What about pet insurance? How much of this does it cover?
Sputnik is my first housecat. He’s the first one to sleep with me at night, cuddle constantly, and generally be a full-time companion. Plus, he is a very special cat (really…he plays fetch and spins on office chairs and turns out the lights when he gets upset). All the rest of my cats have been essentially barn cats that live fairly short lives.
I hope this doesn’t come up for a long time, because right now I cannot afford my own health care, and I’m not getting in debt for an animal. Plus, I have seen way to many actual human children who do not have access to important medical care to fritter it away on a cat. Sputnik? stay healthy, okay?
I’m going through this now with my cat, Harley. He was diagnosed a year or so back with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (heart condition) as well as chronic renal failure (CRF). He was almost 10 years old. Since the diagnosis (which cost several hundred dollars in tests to get) I’ve spent a considerable amount to keep him healthy.
He’s on twice daily meds for the heart condition, he was on lactated ringers (via Sub Q injections) 3x/weekly, but that got bumped up to every day last Saturday. He was also on prescription food ($1/can - a can a day). Recently he was diagnosed with severe (almost critical - 16) anemia. Doctor put him on Epogen - that’s $65/vial and he’ll be using close to 2 vials a month. Not to mention the check ups and blood tests. I’ll be spending $180 this month alone for that.
I’m broke, I make very little and have put a fair amount of debt on my credit card and I’ll keep doing it as long as he has a good quality of life. I’m prepared to put him to sleep, but I will not do it for financial reasons. I spend quite a bit on him - both in money and in health care (I administer all medications, including the IVs myself) and he’s worth every bit of that and more.
He’s my baby, as is his sister. He gives me so much love and comfort and joy - I can’t imagine repaying him by doing anything less than what I’ve done to keep him healthy and happy.
Wow. I’m amazed at how much mammals cost to repair. I’ve never had a health problem with any of my cats. The only animals I’ve ever taken to the vet for sickness are snakes. And the only vaguely-neccessary thing I do fro all my snakes is get them sexed ($15).
Snake vet bills:
Baytril, 3 weeks worth oral: $30 ish (usually all I need for n Upper Respiratory Infection)
Batril, injection: $20 ish
Panacur: $20 (anti-parasitic)
Salve for scale rot/thermal burns - $30-40, I think.
The last time I took a snake to the vet was January. My heating pad had shorted out, and she got a thermal burn on the lower 50% of her belly. The cost of the initial Baytril injection, oral Baytril for 3 weeks, and the salve for her belly cost $90. The hard thing about snakes is . . . well, you can’t tell how bad they are. Three days before she died, my vet told me she had a good chance of pulling through.
The good thing about snakes is that I can identify anything that’ll typically go wrong with them (aside from cancer or impaction), and diagnose and treat it. I usually just go to the vet and say, “Yo, my snake has a mild URI and needs .3ml of oral Baytril a day for 3 weeks.” The vet blinks, looks at my snake and goes, “Um, yeah. You’re right. Here you go.” That’s assuming I can’t heal it on my own (which is rare).
BUT if one of my cats got sick, I’d do anything I could to make it better. Payment plans out the wazoo. UNLESS. They would suffer for the rest of their life. Then I’d do what I felt was best, and put it down.