely. If it’s going to be a few extra months of pain, I wouldn’t do it even if it was free.
For me, it honestly depends on the pet. I’d probably spend a minimum of $1000 on all of them except for our mean heeler that drinks his own piss (not kidding!) - his limit is about half of that. OTOH, my Nellie the Elephant who I picked before her eyes opened, who was a brave sheep and cow dog, who everyone loves instantly within moments of meeting her - she’d be more towards the $5000 cap provided she would have a good quality of life after the crisis.
Edited to add: As someone who works in the veterinary industry- I can’t think of many illnesses or injuries that cost more than 5K that would result in a quality of life afterwards with the exception of orthopedic sx on both hips (ranging 2500-3000 per hip in my area).
Tough call. We recently spent $3k on our dog because she needed surgery to repair her ACL. We did it because she’s otherwise in excellent health and only 8. We didn’t want to force her to live with constant pain and crippling arthritis, so we scrapped our plans for an anniversary.
Older animal with guarded prognosis? Not much. Young healthy animal with an easily treated/cured condition - about $3k I guess!
I’m fairly old, make decent money, have no dependents, am not married, and have managed my finances well for most of my life. So all that being said I would not have any problem paying $1000-5000 to save a pet, but even with all the above being true I would have a hard time paying over $5k even for a beloved pet.
It would be very situational, if I had an elderly dog that had some condition and I was told that $3,000 would keep him alive but he wouldn’t have a great quality of life, I wouldn’t even consider it. If I was told $3,000 would keep him alive and he’d have a good quality of life, I’d spend that on an aged dog.
If I had a healthy 2 year old dog with a rare problem that could be totally corrected by an expensive, $5,000+ procedure and the dog would still be likely to live a full health life, I would seriously consider it. But over the $5,000 limit I wouldn’t consider spending on an older dog (age 10+) simply because even if the procedure gave them a good quality of life back it’d feel like I was spending an awful lot of money on a dog that is in its twilight years in any case. They do not live forever and unfortunately their life spans are much shorter than ours, at 10+ a dog has lived a good long life.
Dogs I’d spend a lot more on. It takes time and energy to train them. So maybe up to 2k.
Cats on the other hand, not much. If they were in pain I’d certainly spend the cash to put them down humanely.
My daughter recently spent $2500 to repair her 4-year-old dog’s ACL…totally worth it. My SO spent $4000 for surgery on his elderly cat, surgery that did not fix the cat but just postponed the inevitable…I would not have done it, and not only because I can’t afford it.
I chose other because it really does depend on many factors. I really can’t put a dollar amount on a limit. It would depend on how much money I had or could borrow. If I had plenty of dough and it was guaranteed to cure my pet, I’d go over 20k.
But, for me, contrary to Shakes, species doesn’t matter. I’d spend just as much on my cats as I would on my dog, if the quality of life for the animal was good after treatment.
I love my cats very much, but I just couldn’t afford more than a few hundred bucks…
Joe
My exact words to the vet when she asked if we wanted her to recommend an animal oncologist for our 18-year old cat: “No. If she was ten instead of 18, different answer.” It wasn’t money, just common sense.
At my current income, no more than 1k, and only if it was a young pet and whatever treatment they were getting would restore them to good health - and in that situation, 1k would be the absolute limit. And it’d have to be a dog. I’m not spending a grand on a cat. I like cats, but they’re essentially useless other than catching mice.
My only pet is currently a fish for this very reason - I can’t afford to take good care of a pet with 4 legs. (Yet.)
I’ve spent between $1,000 and $5,000 on three separate occasions, so I know I would spend that. Never regretted it. More than $5,000 at one time? Probably not, realistically.
I would spend as much as it takes. Both my pups have pet insurance, so I would get reimbursed for a large portion of the cost.
I’d spend whatever I could comfortably afford without skipping out on bills or taking on more debt. Which is $500-$1000 at this point in my life. I would probably not choose to spend that much to prolong the life of a very old miserable pet, but I would not hesitate if it was for, say, many broken bones with a good chance of full recovery.
Missed edit:
It’s interesting how so many people have their own personal calculus of cost per quality-adjusted life year when it comes to pets, but such calculations are almost universally reviled when it comes to human health care…
I said up to 500, but only because I know I couldn’t afford much more than that. If it was up to 1K, maybe I could borrow a littler here and there, make payment arrangements, etc–but if it was more than that, I doubt I could manage it.
Like other posters, it would also depend on my animal’s quality of life.
Well, one might consider chalking that up to humans and pets being fundamentally different ;).