Tiger has a UTI and is overnighting at the vets for observation.
He hasn’t been able to pee for about two days, and I put two and two together last night with the dribbling marks he left at various places other than his litter box. He is 4 years old and just an extremely wonderful cat.
I suspected it was something like this and tossed him into the laundry room (where his litter is at) last night and kept him there confind until I could get an appointment this morning.
Apparently his white cells were really high and essentially his urine was pus like
( ooooooh, pus) Nary a complaint from my cat. Another couple of days would have really changed his demeanor, I am told. And then late night runs to a 24/7 clinic add up in cost. So I am really glad I followed.
The vet put him under and catherized his little penis to find it was really gritty and that there were some crystals that were trying their hardest to block his wee wee.
So, what I am wondering, after this out of pocket cost of approximately $200-300 dollars, is what are the chances of this kinda thing happening again ( the bits of info I’ve gleaned tell me that this is something that will rear its ugly head again.) and is pet insurance worthwhile or a waste of mula.
I’ve just finished swabbing down the laundry room with a water/bleach mix, changing his litter and making the place surgically clean. ( I’m such a good cat mommy, yes I am.)
I really can’t tell you the likelikhood of this ocurring again, but we have pet insurance for one of our cats, and it’s been very useful. We originally got it b/c he is diabetic, and we didn’t want any huge surprise bills, but it’s been good for other things, too. His dentals are covered, including the tooth removal he had done, and all his medications are discounted, as well as lab fees. The best thing is that his office visits are totally free, no matter what we bring him in for. Normally, that’s a $30 charge I think. When we first got him, we ended up taking him to the vet quite a few times for a lot of different things (none related to his diabetes, incidentally!). We didn’t have to pay for most of it.
Since he’s young and otherwise healthy, it may not be worth it to you, though. Ours cost about $400 for one cat. We would have spent more than that in our first few months with him, so I’m glad we did it. We may add our other cat since it’s not too pricy for a second one, though. We heard from our vet that the cheapest insurance is going to start covering dentals next year, so we may downgrade since that one also covers everything else he needs.
Shirley, I did some research on pet insurance for an article a few years ago. Given an average lifespan of about 15 years for a cat, I found on a strict money in/money out basis that my hypothetical insurance customer would be eligible for a greater payout, over the life of the cat, than they’d pay in premiums.
However, most of the policies I looked at capped a lot of benefits. Certain common diseases and conditions would have a lifetime cap well under the maximum nominal payout for the policy. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but I think things like FIV, UTIs and other conditions were capped at about $1000 for the better policies I found online.
The best benefit for the pet insurance plans I’d checked out was their protection/coverage with respect to accidents. Each accident may have a maximum payout, but so long as you were under the total payout from the policy - there was no cap for the condition of accident.
What it really comes down to, in my opinion, is whether you feel you can do a better job of setting aside monies from your monthly budget for pet emergencies, or if you’d prefer to have the insurance company do that for you. Most of the policies I’d investigated online did not cover routine costs, like vaccinations, well-animal visits, etc. But were for major medical conditions.
I’m afraid I don’t think there are any shortcuts - I really recommend you look into things yourself, and especially check with your vet: Many vets (esp. in urban areas where they may have the clients to support it.) offer pet health insurance that is signifigantly better than the generic plans you can get nationwide.
Your veterinarian will probably advise a change in diet designed to prevent recurrance. Without dietary manipulation, feline lower urinary tract disease is likely to recurr.
I was owned by a cat who had the same problem. I had to switch him to really expensive special food, but it was worth it. Poor guys, it must feel horrible to be blocked up like that.
I expect a combination of changing his food and keeping a very close eye on him will probably enable you to catch any reoccurrences. I got to where I was quite obsessive about making sure he was peeing when he went into the box. He probably thought I was really weird, but hey, he used to come in with me while I was peeing, so why shouldn’t I watch him?
I had to give him up a few years ago for unrelated reasons, but he hadn’t had any major problems in the next couple of years. He did get another UTI but I caught it early enough that all he needed was antibiotics. Observation is the key, I think.
First of all, I hope the little guy is ok and gets well soon! Second, I would suggest that even if you don’t go the insurance route that you find out if your vet accepts Care Credit, which is specifically designed for medical expenses, including veterinary, and offers payment plans at no interest for up to a year and a half, depending on the size of the bill. It’s a great way to spread out the cost without incurring additional fees. If he or she is not set up to accept it, direct them to the site at http://www.carecredit.com/practices/veterinary/ and ask them to consider it.
Care Credit is not without controversy. Many people do not qualify for what is actually a loan. Also, the veterinarian pays to be part of the plan, which raises the fees that those who do not need the service are charged.
I fail to see what’s so controversial about any of that. Of course one would have to qualify, just as one would have to qualify for any kind of credit or credit card. That simply goes without saying. And of course there’s a fee to the veterinarian, just like there’s a fee for them to accept Mastercard, Visa, American Express, etc. All credit card companies charge the merchant a fee. And if your vet raises his or her overall rates to every customer for every procedure just because they add another payment option for their clients, I’d change vets in a heartbeat. I haven’t found that to be the case with any vet I’ve ever gone to. Fees, of course, varied, but none that I know of were artificially elevated as a direct result of accepting Care Credit.
In fact, my vet has the exact opposite philosophy, having said outright that it’s in her best interest to enable her clients to find the best and most affordable way to pay for procedures and supplies, precisely because it often makes the difference between whether a pet owner chooses to go ahead with a procedure or simply put their pet down because they otherwise couldn’t afford it. And in keeping the pet alive, obviously she’ll continue to get their future business over the course of the pet’s life, making it win-win for all parties, especially the pet. Any vet who doesn’t think like that is a vet I’d never subject my animal to the care of.
I’m sorry if you’ve had a bad experience with a vet because of the Care Credit card. I’d still highly recommend it as an option for people who might be hit with large veterinary bills as a way to afford the cost without losing their beloved animals.
Well, I’m a veterinarian and like many of my colleagues, I have found that an embarrassingly high percentage of applicants in my area are turned down. And the fee charged to the veterinarian monthly, even if the service is not used.
Pet insurance usually costs about $20 per month. Consumer Reports reviewed it a few years ago, and concluded that it is only worth the money if your cat has chronic health problems, or if they end up needing some kind of surgery for catastrophic injury.
They concluded that you are probably better off simply putting the $20 in your savings account every month.
But, they loved him at the clinic and wanted to make him a clinic greeter cat.
I think I just might squirrel away a few bucks every month for such a thing in the future.
Thanks for all the advice gang!
My Cloud was quite the masochist; during one night, while at the vet’s for the blockage, he removed his own catheter! OWIE! (I had one once after major surgery as a kid. It did not feel good coming out, though it was kind of a relief as well.) I guess he REALLY didn’t like it!
I miss that cat. I hope whatever people he ended up with love him as much as I did. Silly beast.
My cat has some urinary tract problems so I just feed her Friskies Special Diet food. It’s no more expensive than the other canned cat foods and one of the things it advertises is something about formulated for Urinary PH health. Ever since I started feeding her this a year and a half ago, she hasn’t squated or had any problems.
Something missing in the above posts that you will find out if you do purchase pet insurance, many folks find the same problem when it comes to health insurance. It is call the pre-existing condition clause. Because your pet has been treated for his UTI problem, the insurance will not cover it if he requires treatment in the future. My wife and I were bit by this about 10 years ago.
In regards to Carecredit, at the e-clinic I work at we just recently discovered something about the “no interest for so and so months” part of it. Sure, the owner doesn’t pay interest, but it’s not because of the kindness of Carecredit’s heart. It’s because we the clinic are the ones paying the interest! They don’t explain it very well and one of the office managers looked into it and discovered this little tidbit. As such, we no longer off the “no interest” options.